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Here today, gone tomorrow... Join us as we explore the stars who dominated the 2010s before mysteriously fading from view! Our countdown examines celebs who went from red carpets to relative obscurity due to controversies, career shifts, personal choices, and troubling allegations. Who do you miss seeing in the spotlight?
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00:00It got frustrating, because you just wanted to live a normal life.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at actors and musicians whose popularity peaked in the 2010s,
00:11then declined so sharply that they basically vanished from the public stage.
00:16I want control. I think a big part of the last 10 years of my life, honestly, has been about getting that control back for me.
00:24Ansel Elgort.
00:25From the Divergent series to the acclaimed The Fault in Our Stars, Ansel Elgort was an elevated teen idol,
00:32before Baby Driver announced him as a true leading man.
00:35I'll have a four black costumes meeting you.
00:37Name.
00:37Baby.
00:38Baby.
00:39B-A-B-Y, baby.
00:40He was also on the come up as a musician, under the name Anselo.
00:44As Elgort brought all his talent to the lead role in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story, the 2020s looked promising.
00:51I gave him my word you'd show.
00:53How would you do that?
00:55Because.
00:56Because.
00:57It's a rumble.
00:57We need you if we're going to war.
00:59But the decade began with multiple women accusing him of grooming them while they were underage.
01:04Some offered unsettling text messages as evidence.
01:08Just when it seemed Elgort would survive, he vanished following the cancellation of his TV drama Tokyo Vice.
01:15How are you doing?
01:17I don't know.
01:18A comeback may be on the horizon, but the demand for Elgort isn't what it once was.
01:25Gautier.
01:26Belgian-Australian indie rocker Wally DeBacker got his international break as Gautier with the 2011 single Somebody That I Used To Know.
01:34The subsequent album Making Mirrors won critical acclaim, and went platinum in several countries.
01:46But Gautier struggled to follow that monster single, announcing in 2014 that he'd be pursuing other projects.
01:52He wound up mostly being a featured artist in other people's music through the rest of the decade.
01:58It makes no sense, but I'm desperate to connect.
02:07Following the birth of his daughter in 2018, DeBacker snuck off into his private life, without any word on new work.
02:13One could say that now Gautier is just somebody that we used to know, but he'd rather you explore the rest of his diverse catalog.
02:20But I could not help myself.
02:24Hayden Panettiere
02:26A prolific child star in the 2000s, Hayden Panettiere broke into the following decade with the likes of Scream 4 and the video game Until Dawn.
02:35How do you rate our chances of survival?
02:37I'm trying not to think about it.
02:41Yeah.
02:42The leading role as Juliet Barnes on ABC's hit show Nashville showcased her musical talent, and earned her many accolades.
02:49Despite this successful transition into mature roles, however, Panettiere openly struggled with postpartum depression and substance use disorder.
02:58I had been struggling for a long time, and I just needed a break.
03:04Nashville's cancellation, and a volatile separation from Vladimir Klitschko, prompted her to go on hiatus for four years.
03:11Panettiere has struggled to mount a comeback, and continues to endure tragedy.
03:15Maintaining sobriety has been difficult, but the actress occasionally speaks to the public about these and other important issues.
03:22Fans eagerly await Panettiere's return while respecting her privacy.
03:27I had no idea how my body, my mind, was going to react to grief.
03:35Yeah.
03:35Jack Gleeson
03:36Irish teen actor Jack Gleeson got his big break on HBO's Game of Thrones.
03:41You can't!
03:43What did you say?
03:46Did you say I can't?
03:48I only meant it would be bad luck to kill a man on your name day.
03:52What kind of stupid peasant superstition?
03:55Unfortunately, the boy king Joffrey Baratheon was one of the most hated characters on TV.
04:01The internet notably contrasted such extreme evil with the Saturn Award-nominated actor's extensive humanitarian work.
04:07When he announced his retirement in 2014, there was speculation that he was overwhelmed by his toxic claim to fame.
04:14I'd like to try and defend him in any way possible, but I'd have a pretty hard job of doing it.
04:20It would be another decade before he revealed that he enjoyed the backlash,
04:24and merely wanted to focus on his education and renewing his love of acting through the stage.
04:28Even in that medium, Gleeson fell into obscurity.
04:32But after a long break from the spotlight, he's managed to make a spectacular return to the screen.
04:37Let the legitimate and the illegitimate sides of the family conquer America together, goes on everyone.
04:43Cilento.
04:44The whip and the nae nae were among the defining dances of the late 2010s.
04:56Ricky Cilento Hawk was just 17 years old when he blew up the charts and the internet with the single Watch Me.
05:02The whole world was watching his next move, but the viral sensation proved to, in fact, be a one-hit wonder.
05:08Cilento became better known for legal troubles stemming from hostile behavior.
05:12The rapper, whose real name is Richard Hawk, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to charges of, in part, voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
05:20Finally, in 2021, he was charged with the murder of his cousin Frederick Rooks.
05:25He admitted to the shooting, then spent the next four years hidden from the public.
05:29Hawk was next seen pleading guilty to manslaughter in 2025.
05:33Whatever this once-prodigious rapper will do after three decades in prison, it's not likely to go viral.
05:39He is now sentenced to 30 years in prison.
05:42Susan Boyle.
05:43The runner-up of Britain's Got Talent Season 3 caught the world's attention with her incredible mezzo-soprano vocals.
05:49You sang about dreaming a dream. Are you still living a dream? Is it reality? How does this crazy journey you're on, how does it feel now?
05:58It feels very real and it's bloody fantastic.
06:012009's I Dreamed a Dream became the best-selling debut album by a British artist ever.
06:07Susan Boyle continued to captivate audiences over the next ten years, with six albums and several massive tours.
06:14Along the way, she gradually became more reserved in her personal life.
06:18My family got on well, you know? They're going well, my family. That keeps me grounded.
06:22But fans were devastated when, in 2022, Boyle suffered a stroke that affected her speech and singing.
06:29Her absence in the following years may be one of the most shocking contemporary instances of a major star disappearing.
06:35In 2025, Boyle came out of hiding to announce that she's ready to get back into the studio.
06:41And we can't wait to see you on tour. Well, watch this, please.
06:44James Franco.
06:45Undoubtedly an accomplished character actor and budding filmmaker throughout the 2000s,
06:50James Franco exploded after his Oscar-nominated performance in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours.
06:56It was good to meet you. See ya!
06:58Bye! Scooby-Doo!
07:01See ya!
07:03Rock on!
07:04He quietly mounted one of the decade's most prolific screen careers, with bold indies and
07:09Hollywood projects across all genres. This run was virtually unfazed by 2014 revelations of
07:15inappropriate interactions with a teenager.
07:17I used bad judgment and it… I learned my lesson.
07:21But, starting in 2018, Franco was hit with a string of misconduct allegations from former
07:26students that culminated in a lawsuit. He admitted to sexual encounters with women in his acting workshop,
07:32but said he believed they were consensual. Though the lawsuits were settled in 2021,
07:37Franco's career was destroyed. He has been hiding out in low-profile European productions ever since.
07:42I suppose, at the time, my thinking was, if it's consensual, okay.
07:50Taylor Lautner. The Twilight saga, and a high-profile romance with Taylor Swift, set up a promising decade for actor Taylor Lautner.
07:59Did she tell you the spitwad story?
08:00Yes, she did.
08:00Yeah, she's mushy like that.
08:02You like it.
08:03He was all grown up, and recognized as a major heartthrob. Unfortunately, he fumbled his leading man debut in
08:09John Singleton's Razzie-nominated Abduction. Tracers and Run the Tides may have been even worse, but not nearly as many people saw them.
08:18I'm so sorry.
08:19Lautner likely turned more heads in supporting roles in Adam Sandler Vehicles and the BBC sitcom Cuckoo.
08:25His outspokenness about the pressures of stardom has led some to believe that his exile was partly self-imposed.
08:31Lautner can still be found once in a blue moon, but seems fairly content with a more obscure lifestyle.
08:37It was needed for me personally, so I, Taylor, feel so much better today than I have in the last four or five years.
08:48Armie Hammer. Despite a family fortune, Armie Hammer distinguished his acting career with the dual role of the Winklevoss twins in David Fincher's The Social Network.
08:57You Mark Zuckerberg?
08:59Yeah.
09:00Cameron Winklevoss.
09:02Hi.
09:03Tyler Winklevoss.
09:04Are you guys related?
09:05It's good. Funny.
09:06I've never heard that before.
09:08So what can I do for you?
09:09Did I insult your girlfriends?
09:11No, you didn't.
09:11Actually, I don't know.
09:12He spent the following decade leading blockbusters like The Lone Ranger and the masterpiece Call Me By Your Name.
09:19It didn't look like his career would be slowing down in the 2020s.
09:22Then, in 2021, multiple women accused Hammer of sexual and emotional abuse, with text messages exposing disturbing fetishes.
09:30I will say this. There are people that I left who were hurt and who were upset. None of those people were hurt or upset because I pushed any sexual boundaries that they weren't interested in exploring or trying.
09:50Are you sure about that?
09:51The actor's representation promptly dropped him, and his whole family's problematic history came under scrutiny.
09:58Hammer was next seen selling timeshares in the Cayman Islands.
10:02Starting in 2024, he re-entered entertainment with a podcast and roles in low-end projects.
10:08Whether this comeback will stick, Hammer's mainstream reputation is effectively buried.
10:13I experienced an ego death, a career death, a financial death, all of these things.
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10:34Iggy Azalea
10:37Amethyst Amelia Kelly had one of the hottest stage names in hip-hop by the time she dropped her debut album, The New Classic, in 2014.
10:51Iggy Azalea's career practically defined the 2010s, but would itself be defined by controversy.
10:57Her feud with Azalea Banks particularly sparked accusations that Kelly appropriated black American culture after failing to break into pop music.
11:11Homophobic and, at best, racially tone-deaf comments landed her deeper in hot water.
11:16Public attention faded as Kelly spent the first half of the 2020s developing an album that ultimately went unreleased.
11:22When she retired in 2024 over medical issues, hardly anyone noticed.
11:27It goes to show how even the brightest stars of one decade can burn out by the next.
11:32Of course there are parts of music that I miss.
11:34Sometimes I'll have the itch.
11:36Be like, I need to get in the studio, I miss it.
11:38I don't want to be a slave to that cycle of promotion, concert, music industry, politics, having to share more of myself than what I'm comfortable with.
11:50Who are some other 2010 stars you haven't seen around lately?
11:55Serve some nostalgia in the comments.
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