The best social media stars to follow in the arts (2024)

FILM
By Kevin Maher

Anna Kendrick
Twitter @AnnaKendrick47
The joy of Anna Kendrick is that she tweets like a real person. The Pitch Perfect actress is never better than when she’s moaning about healthy recipes that she’ll never make, going to museums and trying not to ridicule the art, how hard it is to breathe in a sauna and that strange moment after a big job when you become instantly ill.

Ryan Reynolds
Twitter @VancityReynolds
The Deadpool star is a Twitter legend. He replies to fans with ironic brio (“One time, I looked into his eyes so deeply I saw myself being born,” he tweeted when asked about working with Josh Brolin) and he enjoys a long-term trolling game with his wife, the actress Blake Lively — they post unflattering pictures of each other and faux-affectionate comments (on Reynolds’s birthday she tweeted a hunky picture of Ryan Gosling with Reynolds cropped out of the frame).

John Boyega
Twitter @JohnBoyega
Instagram @johnboyega
Peckham’s finest, the blockbusting newbie John Boyega is a vigorous tweeter and instagrammer. Yes, he heavily pushes his movie behemoths (Star Wars and the recent Pacific Rim: Uprising), but he’s also a smorgasbord of compelling randomness, including self-help advice, videos of fan-pranking, Nigerian rap music, occasional prayers and insider video access (see his star-studded phone footage from New York’s 2018 Met Gala).

Russell Crowe
Twitter @russellcrowe
There’s never a dull moment in the increasingly eccentric social media life of the Gladiator star. He has posted poetic tributes to a lost fedora and to dawn breaking over Rome. He has ranted about circumcision (“it’s barbaric and stupid”) and he has slammed body-shamers for critiquing his portly physique. Most recently he has boasted about his enormous unkempt beard (photos included).

Chris Pratt
Twitter @prattprattpratt
Instagram @prattprattpratt
Swinging from the sanctimonious (he thanks God a lot) to the downright hilarious (video skits, often skewering his reputation as “nice guy Chris”), the Jurassic World star is nearly always “on”, and often hugely personal — he includes clips of pancake-making with his son Jack and even used Twitter to announce, last August, his separation from his wife, Anna Faris.

Kate Beckinsale
Instagram @katebeckinsale
The actress’s feed blends glamour, silliness and deadpan wit. Pouting screen-goddess pictures are undercut by lines such as this, accompanying a photo of a recent shoot in rural Africa: “It’s SO beautiful here. And apparently there’s a 15-foot python with the soul of a dead boy in the water behind me — so, something for everybody, really.”

COMEDY
By Dominic Maxwell

David Baddiel
Twitter @Baddiel
Football, touring, the joys of English breakfasts, a hearty attitude to taking on trolls and antisemites and (recently) anyone who confuses him with the author of Tracey Ullman’s Jeremy Corbyn routines — Baddiel is one of the most engaged comedian tweeters out there and one of the best.

Lolly Adefope
Twitter @lollyadefope
The sketch comic uses her feed to ply pithy absurdism as well as speaking up for feminism and addressing racism. And just when you think you’ve got a hang of what she’s going to offer next, she goes and tweets a picture of herself having fun at Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s gig — with her asthma inhaler.

Reeves and Mortimer
Twitter @JamesMoir10 and @RealBobMortimer
From Reeves, real name Jim Moir, we get examples of his art, to buy or admire — a recent one depicts Miles Davis, Warwick Davis and Steve Davis together. From Mortimer, real name Robert Mortimer, we get larks, cats and verbal and visual fun.

Ricky Gervais
Twitter @rickygervais
Yeah, he’s scrappy, rude and self-aggrandising in an is-this-irony kind of way, but Gervais on Twitter — as on stage — has an energy, skill and scope that makes him hard to ignore. Take this recent one: “Suggesting that all immigrants are like gang members is like suggesting that all Americans are like Trump.”

POP
By Will Hodgkinson

Kanye West
Twitter @kanyewest
A mish-mash of aphorisms (“give without pride”), self-obsession (“sometimes I have trouble saying no because I want to help everyone”) and public announcements (“I’m changing my album name to Swish” — he didn’t), Donald Trump’s favourite rapper is, to his 26 million followers, sometimes alarming, but never boring. Never one to undersell his ambition, he claims to be writing a philosophy book in real time on Twitter.

Bette Midler
Twitter @BetteMidler
While too much time on Twitter suggests too much time in general, Bette Midler is made for this sort of thing. “OK, OK, I AM ‘Becky with the good hair’,” she wrote in 2016, referring to Beyoncé’s infamous description of husband Jay-Z’s other woman. Spats with Kim Kardashian, Ariana Grande and, of course, Donald Trump keep the hilarity levels high.

Rihanna
Instagram @badgalriri
Apparently unaware that cannabis remains illegal in most countries, the Barbadian superstar loves to post pictures of herself by the pool, at fashion shows, hanging out at carnivals — with a joint. So 63.5 million followers have been treated to many, many images of one of the world’s biggest pop stars looking fabulous. And stoned.

VISUAL ARTS
By Rachel Campbell-Johnston

Ai Weiwei
Twitter @aiww
Instagram @aiww

Don’t fiddle about on the rarefied edges. Plunge straight in and find out the power of culture. Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s most famous artists for a reason — he is unafraid to speak out against a global superpower. This makes for an eventful feed to follow. He often uses Instagram to show the progress of his installations and to highlight issues such as the refugee crisis.

Grayson Perry
Twitter @Alan_Measles
Alan Measles, Grayson Perry’s much-travelled teddy bear, is the face of the Twitter feed through which you can follow the adventures of the cross-dressing potter turned TV presenter, exhibition curator and frank cultural commentator. And the costumes of Claire, his ever more extravagantly flamboyant alter ego, will brighten your day.

Cindy Sherman
Instagram @cindysherman
It was inevitable really. The American artist has made a career out of the selfie — albeit by making herself unrecognisable as trophy wives, cheerleaders or biker chicks — to question the role of women in society. On Instagram she experiments with effects and filters, and occasionally posts travel snaps, such as the gardens on a recent visit to Sissinghurst, Kent.

THEATRE
By Ann Treneman

James Graham
Twitter @mrJamesGraham
Our most prolific playwright has had a great year with multiple plays in the West End, not to mention an Olivier. His Twitter feed is fun as well as funny, often mixing politics and theatre, but then he’s working on a TV drama about Brexit — a good excuse.

William Shakespeare
Twitter @Shakespeare
He may be 454 years old, but don’t ever underestimate this guy. He tweets on plays, himself, Edmund Spenser, and even old guys such as Aristotle: “Aristotle insists that a play should only cover one day’s events. So my whole play would be: ‘What? Hamlet’s back in town? Let’s duel!’ ”

Lin-Manuel Miranda
Twitter @Lin_Manuel
The creator of Hamilton is a stream-of-consciousness tweeter on all things Hamilton (of course), poetry, music and refugees, not to mention family. Most intriguing are his “Hamildrops”, a monthly gift of a song that didn’t make it into the show.

CLASSICAL & OPERA
By Neil Fisher

Stephen Hough
Twitter @houghhough
Your elegant ambassador into piano Twitter — where Igor Levit posts terrifying practice videos, James Rhodes swears in Spanish and Marc-André Hamelin despairs of taxi drivers not spelling his name correctly — is the Wirral musician, posting from all corners of the globe on matters musical, culinary, sartorial and more.

Anna Netrebko
Instagram @anna_netrebko_yusi_tiago
A diva’s life has rarely looked as diva-ish, as the Russian soprano tours the world in eye-popping designer gowns, with her husband, Yusif Eyvazov, accessorised to match. The family snaps are also cute.

Paavo Jarvi
Twitter @paavo_jarvi
Tell yourself that you follow the Estonian conductor for his serious observations on Beethoven or Brahms if you like, but really this is all about that wonderful night every year when Jarvi offers minute-by-minute analysis of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Joyce DiDonato
Twitter @JoyceDiDonato
The mezzo is on a mission to make the world a better place, and her Twitter is part of this, although you will have to wade through her many ecstatic tributes to her fans, her fellow singers, her conductors, the sky, the moon, air, water, love and world peace as well.

Sarah Willis
Instagram @hornsarahberlin
One of the Berlin Philharmonic’s French horn players, the entertaining British musician has a simple but winning idea for her Instagram feed: her beautiful, ornate instrument, held aloft in locations around the world. It’s rather wonderful.

WRITERS
By James Marriott

Jonathan Coe
Twitter @jonathancoe
Highly recommended. Whether he’s writing a poem about Christopher Chope, the Tory MP who blocked the upskirting ban, or sympathising with students forced to read his books at school, there’s usually fun to be had on Coe’s timeline.

Val McDermid
Twitter @valmcdermid
The Scottish crime writer Val McDermid is good fun on Twitter. Try this for a tweet: “Magic Moments: walking down Union Street, Aberdeen post-gig — a guy pissing in a doorway pauses mid-stream and starts singing, ‘One Val McDermid, there’s only one Val McDermid . . .’ probably my most unusual moment of recognition.”

JK Rowling
Twitter @jk_rowling
On Twitter, JK Rowling is a force to be reckoned with. Even Lord Voldemort might quail before the massed forces of her 14.5 million followers. Tweets are diverse and often political. Recently she has been tweeting about penguin eggs and Trump’s border policies. Oh, and she is not a fan of Brexit.

Robert Harris

Twitter @Robert___Harris
Politics, books and dogs from the bestselling thriller man. He’s got a nice line in good-natured (we think) literary rivalry too. When The Sunday Times’s literary editor tweeted that his book had entered the bestseller charts at No 2 (behind Ken Follett), Harris retweeted it, adding: “Well done, Ken, You bastard.” Harris also really hates Brexit.

DANCE
By Debra Craine

Misty Copeland

Twitter @mistyonpointe
Instagram @mistyonpointe
The first African-American woman to become a principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre, Copeland (who also wrote a book called Ballerina Body) is a terrific role model. She shares her food and fitness secrets, although one look at her photos and you’ll know the rest of us don’t stand a chance. Even better are her romantic dancing pictures on Instagram, the ballet equivalent of cheesecake.

Sergei Polunin
Twitter @SergeiPolunin_
Instagram @sergeipolunin
It’s always fun to see what the “bad boy of ballet” is up to. The Ukrainian superstar is these days more famous for his brooding cover shoots and videos than his dance performances, and his Instagram account is part of that. Between filming with Rankin — has the male body been more lovingly captured? — and dipping a toe in Hollywood waters (Murder on the Orient Express, Red Sparrow), it’s amazing that Polunin finds the time to do what he does best: dance.