(Credit: Netflix)

Kristen Bell just has this energy, you know? She is one of those talented actors who can make a boring lecture entertaining or turn gossip into a career move. With Nobody Wants This returning with a second season on October 23rd, it is time to give in and start the pre-binge. Because no one plays complicated, funny women quite like her.

In Nobody Wants This, she plays Joanne, a podcaster who genuinely believes she is helping people, even while oversharing half her life on the mic. She is dating her boyfriend, Noah (Adam Brody), who is a rabbi, and trying her best to be normal, which is going about as well as expected.

And while we are here, can we talk about The Good Place? Nobody is still over the fact that it is gone from Netflix. It was one of those shows you kept rewatching without realising you needed it. Eleanor Shellstrop deserved better both in the afterlife and in the streaming world.

Anyway, while Joanne gears up for another round of feelings and a little personal growth, here are five other Kristen Bell gems to watch while you wait for Nobody Wants This season two.

Five Kristen Bell movies and series to watch

Gossip Girl (Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, 2007–2012)

Kristen Bell might not show her face in Gossip Girl, but let’s be real for a sec here, as her voice practically is the show. She is THE invisible gossip queen who runs Manhattan like it’s her personal group chat. Every “XOXO” hits harder because it’s her saying it. Even if you didn’t notice it back then, once you realise it’s Bell narrating everyone’s scandals, you can’t un-hear it.

And can we appreciate her delivery for real this time because it is appropriately sly and just judgmental enough to sound like that one friend who always knows the latest tea but swears she’s “not judging”? Gossip Girl wouldn’t be half as iconic without her behind it. She was basically influencing before influencing was a thing.

Like Father (Lauren Miller Rogen, 2018)

This is one of those movies where Kristen Bell just gets what heartbreak looks like. It gets funny and a little dramatic in the best way. She plays Rachel, a workaholic who gets dumped at the altar and ends up going on her honeymoon cruise with her dad. Yes, it’s awkward, yes, it is emotional, and somehow it all feels funny.

What makes Bell so good here is that she doesn’t try to make Rachel instantly likeable. She lets her be prickly and confused, and that’s the key to making the character extremely relatable. By the end, you are rooting for her, and not because she starts to seem perfect, but because she’s trying. It’s one of her quieter roles, but it proves that she can carry the heavy stuff without losing her spark.

House of Lies (Matthew Carnahan, 2012–2016)

People don’t talk enough about how sharp Kristen Bell is in House of Lies. She plays Jeannie van der Hooven, a consultant who is as clever as she is ruthless. She’s surrounded by men who underestimate her, and she makes sure every single one of them regrets it. It’s Bell in full “don’t mess with me” mode, and she nails it.

What’s fun is that Jeannie isn’t some caricature of a bossy woman. She is calculated and real. Bell makes her ambitious, but also makes sure that she does not turn cold. You can see the tiny moments of self-doubt under all that confidence, and that’s what makes the performance so real.

Hit & Run (Dax Shepard and David Palmer, 2012)

Bell in Hit & Run feels like she is just having fun, and most of it is because she is acting opposite her real-life husband, Dax Shepard. In case you are wondering, this film does have a lot of car chases and bad decisions, and that is what makes Bell fit right in. She plays Annie, a girlfriend who suddenly finds out her perfect boyfriend has a secret past.

Even with all the drama around her, Bell grounds the story. She is not just a supportive girlfriend, but she actually drives half the movie’s tension. It is easy to forget that action-comedy isn’t her usual lane, but she makes it look like she has been doing it forever.

The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (Rachel Ramras, Hugh Davidson, and Larry Dorf, 2022)

If you have ever seen one of those overly dramatic thriller movies and thought, “This is ridiculous,” this one is designed for you, and Kristen Bell knows it. She plays Anna, a painter who drinks too much wine, stares out her window too often, and maybe witnesses a murder. This show is half mystery and half parody, and Bell plays it like she’s in on the joke the whole time.

This is peak self-aware Bell as she makes fun of the genre while totally committing to it. Every dramatic gasp, every suspicious stare, every glass of wine feels deliberate here. It is not wrong to call her poking fun targeted at how seriously TV sometimes takes itself, and she looks like she’s having the best time doing it.