The bestKristen Bellmovies and TV shows demonstrate how her unique abilities as a comedic actor have allowed her to cement a solid career and celebrated reputation in the genre. Born in Michigan in 1980, Kristen Bell has been an active performer since 1992 in theatrical productions, though she wouldn’t find herself in front of a camera until 1998 (albeit in an uncredited film role in the comedy-dramaPolish Wedding).
Following this, Bell spent several more years on the stage, finally finding her way back to the small screen in 2003 in FX’sThe Shield.It was 2004 that she got her big break thanks to landing the titular lead role inVeronica Mars,and from there her career exploded. The best Kristen Bell movies and TV shows may mostly be comedies, but she’s far from limited to one genre, and has displayed her capabilities across a variety of roles on both the big and small screens.
Pulse
Cast
Pulse is a Japanese horror film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, released in 2001. Set in Tokyo, it explores themes of loneliness and the intersection of life and death as inhabitants face a mysterious presence linked to the afterlife, highlighting the pervasive alienation within a modern urban landscape.
The overwhelming majority of the best Kristen Bell movies and TV shows are comedies, as it’s her ability to portray funny characters that has defined her career. This is why 2006’sPulse,from director Jim Sonzero (with a script co-written bythe legendary Wes Craven), stands out, as it’s one of her rare ventures into the realms of horror. It’s also noteworthy as it’s one of the first feature films in which Bell was cast in a central role.
Adopting the Kiyoshi Kurosawa J-horror of the same name,Pulsesees Kristen Bell’s Mattie Webber caught up in a series of strange supernatural phenomena that sees spirits attempting to return to the world of the living through the internet. While the movie itself was panned by critics, Bell herself gave an incredibly strong performance, and so,Pulsemore than warrants its entry among the best Kristen Bell movies due to it showing her range is much wider than comedy.
The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window
The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window stars Kristen Bell as a lonely, heartbroken woman who lives the same events every day. But all of that changes when a handsome man moves in. The only problem is Anna thinks she may have seen a murder take place across the street.
Kristen Bell has had several successful collaborations with Netflix, such as 2024’sNobody Wants This.Among them is the miniseriesThe Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window(also commonly known asTWITHATSFTGITW). The dark comedy sees Kristen Bell take the lead role as Anna, a woman struggling with mental health and hallucinations who comes to convince herself that she’s witnessed a murder.
The show parodies many aspects of the kinds of thrillers andtrue-crime shows that Netflixhas built a reputation for creating, and Bell manages to make the character of Anna incredibly funny without making her over-the-top or unbelievable. The comedic elements ofTWITHATSFTGITWwork incredibly well, though it never loses its central mystery either.It’s a series where nothing is as it seems, and Bell’s performance as Anna ties everything together incredibly well.
Queenpins
Inspired by a true story,Queenpinsis an outrageous comedy about a bored and frustrated suburban homemaker, Connie (Kristen Bell) and her best pal JoJo (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), a vlogger with dreams, who turn a hobby into a multi-million dollar counterfeit coupon caper. After firing off a letter to the conglomerate behind a box of cereal gone stale, and receiving an apology along with dozens of freebies, the duo hatch an illegal coupon club scheme that scams millions from mega-corporations and delivers deals to legions of fellow coupon clippers. On the trail to total coupon dominance, a hapless Loss Prevention Officer (Paul Walter Hauser) from the local supermarket chain joins forces with a determined U.S. Postal Inspector (Vince Vaughn) in hot pursuit of these newly-minted “Queenpins” of pink collar crime.
2021’sQueenpins,the comedy from writer-directors Aron Gaudet and Git Pullapilly, stars Kristen Bell as Connie Kaminski. Kaminski is a former Olympic speed walker frustrated with her mundane life as a mother and homemaker. However, after receiving a coupon for free cereal following a complaint to the company that produces them, she and her friend JoJo (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) concoct a scam to turn the corporate practice into a lucrative money-making scheme.
Kristen Bell gives a laugh-out-loud performance as Connie, and it’s this that marksQueenpinsas one of the best of her more recent movies.It also stands out among the best Kristen Bell films as it shows how she’s matured as a performer, and how suited she is to playing older, middle-aged characters as her live-action appearances enter a new career phase.However, while it’s a comedic venture, Bell also gets to display her aptitude for more emotional moments thanks to Connie’s attempts to conceive through IVF and her trauma following a miscarriage.
Nobody Wants This
A loud, agnostic sex podcaster and a newly single rabbi unexpectedly fall in love, forcing them to navigate the complexities of their clashing beliefs, families, and careers. Their relationship faces constant tension as they balance their personal lives with societal pressures, leading to a series of humorous and heartfelt challenges.
At the time of writing, Kristen Bell has been shortlisted for several awards thanks to her performance in 2024’sNobody Wants This,including a Critics Choice Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.She was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy.The Netflix romantic comedy series stars Bell as Joanne, an agnostic sex and dating podcaster who finds herself romantically drawn to a Rabbi, Adam Brody’s Noah Roklov.
Season 2 ofNobody Wants Thishas been greenlit by Netflix thanks to the show’s high level of critical acclaim, and season 1 of the series currently sits with a 94% rating onRotten Tomatoes.While it currently doesn’t have the cultural impact as some of Kristen Bell’s other TV shows likeVeronica Mars, The Good Place,orGossip Girls,future seasons ofNobody Wants Thiscould change this.
Gossip Girl
Set among Manhattan’s elite, this drama series follows wealthy teenagers whose scandalous lives are exposed by an anonymous blogger. The show delves into themes of betrayal, ambition, and the complexities of high-society friendships, as the characters navigate interpersonal conflicts and personal aspirations.
The teen dramaGossip Girlran on The CW from 2007 to 2012 and remains one of the most successful, and culturally impactful, original shows the network ever put out. While she didn’t appear on-screen, Kristen Bell was an essential ingredient and member of theGossip Girlcast. Every episode would be peppered with narration from the enigmatic Gossip Girl, an unknown student at an Upper East Side high school who holds nothing back in their quest to ensure every piece of dirty laundry the students want to hide is aired publicly.
Kristen Bell provides thevoice for Gossip Girl, narrating every episode.Bell is a celebrated voice actor known just as much for her vocal skills as she is for her live-action performances, and she brings these abilities toGossip Girlwith incredible results.This cements the series as one of the best Kristen Bell TV shows. She also made a cameo in the final episode as a fictionalized version of herself.
Bad Moms
Starring Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, and Kristen Bell, Bad Moms is about Amy, Carla, and Kiki, three exhausted moms who abandon their responsibilities to take a much-needed break from life. Bad Moms comes from comedy duo Jon Lucas and Scott More, who both wrote for the films 21 & Over and The Hangover.
2016’sBad Momscomes from directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, and features an ensemble cast of celebrated comedians such as Mila Kunis and Kathryn Hahn. Joining them to make up the lead trio is Kristen Bell as Kiki Moore, a stay-at-home mother of four. As the title suggests,Bad Momsis a comedy that focuses on a group of mothers who rebel against the expectations of society and their spouses - and it makes for one of the most hilarious roles of the latter stage of Kristen Bell’s career.
While it’s Mila Kunis as Amy who takes the central focus of the plot, Kristen Bell’s Kiki is arguably the funnier character. Not only does she share incredible chemistry with both Kunis as Amy and Kathryn Hahn as Carla, but her portrayal of the frazzled and beyond-stressed Kiki is brimming with authenticity -making it one of the best comedy movies Bell has so far appeared in and landing hers a nomination for Favorite Comedic Movie Actress at the 2016 People’s Choice Awards.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Forgetting Sarah Marshall follows Peter Bretter, a musician who, following a bad breakup with his girlfriend, Sarah Marshall, goes on a vacation to a Hawaiian resort only to discover that Sarah is also at the resort with her new boyfriend. Jason Segel stars as Peter, alongside Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, and Russell Brand.
2009’sForgetting Sarah Marshallhas become problematic in the years since its release thanks to being led by thenow-controversial figure Russell Brand, but this doesn’t stop it from being counted as one of the best Kristen Bell movies. In the raunchy rom-com, Kristen Bell plays the titular Sarah Marshall, the ex-girlfriend of Jason Segel’s heartbroken composer Peter Bretter.
Peter decides to go on a vacation to forget about Sarah, only to discover - much to his horror - that she’s staying at the same resort with her new boyfriend, the rockstar Aldous Snow (Brand). Kristen Bell made the character of Sarah laugh-out-loud hilarious, and wasnominated for Best Actress in a Comedy and Breakout Female Star at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards for her performance, alongside a joint-nomination for Best WTF Moment alongside Jason Segel at the MTV Movie Awards the same year.
The Good Place
Eleanor Shellstrop finds in The Good Place, both the name of the fantasy comedy series from creator Michael Schur and a fictionalized heaven where those who have done good in life will end up. However, Eleanor discovers that the life she was believed to have led was a lie, as it seems The Good Place got the wrong “Eleanor Shellstrop.” When it’s revealed that three others are there under the same false pretenses, they concoct a plan to truly become “Good” to earn their place there - while hiding the truth.
Running on NBC from 2016-2020,The Good Placeisn’t only one of the best Kristen Bell TV shows, but it also stands as arguably her most surreal. The fantasy-comedy series focuses on a group of recently deceased people who find themselves in the titular ‘Good Place’, which they’re led to believe is Heaven by the architect of their utopia, Michael (Ted Danson). Kristen Bell gives a hilarious performance as Eleanor Shellstrop, who realizes she’s ended up in a posthumous paradise due to an administrative error.
However, all is not what it seems, and Eleanor (along with the rest of the characters) finds outthe Good Place may not be so goodafter all. The show was highly acclaimed, as was Kristen Bell’s performance.Bell was nominated for a slew of awards forThe Good Place,including a Golden Globe nomination in 2019 for Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy.
Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars is a drama mystery series that stars Kristen Bell as the titular teen detective who learns the ropes from her father, a California police sheriff. Following a “crime-of-the-week” episode format, each episode sees Veronica tackling new cases while carrying on her High School life, with a more significant, overarching plot carrying between episodes. Veronica’s side career begins following the death of her best friend, which sets off a chain of events leading to several smaller cases.
Kristen Bell’s career has had several stages, and her first breakout role came when she took the titular lead in the UPN (and, eventually, The CW) teen noir mystery seriesVeronica Mars.Playing the young investigator brought Bell some of her earliest accolades, including a nomination for Best Actress on Television at the 2005 Saturn Awards, and Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series at the Satellite Awards the same year. She later went on to win a Saturn Award in the same category the following year.
As the titular lead character, Kristen Bell was the central focal point for the many twisting narratives thatkept viewers hooked onVeronica Marsthroughout all four seasons, and the 2014 movie spinoff.While she’s taken on many roles since,Veronica Marsremains the best Kristen Bell TV show so far, and one of the strongest performances of her career on both the big and small screens.
Frozen
Frozen, released in 2013, follows young princess Anna of Arendelle on a perilous quest to halt an eternal winter cast by her sister, Elsa. Joined by Kristoff, his reindeer Sven, and snowman Olaf, Anna navigates themes of friendship, courage, family, and love in her journey.
Of all the best Kristen Bell movies and TV shows, none have had as significant a cultural impact as 2013’sFrozen(and, by extension, 2019 sequelFrozen 2). Alongside Idina Menzel as Elsa, Kristen Bell voiced one of themost iconic Disney princessesof all time - Anna, who braves the snowy wasteland created by her sister to save both her and the kingdom of Arendelle.
Not only did Kristen Bell give a hilarious performance as Anna, she also sang some of the memorable musical numbers that ensuredFrozenhas become the most successful Disney franchise of the 21st century so far (such as “Do You Want To Build A Snowman”).No character the actor has portrayed so far has become anywhere near as instantly recognizable, and it’s this and her performance that cementFrozenas the best Kristen Bell movie or TV show.
