Top 10 Most Powerful Female Celebrities

Probably best known for her role as Gloria in “Modern Family”, Sofia Vergara is one of the most influential women in Hollywood. The Latin American actress began her career appearing in Pepsi commercials and working as a runway model in Colombia. Parts in ABC comedies “The Knights of Prosperity” and “Hot Properties” brought her to the attention of US audiences however, and her fame across the Americas has been snowballing ever since. She’s talented, intelligent, and phenomenally good-looking; it’s no wonder she wields such influence in the world of show business!

Writer of the best selling book series of all time, when J.K. Rowling first penned “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” surely even she could not foresee what was to come. Harry is now a literary icon, and Joanne ‘JK’ Rowling’s work has since inspired blockbuster films, theme-parks, and theater productions. In a remarkable rise, Rowling went from living on UK state benefits in the mid-‘90s, to becoming a multi-millionaire by the early 2000s. Despite her immeasurable fame and fortune though, she continues to work and is a noted philanthropist. Hers is a stunning – nay, ‘stupefying’ – life story.

The Editor-in-chief of American Vogue, Anna Wintour is arguably the most influential person in the entire fashion industry. British born, Wintour worked on, and improved, the UK edition of Vogue during the mid-‘80s, before eventually securing her position at the helm in the US, in 1988. Well known for taking risks that almost always come off, she’s also famous for promoting new, fresh designers, and for establishing cutting edge trends. Thought to be at least part of the inspiration for the book and film adaptation, “The Devil Wears Prada” and popularly known as ‘Nuclear Wintour’, she’s scarily good at her job.

The female face of American news, Diane Sawyer is an ABC anchor and journalist and one of the most recognisable women in North America. Perhaps Sawyer’s most impressive trait is her versatility; one day she’s reacting to important world news, the next she’s sitting down and interviewing some of the planet’s best known celebrities. As such, she’s an incredibly well-connected woman, with friends and acquaintances across the globe, in a variety of fields. And let’s not forget how close she was to President Nixon when he was in power. We very nearly picked CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, but Sawyer just steals it.

An artist no doubt at least partly influenced by our last entry, people may say she ‘stays out too late’, but Taylor Swift is one of the most successful country/pop music crossover acts of all time. Enjoying particular success with her fifth studio album, “1989”, Tay-Tay has won Grammys, AMAs, and Billboard Awards aplenty during her still relatively young career. Buoyed by her massive success, Swift has become the face, voice and personality of a generation. She fashions herself as a role model, she is a fashion icon, and she is fearless.

Quite simply put, pop music would not be as it is today were it not for Madonna. Her self-titled debut album was released in 1983, and followed by the hugely successful “Like a Virgin” in ’84. Those two records formed a foundation from which Madonna’s career took off spectacularly. Moving into the twenty-first century, Madonna’s ‘Queen of Pop’ moniker has remained intact, and she has moved with the times much more effectively than most of her peers. As such, everything she does still fascinates the onlooker. From music to movies, fashion to feminism, she’s never far from the frontline.

For modern day audiences, Ellen is likely best known as a talk-show supremo. “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” brings Ellen into our living rooms on a daily basis, and has done so for 13 seasons so far since its debut on September 8th, 2003. A talk show which has aired over 2000 times, it’s a little amazing that DeGeneres has time to do anything else, but somehow she’s also an actress, a comedian, a voiceover artist, an award show host, an activist, an LGBT pioneer, and she owns her own record company. There seems little that this lady can’t do!

Listed by Forbes magazine as the most powerful female musician of 2015, Beyonce boasts a career spanning almost two decades as both a member of Destiny’s Child, and as a solo artist. In that time, she has so far sold almost 180 million records, and won 20 Grammy Awards. She refers to herself as a ‘modern-day feminist’, and is the music industry’s foremost pioneer for female empowerment. Self-managed and more than self-assured on stage, she also has a side career as an actor, and she’s one half of music’s finest power couple. She’s nicknamed ‘Queen B’ for a reason.

Our runner-up achieves a curious balance; she’s both ultra-glamorous and truly inspirational. Too often A-list celebrities alienate themselves from the everyday woman, but not Angelina Jolie. An actor turned director, Jolie is also a significant voice for a variety of humanitarian causes and charities, and a dedicated mother. She’s one of the most famous people on the planet, and she uses her public profile as a platform to try and make a difference for those less fortunate. The star of “Maleficent” is nothing short of magnificent in terms of the power and influence she wields.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Lady Gaga

Shakira

Tina Fey

Sandra Bullock

Emma Watson

The archetypal ‘rags to riches’ story in America, Oprah Winfrey’s rise to the very top is unrivalled. Born into poverty in Mississippi, she’s now often labelled as the ‘Queen of all Media’. A title that took a lot of work and entrepreneurial nous to earn, she’s probably most famous as producer and host of “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. However, Oprah’s influence cannot be confined to the TV studio. An icon for the African-American community, her power was perfectly demonstrated during Barack Obama’s mid-2000s campaign for democratic leadership; various estimates say that Oprah’s support won Obama over a million votes. It doesn’t matter if she’s on the big or small screen, this legendary lady is always guaranteed to make a powerful impact.

Do you agree with our list? Which celeb did we skip? For more influential top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to MsMojo.