Former ‘Nashville’ Child Star Maisy Stella Just Won a Major Award

Nashville star Maisy Stella can officially add Critics’ Choice winner to her resume. The actress, known for her role as Daphne Conrad on the ABC/CMT musical soap opera, has been getting much praise for her lead role the acclaimed coming-of-age film My Old Ass. Written and directed by Megan Park, the film follows an 18-year-old who encounters her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza) during a mushroom trip. The film has received generally positive reviews and several accolades.

Among those accolades is Stella’s win for Best Young Performer at the 30^th Critics’ Choice Awards, which were on Feb. 7. Unfortunately, the award was not presented during the main show, but it was one of the awards briefly mentioned in between categories, with the camera panning to Stella in the audience.

My Old Ass premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and received rave reviews. With 192 reviews, it has a 90% approval rating and 89% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film had a limited theatrical release in the U.S. in September by Amazon MGM Studios under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It can be streamed on Prime Video, so fans can see for themselves just how great it is.

Stella’s win at the Critics’ Choice Awards marks her first major award. She’s also up for Best Breakthrough Performance at the Independent Spirit Awards, which will be presented on Feb. 22 at the Santa Monica Pier. Stella will be going up against Isaac Krasner, Katy O’Brian, Mason Alexander Park, and René Pérez Joglar. It seems like Stella is getting a lot of much-deserved recognition for her performance, and even at 21, she’s doing pretty incredible and killing it.

Maisy Stella has been in the entertainment industry since 2012, when she landed the role of Daphne on Nashville. After recurring in the first season, she was upped to series regular for the remainder of the six-season run. She also provided numerous voices in the animated series Spirit Riding Free.

On the movie side, she will be starring in upcoming David Robert Mitchell film Flowervale Street in 2026, which is produced by J.J. Abrams and also starring Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, and Christina Convery. The Ontario native is also starring in the Maude Apatow-directed comedy Poetic License alongside Andrew Barth Feldman, Cooper Hoffman, Leslie Mann, and Nico Parker. She is just getting started, and it will be exciting to see what she has next up her sleeve.