Taylor Swift has become a household name for her incredible songwriting, genre-crossing discography, and record-breaking Eras Tour.
But over the years, when she’s not performing to sold out crowds, the now 34-year-old star has tried her hand at acting.
15 years ago, Swift made her acting debut on March 5, 2009 in the US as troubled teen Haley Jones on the long-running drama series CSI.
READ MORE: Taylor Swift’s secret lucrative deal with Singapore
Since her first role in 2009, the singer has appeared in several movies and made various TV cameos over the years outside of her music videos and documentaries.
In 2020, Swift gave fans a behind the scenes look at her life in the Netflix documentary Miss Americana and even appeared in her own 2021 short film for All Too Well.
She has also made movies for several of her world tours including the Reputation Stadium Tour and most recently the Eras Tour concert film.
After directing several of her own music videos in recent years, Swift announced in 2022 that she would be making her directorial debut for her own feature film, Searchlight.
Read on to see every acting role the Cruel Summer singer has had across her career, including the ones you might have forgotten.
CSI
COMPETITION: Win a luxury resort trip to Hawaii worth over $10,000
While Swift became famous in the early ’00s for her country look, featuring her signature blonde curly locks, her first ever acting role on the ninth season of CSI was a full 180.
The Love Story singer appeared in the episode Turn, Turn, Turn in 2009 as the emo-looking teen Haley Jones sporting facial piercings and a black bob, who is found dead.
Speaking to MTV in 2009 about the cameo, Swift revealed she was “obsessed with crime shows” and the role was a “dream” of hers.
“All my friends know that my dream is to die on CSI,” she admitted to the outlet.
“I’ve always wanted to be one of the characters on there that they’re trying to figure out what happened to.”
Hannah Montana: The Movie
In the same year, Swift had another on-screen cameo – this time as a musical guest.
Around 19-years-old at the time, Swift joined fellow pop star Miley Cyrus for a small guest role in Hannah Montana: The Movie in 2009.
In the film, the singer has a scene where she performs her self-written track Crazier.
Fun fact: Crazier isn’t the only Taylor Swift song to make it on the Hannah Montana movie soundtrack.
READ MORE: Kate Winslet reveals secret health battle following Titanic’s success
The superstar is also the lyrical genius behind the film’s final song, You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home, which is performed by Cyrus.
The film also paved the way for one of Swift’s most iconic music videos after she met Lucas Till on the movie set and cast him in You Belong With Me as her love interest.
Valentine’s Day
In 2010, Swift scored a role in the star-studded 2010 romantic comedy film, Valentine’s Day alongside Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher and other A-listers.
Along with lending her track Today Was a Fairytale to the film, Swift played high school student Felicia Miller, who dated track star Willy, played by Twilight actor Taylor Lautner.
Swift actually went on to date Lautner for a few months in 2009 after the pair first hit it off on the movie set.
They ended up breaking up before the film ever came out, inspiring Swift’s song Back To December.
The Lorax
Swift tried her hand at voice acting in 2012 for the animated film, The Lorax, based on Dr. Seuss’ 1971 book of the same name.
The singer lent her voice to a teen redhead called Audrey in the movie, who’s love interest Ted Wiggins was voiced by actor Zac Efron.
Swift spoke about her experience voice acting in a 2012 interview with MTV News, admitting the studio process was “very different” than when working on an album.
READ MORE: ‘Hearts are full’: Aussie TV stars welcome second child
“You’re sitting there in the booth having conversations with no one. There’s no one there,” she explained, adding the cast “all recorded our parts in different places.”
According to the singer, she related to her optimistic character Audrey who dreams of seeing the trees, dubbing her “a day-dreamer”.
New Girl
Taylor Swift delighted New Girl fans in 2013 when she made a cameo on the show’s season two finale episode, Elaine’s Big Day.
Swift had a hilarious guest appearance as Elaine, who ends up interrupting the wedding and running away with the groom Shivrang, who was supposed to marry Cece.
The sitcom showrunner Elizabeth Meriwether spoke to Entertainment Weekly in 2013 about Swift’s time on set, revealing she was “fully geeking out” over the star.
Along with several positive mentions of the singer, Swift’s song 22 had previously played on the show. And it turns out the pop star was equally a fan of the sitcom.
For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.
“She was quoting lines to us from the show. It was a really exciting night,” Meriwether revealed.
Jake Johnson, who starred as Nick Miller in the series, opened up a decade later about Swift being on set in a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone.
“When she was in the hair and makeup trailer, we couldn’t believe she was doing our show. When she was on the set, the air changed. She was an air-changer,” he said.
The Giver
In 2014, Swift landed another musical role in the movie adaption of the young adult novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry.
The singer had a small role as Jeff Bridges’ on-screen daughter, Rosemary, who was his student before Jonas, played by Aussie actor Brenton Thwaites.
In the film, Swift ditched her blonde locks for a brunette wig and briefly played the piano in a flashback scene.
Speaking to Access Hollywood, Swift said it was “unreal” to work alongside Bridges.
READ MORE: Madonna’s one-word response after waking from four-day coma
“I still can’t believe I shot in South Africa and shot all my scenes with Jeff Bridges. It was unreal,” she said.
“I just tried to work as hard as I could and just throw myself into that environment as much as I possibly could.”
In an interview with Time MagazineAlexander Skarsgård revealed the singer actually jammed out with the cast while filming the movie.
“We had a piano in the hotel lobby. People would take turns and play the piano and sing.”
Cats
As the owner of three cats, who never shies away from gushing about just how much she loves the furry animals, the Cats movie was a match made in heaven for Swift.
Swift joined the star-studded 2019 movie cast alongside Judi Dench, Idris Elba and more as the cat Bombalurina.
In her short on-screen appearance as a CGI transformed cat, Swift had a single line and performed the classic song Macavity.
To prepare for her role, the singer told Variety that she attended an animal behaviour class which was dubbed as ‘cat school’.
“We would literally do hours on end of barefoot crawling on the floor, hissing at each other,” she told the publication.
READ MORE: Hotel buffet etiquette question divides travellers
“We learned about cat instincts and the way they carry themselves and the way that they process information, the way they see the world, the way they move.
In addition to her role, Swift co-wrote the original song Beautiful Ghosts with Andrew Lloyd Webber for the movie soundtrack, which scored a Golden Globe nomination.
Amsterdam
Swift’s most recent acting credit is in the 2022 movie, Amsterdam, where she had a small role as a late U.S. Senator’s daughter, called Elizabeth Meekins.
It isn’t long into the movie however that Swift is runover by a moving vehicle and dies.
Though her performance was short-lived, Swift worked alongside a stellar cast including Australia’s very own Margot Robbie and Christian Bale.
Speaking to People about getting to be on set with the hitmaker, Bale opened up about a take where he got to hear Swift sing.
“It is stunning when you’ve got someone with a beautiful voice there, standing right next to me. It gave me goosebumps,” he said.