Raye, Joey King and Sombr Lead the Stars at the TIME100 Next Gala

New York had one of those nights on Thursday — the kind where the guest list reads like a preview of the next decade in entertainment. The TIME100 Next Gala took over Current at Chelsea Piers, and just about everybody who is anybody among the rising generation showed up, dressed up, and stayed late.

Raye, Joey King, Sombr and Eiza Gonzalez led the arrivals, but they were far from the only names worth knowing. The room was packed with honorees from TIME’s 2026 TIME100 Next list: actors, singers, comedians, athletes and activists, all being celebrated as the people shaping what comes next. And in a nice touch, the night’s entertainment came from inside the club — Raye herself took the stage for a musical performance, because of course she did.

If you haven’t been paying attention to the TIME100 Next list, here’s the short version. It’s the younger sibling of the famous TIME100, an annual roll call of 100 rising stars across business, entertainment, sports, politics and more. This year’s list was revealed on September 30, and Thursday’s gala was the big in-person celebration — the moment the names on a webpage turned into a room full of actual people in actual fancy clothes.

A Night for the Next Generation

There’s something a little electric about a room where nobody is there on legacy alone. Nobody at the TIME100 Next Gala was coasting on a career from thirty years ago. Every honoree in the room earned their spot by doing something right now — a breakout role, a song that wouldn’t leave the charts, a performance that got people talking, a season that changed a sport.

The evening also featured honorary tributes from members of this year’s list, including Himesh Patel, Tyrese Maxey, Ashley Padilla, Wawira Njiru and Alex Warren. That’s a gloriously mixed bag, and honestly that’s the point. A gala that puts a basketball star, a Saturday Night Live cast member, a Kenyan nutrition activist and a singer-songwriter on the same tribute slate is saying something about what influence looks like in 2026. It’s not one industry anymore. It’s everywhere at once.

Current at Chelsea Piers, perched on the Hudson, gave the whole thing a sleek, modern backdrop — less old-school ballroom, more New York right now. Guests mingled, posed, and did the thing everyone does at these events: pretended they weren’t checking who else had just walked in. (They were. Everyone was.)

Raye Steals the Show — Twice Over

It’s hard to overstate what a run Raye has been on. The British singer-songwriter spent years as one of pop’s worst-kept secrets — the voice and pen behind hits for other people, stuck in label limbo while everyone in the industry knew exactly how good she was. Then she went independent, released her debut album “My 21st Century Blues,” and everything changed. BRIT Awards records fell. “Genesis” became a calling card. Rooms that once overlooked her started booking her as the headliner.

So her double duty on Thursday — honoree and performer — felt less like a surprise and more like a coronation that was a long time coming. When Raye sings live, there’s no hiding: the voice is huge, the control is scary-good, and the emotion lands whether she’s belting or barely whispering. Guests at the gala got the full version, up close, in a room full of her peers. That’s the kind of set people talk about on the car ride home.

Her presence also said something about the list itself. TIME100 Next isn’t just about who’s hot this month. Raye’s story is about persistence — about betting on yourself when the safer move would have been to stay quiet and keep writing songs for other stars. That she is now the one being celebrated, on a stage of her own, is the kind of arc the list was made for.

Fashion on the Carpet

Let’s be honest: at a gala like this, the carpet is half the show, and Thursday’s did not disappoint. Joey King showed up in a Miu Miu dress paired with Forever Diamond NY jewelry, looking every bit the seasoned red-carpet pro she is. King has been working since she was a child — from “Ramona and Beezus” to “The Kissing Booth” to the Emmy-nominated intensity of “The Act” — and she carries that experience in the way she works a carpet: relaxed, unbothered, totally at ease.

Megan Moroney went full glamour in a Zuhair Murad dress with Hearts on Fire jewelry, the kind of look that photographs beautifully and probably stopped traffic on the way in. Country music’s newest class has been bringing real fashion heat to every event lately, and Moroney is right at the front of that charge.

Eiza Gonzalez, meanwhile, kept things sharp in a Monse look with Aquazzura shoes and David Yurman jewelry. Gonzalez has quietly built one of the most interesting filmographies of anyone in the room, moving between blockbusters and prestige projects with an ease that a lot of actors would envy. She looked like someone who knows exactly where she’s going next. Because she probably does.

Marisa Abela rounded out the fashion standouts in a Dior look. The “Industry” star has had a breakout stretch that turned her from a promising newcomer into a name directors fight over, and her carpet game has kept pace with her career. Simple, elegant, no notes.

The Music Kids and the Screen Stars

Beyond the fashion, the guest list was a reminder of just how much of today’s pop culture is being driven by people barely out of their teens or twenties. Sombr — the bedroom-pop sensation turned chart fixture — was there, as was Alex Warren, whose jump from social media to the music charts has been one of the stranger and more impressive pivots of recent years. Conan Gray, who has been soundtracking heartbreak for Gen Z since before Gen Z had a name for it, made an appearance too, alongside Troye Sivan, who has now been a pop mainstay for a full decade without ever losing his cool.

On the acting side, the depth was just as striking. Himesh Patel, who can seemingly do anything from sci-fi to musicals to prestige drama, was in the room. So were Dominic Sessa, the breakout star of “The Holdovers” whose career has been one to watch ever since, and Cooper Hoffman, who carries one of Hollywood’s most famous surnames and is steadily building a resume that stands on its own. Paapa Essiedu, Isa Briones, Molly Gordon, Sarah Pidgeon, Yerin Ha, Joshua Henry, Ashley Padilla, Curry Barker and Druski rounded out a guest list that could have stocked three different awards shows.

That’s the thing about TIME100 Next: it’s not a prediction. It’s a snapshot. These aren’t people who might matter someday. They’re people who already do, and the gala is just the moment everyone else catches up.

What the List Actually Means

It’s easy to be cynical about lists. Hollywood loves them, magazines love them, and every December brings a fresh avalanche of “30 under 30” and “ones to watch” roundups that mostly blur together. But the TIME100 Next franchise has stuck around for a reason: its picks tend to age well. Past honorees have gone on to win Oscars, headline stadiums, run companies and change policy. The list’s track record is the reason a gala like Thursday’s draws a room that full.

There’s also a practical side to it. For a young actor or musician, a TIME100 Next nod is a line on the resume that opens doors — it signals to studios, labels and brands that this person isn’t a flash in the pan. And for the audience, it’s a cheat sheet. If you walked into Thursday’s gala knowing only three names, you walked out with a dozen new artists to look up, new shows to watch, new songs to add to a playlist. That’s a pretty good night out.

The tributes during the evening drove that home. Hearing honorees celebrate each other — not agents, not managers, but peers — gave the night a warmth that awards shows sometimes lack. Nobody was reading a teleprompter thank-you list. It felt, by all accounts, like a room full of people who were genuinely glad to be there. In an industry that runs on jaded, that’s saying something.

One More Night to Remember

By the time the evening wound down, the photos told the story better than any speech could: Raye mid-performance, Joey King glowing in Miu Miu, Sombr and Alex Warren holding court with the music crowd, Eiza Gonzalez working the carpet like she owned it. A hundred rising stars, one room, one very New York night.

The 2026 TIME100 Next list was revealed back on September 30, but Thursday was when it came alive. And if the past is any guide, we’ll be seeing a lot of these faces for a very long time — on screens, on stages, on charts and, eventually, on the main TIME100 list itself. Thursday night was just the beginning. For a few of them, it might be the night they look back on as the moment everything tipped from promising to inevitable.

Source: Just Jared