Madelyn Cline makes teenage adventure worth staying with by making the friendships believable. We like her ease within an ensemble, especially in Outer Banks, though its scripts have not always given her enough to do.
Fi1m perspective
In Outer Banks (2020), Madelyn Cline’s Sarah Cameron helps make a treasure hunt worth following between discoveries. Alongside Chase Stokes as John B. Routledge and Madison Bailey as Kiara Carrera, she makes the friendships convincing enough to survive some indulgent plotting. We enjoyed spending time with this group because the actors made their company pleasurable without needing a fresh revelation every few minutes. Cline contributes to that ease without making Sarah seem separate from the ensemble. It is a good use of her, and the clearest reason we rate her.
Small parts in Stranger Things (2017) and Boy Erased (2018) preceded the breakthrough of Sarah. The role gave Cline a privileged young woman who crosses social lines, and a series in which the company matters as much as the search. Her rapport with Stokes is important here, because Sarah needs to feel like someone who belongs with these people. The casting works; the more difficult question is what the scripts allow her to do once that has been established.
On Outer Banks, where Jonas Pate is among her directors, Cline also handles the physical work of adventure drama. The writing is less helpful, sometimes giving the cast little beyond the next immediate problem. When that happens, the actors have to keep us interested until the next clue arrives, and they largely manage it. We would still like Sarah to be given more to think about; making the company agreeable should not have to account for quite so much of the pleasure.
Her subsequent film parts include Whiskey in Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) and Danica Richards in I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025). The former gives her another ensemble, while the latter puts her in the lead of a slasher revival. For a first look, we would choose Outer Banks, with reasonable tolerance for teenage treasure-hunt logic.
Biography
Madelyn Cline is an American actress and model. Born on 21 December 1997 in Goose Creek, South Carolina, near Charleston, she began her career as a child model with a local agency in Charleston and appeared in television commercials and print advertisements.
She briefly attended Coastal Carolina University before dropping out and moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Early roles included appearances in the series The Originals (2017) and Stranger Things (2017), and the film Boy Erased (2018).
Cline is best known for her role as Sarah Cameron in the Netflix series Outer Banks (2020–2026). She also starred as Whiskey in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022).
