Nicki Minaj, Steph Curry, Taraji Henson, Kendrick Lamar And More Named Among TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People Of 2016

These people run the world! Time released its annual 100 Most Influential People list for 2016 on Thursday, April 21, and it celebrates innovators and icons in entertainment, sports, politics, tech and more! Each honoree is the subject of a short essay written by another notable public figure in their field.

Hollywood and showbiz favorites — Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicki Minaj,Quantico actress Priyanka Chopra and creator of Broadway’s Hamilton Lin-Manuel Miranda — grace four of the six covers. The other two feature Facebook cocreator Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan, and managing director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde.


Almost all the top presidential hopefuls for the 2016 election made the list, including Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and Republican candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. President Barack Obamaalso made the list with a touching essay penned by Charleston shooting survivor Jennifer Pinckney.

Entertainers including Kendrick Lamar, Melissa McCarthy, Charlize Theron,Dwayne “The Rock" Johnson, Ariana Grande and Gina Rodriguez, plus supermodel Karlie Kloss, took coveted space on the list for their majorly influential work. In the sports realm, athletes such as NBA star Stephen Curry, golf pro Jordan Spieth, UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, Formula One race car driver Lewis Hamilton and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt nabbed spots onTime’s 100.  

Jennifer Lawrence expressed just about everyone’s feelings for list-maker Adele. The Oscar winner wrote, “The way she is able to capture herself, and then in turn us, has turned her into a star that’s not a star we look at, but a giant star with its own gravity that we are drawn to. … Adele is a gift, an international treasure, but she’s also sweet, funny, intelligent and beautiful. Bitch.”

Vice President Joe Biden wrote about how Pope Francis’s six-day visit to the U.S. in September captivated Americans regardless of religion. "He’s electrified the world because he embodies the basic tenets of Catholic Social Doctrine that also cut across all great faith,” he said. “Everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity; we have an obligation to help the poor; we have responsibilities to one another and to our planet.”

The father of a transgender daughter, Wayne Maines, gushed about Caitlyn Jenner’s bravery in her entry. "Her victory in the decathlon provided a positive role model for our ­nation — and created a hero for me. Having the courage to come out at this stage of her life makes her an even bigger hero. … Because no matter where you come from, how famous you might be or how much money you have, letting America see you in such a vulnerable way is daring and admirable — not self-serving."

Empire cocreator Lee Daniels called Taraji P. Henson the “modern Bette Davis” in her dedication. “What I love most about Taraji P. Henson is that she’s fiercely loyal. During her audition for Empire, she told me she wouldn’t take the role unless Lucious was Terrence Howard,” he recalled. "She didn’t have the job yet, but she was standing there fighting for Terrence. That was the moment I knew she was Cookie.”

Here are some highlights from the list. You can see the full list on Time.com.

Adele

Singer, songwriter

Aung San Suu Kyi

Burmese politician

Aziz Ansari

Comedian

Mohammed bin Nayef

Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia

Priyanka Chopra

Actor

Hillary Clinton

Former U.S. Secretary of State, presidential candidate

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Writer

James Comey

FBI director

Tim Cook

Apple CEO

Ted Cruz

U.S. Senator, Texas, presidential candidate

Stephen Curry

Golden State Warriors basketball player

Leonardo DiCaprio

Actor, environmentalist

Pope Francis

Pontiff

Nikki Haley

Governor, South Carolina

Lewis Hamilton

Formula One driver

Lester Holt

NBC Nightly News anchor

Caitlyn Jenner

Activist, reality star

Kathleen Kennedy

Lucasfilm president

John Kerry

U.S. Secretary of State

Kim Jong Un

Supreme Leader of North Korea

Christine Lagarde

International Monetary Fund director

Kendrick Lamar

Rapper

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Actor

Palmer Luckey

Inventor, founder, Oculus Rift

Sean MacFarland

United States Army General

Angela Merkel

Chancellor of Germany

Yuri Milner

Venture capitalist

Nicki Minaj

Singer, rapper

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Actor, creator, "Hamilton"

Sérgio Moro

Brazilian federal judge

Barack Obama

President of the United States

Sundar Pichai

Google CEO

Reince Priebus

Republican National Committee chairman

Vladimir Putin

President of Russia

Paul Ryan

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker

Bernie Sanders

U.S. Senator, Vermont, presidential candidate

Jordan Spieth

Golfer

Alan Stern

Astrophysicist

Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister of Canada

Donald Trump

The Trump Organization chairman and president, presidential candidate

Xi Jinping

President of the People's Republic of China, General Secretary, Communist Party, China

Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan

Philanthropists, Facebook founder and CEO, pediatrician.

Source: Time/Us Weekly.

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