It’s no surprise that stars who captivate the stage with their voices can do the same thing on a screen. Over the years, many country singers have dabbled in acting, even raking in prestigious nominations and earning critical praise.
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Keep reading for three of the best-known country stars who’ve crossed over to the screen, both on TV and in movies.
Dolly Parton
While Dolly Parton is undoubtedly best known for her iconic voice, the singer is no stranger to acting. Her first movie appearance came in 1980 with the release of 9 to 5, a movie for which she also wrote the theme song.
“I was a little unsure myself, but like I’ve always said, my desire to do things is greater than my fear of it,” Parton told Tim McGraw on his Beyond The Influence Radio on Apple Music Country in 2021. “So I just leaped right in there like I do everything else because I knew if I said I’d do it, I would do it. I would make it work.”
Parton added, “So it did turn out to be pretty good. So that was when I got a taste of it and I thought, ‘Well, what took me so long?’”
With that in mind, two years later, Parton earned critical acclaim for her role in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, even snagging a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical). Rhinestone, Parton’s 1984 flick with Sylvester Stallone, was less successful critically and commercially, though her songs from the movie—”Tennessee Homesick Blues” and “God Won’t Get You”—were Top 10 hits.
Parton once again received critical praise for her Steel Magnolias performance in 1989, and followed that up by leading another film, Straight Talk, four years later. From then on, Parton’s film appearances were largely cameos, with the superstar largely foregoing acting for her music career.
“I love country music and I started out with that dream of just being a songwriter and a singer, and wanted to be on the Grand Ole Opry and wanted to travel the world, but as you go along, you learn new things… and you think, ‘Well, I can make something more out of that,’” Parton said. “… So I just always left myself open to working in open and honest ways, the best that I could, and I loved doing it. It just seemed to fall naturally for me.”
Reba McEntire
The Queen of Country herself has often brought her talents to the screen. After a role in the 1989 film Tremors, Reba McEntire’s long-held interest in acting blossomed.
“I always wanted to [act]. Because when you’re up there singing, the video runs in my mind—the movie of the song. That’s why I love videos so much,” she told Esquire in 2020. “I’d never had an acting class. We didn’t have plays. Our school in Oklahoma was so small… we didn’t have a marching band or anything. We had a little country western band that played for special events, but other than that, I never took an acting class.”
McEntire went on to appear in films including North and Buffalo Girls, before turning her focus to TV. There, she helmed her self-titled series for six seasons, even earning a Golden Globe nomination for her role.
Parts in Malibu Country and Big Sky followed, before McEntire’s next sitcom, Happy’s Place, premiered in 2024.
In April 2025, McEntire told Variety that her acting career “made me a better entertainer by far.
“The more experience and the different things you get to be involved in, you learn,” she said. “You learn from other people you’re working with, whether it’s directors or producers. I’m very observant of how they do things. I want to improve every time I take on a new project.”
Tim McGraw
When he’s not selling out stadiums or releasing hit songs, Tim McGraw has been known to step into an acting role. After bit parts in a couple of projects, McGraw’s acting breakout came in 2004 in the film Friday Night Lights. It was a role he had to fight for.
“When I read the script, I was like. ‘I know that guy.’ So, I called to find out about the script, and they said they’d already cast it,” McGraw said on the TL’s Road House podcast in May 2025. “… Pete Berg, who directed it, didn’t know who I was from Adam. So, I tracked him down and said, ‘Just give me an audition.’ And he said, ‘Well, I’ve already cast it.’ I said, ‘Just let me try.’”
McGraw ended up impressing the director and swiping the part from the unnamed actor who’d already been cast. From there, McGraw starred in Flicka, The Kingdom, Four Christmases, The Blind Side, Country Strong, and Tomorrowland in the years that followed. A years-long break from acting followed, and was only broken when McGraw and his wife, Faith Hill, signed on to star in the Yellowstone spinoff, 1983.
“I love doing it, and it’s a good spot for me to find. I love to just go in and find that spot and dive into it,” McGraw told Backstage Country in March 2025 of acting. “But it’s not unlike doing a record or making an album. I think that when you’re in a studio… you’re singing about a character that is walking through a scene. I think the same way when I’m doing a character in a movie. It’s my job to go in and make people interested in how this guy’s life is going to turn out.”
Photo by: Art Streiber/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
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