Julio Torres, Parker Posey, Claire Danes and Adam Scott Celebrate New York Magazine’s ‘Culturati 50’

Culture might be more easily seen than defined, a point driven home by the crowd at New York magazine‘s party celebrating its Culturati 50 list on Wednesday night.

Editor in chief David Haskell was joined by host committee and cover stars including Parker Posey, Claire Danes, and Rachel Zegler. Greeted by a photographer upon her arrival at Manuela in SoHo, Posey gamely fanned her skirt and posed in front of a printed curtain, explaining, “It’s all about the billowing.”

True to the reason for the play-it-forward celebration, Posey’s instinct was to take a closer look at the finished product.

The Vox Media-owned outlet highlighted 50 actors, performers, artists, and creatives who shaped entertainment and culture this year. “Severance” lead Adam Scott, “The Gilded Age’s” Ben Trotter, “Overcompensating’s” Benito Skinner, “Liberation” playwright Bess Wohl, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, “Lonely Crowds” author Stephanie Wambugu, musician The Dare, and “Somebody Somewhere’s” Jeff Hiller were among the guests on hand. 

Haskell hopes the Culterati list will become an annual expression of New York magazine’s version of culture. “You could obviously just build it up with just musicians or movie stars. For us, it was really important to cross all the disciplines that we consider to be interesting [to] culture,” he said. “And to find people who had really great years. It’s not that they’re just incredible directors or performers, but that this year they did something interesting.”

Noting how so much cultural material that debuted this year was not developed anticipating a second term for President Trump, Haskell added that context has lent new relevance to projects such as Broadway play “Liberation,” which deals with abortion rights.

Asked about the cultural moment that New York magazine’s former Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi is having [with her tell-all “American Canto” that details her sexting affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.], Haskell said, “It’s a sad situation.”

Several guests spoke of the political overshadows on culture. Writer and comedian Julio Torres said that people need to realize “how symbiotic culture and politics are, how one informs the other and how impossible it is to isolate one from the other. It’s interesting to see the tension between politics and resistance to the culture. Every time I talk about this, I sound like a beauty queen, saying, ‘I want world peace.’”

After Danes swung by to introduce herself as “a major fan,” the “Color Theories” show creator and “Problemista” filmmaker continued, “During the first Trump wave, there was this idea that the arts will save us. Now as artists, we find ourselves wrestling with the idea that we can’t isolate our politics from our art.”

Now developing “Color Theories” for HBO, Torres has also been commissioned with his friend Martine Gutierrez for the 2026 Whitney Biennial, and the pair are considering “something underwater.”   

Asked what’s driving culture, Skinner said, “I think it’s a fear of fascism. We’re doing more art because we’re terrified and we need outlets for that. People want it more than ever. That may be a beautiful result of a terrible time.”

Skinner is working on the second season of “Overcompensating” for Amazon Prime, and said that viewers are in for Spring Break and a Valentine’s Day episode “that is kind of nasty.” “It feels really raw. We’re raising all the stakes in the show, but still maintaining this nostalgic world that is grounded in college,” he said. “But the emotions are higher — more sex, more drugs, hopefully, more laughs. We’re going for it.” 

Posey said the New York magazine assignment attuned her antenna to culture and heightened her appreciation for it. “We see cultural things and we’re moved by them,” said Posey. “But not always are we asked to carry it within the year to express it in a journalistic piece.”

Being part of the cultural moment that the hit HBO show created didn’t really change her perspective. “That’s the kind of thing that when it happens to you, you kind of disassociate from it,” she said. “To be on the inside of entertainment [as a Culturati] was so much fun. That’s the baseline of what I do. Having people imitate me in a backyard, that was joy. Joy.”

Ready for the Dec. 17 premiere of Season Two of “Fallout,” actress Frances Turner echoed that sentiment. “We’re in a moment where cultural moments are more important to hold onto and really savor. Dive into culture and wrap yourself in culture to get more disconnected. Sometimes it feels like these things that connect us are these cultural moments,” she said, naming the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art as favorite escapes in the city.

Two influencers and relative newcomers to the city, Sophie Silva and Kalita Hon — who are not among this year’s Cultarati 50 — suggested the interplay at the party best exemplified New York’s culture. (They were guests of Buick, which sponsored the bash with Johnnie Walker.) “Interactions in passing are everything,” Silva said. “I’m from L.A., technically. If you’re in your car all the time and do self-checkout at the grocery store, you don’t want to interact with anyone. Something about New York generates those conversations that can drive culture.” 

Hon added, “All you have to do is walk out your door.”