The Academy Just Added 928 Members — Its Largest & Most Impressive Move Yet

The Academy's throwing a party, and we're all invited. Okay, technically, only 928 people are invited to become official members, which is still a historically large number of people for the prestigious organisation to roll out the welcome mat for. Judging by the announcement website, this is part of a larger push to diversify the members — who are responsible for determining little known things like the Oscars nominations — both by inviting more women to be involved in the voting process, as well as people of colour.

Of the new 2018 members, 49% are women, and include stars like Tiffany Haddish, Danai Gurira, Alison Brie, Mindy Kaling, Evan Rachel Wood, and Emily Gordon. Invitees range from actors to writers to animators to producers, made up of both Oscar winners and those who have never taken part in the award ceremony before.

As for men, some exciting invitees include Timothée Chalamet, Taye Diggs, and Daniel Kaluuya, but this new class of members wasn't just about gender. The Academy also highlighted the rise of members of colour, with 38% of 2018's invitees being POC.

Some of those who have been invited have already taken to Twitter to celebrate:

"Hey yo. I’m in The Academy," wrote The Big Sick writer and actor Kumail Nanjiani. "Hey fellow @TheAcademy member @emilyvgordon. What’s new?"

Let's hope this is a brand new start for the Academy, who had a rocky year after the expulsion of members Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Roman Polanski following accusations of sexual misconduct. The Academy president himself, John Bailey, was under investigation for accusations of sexual harassment, but was later cleared.

These 928 new members mean the Academy is ready to turn the page, and we can't wait to see what the newcomers have in store. See the full list here.