Viola Davis and Alicia Keys are among Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2017

Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Ed Sheeran, and Alicia Keys are among Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2017.

The list is comprised of celebrities, politicians, and world leaders who have been influential over the past year. Notable figures including President Donald Trump, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Chance the Rapper, Ryan Reynolds, and John Legend are also featured.

Editors at the magazine worked with alumni from previous lists to pay tribute to the current members.

"It's not every day you're working with writers like Taylor Swift, Tim Cook and Mikhail Gorbachev," assistant managing editor Dan Macsai says. "But that's what's so great about the TIME 100. It's not just a list of the world's most influential people - it's a conversation among them."

Among the tributes is Meryl Streep's to her Doubt co-star Davis, in which she praises her for the path she has carved for women.

"When you spend your life embodying other lives, if you are successful, the one that belongs to you can silently slip behind," Streep writes. "But Viola Davis' hard-won, midlife rise to the very top of her profession has not led her to forget the rough trip she took getting there. And that is why she embodies for all women, but especially for women of color, the high-wire rewards of hard work and a dream, risk and faith..."

Oscar winner Brie Larson writes about her "brave friend" Emma Stone, who won the Academy Award this year (17) for La La land, insisting it's hard to imagine the film industry without her in it.

"As an actor, Emma is brave, devastating, hilarious, real, complex, charming and so much more," she writes. "Her Oscar-winning performance in La La Land is just the latest example."

"But Emma takes on significant roles off-screen as well," she adds. "The selfless friend. The wise psychiatrist. The fearless leader. The coolest girl at the party. (She's even the intense soccer mom, cheering you on, no matter what, at the top of her lungs). I know that she has played all of these roles in my life. And for that I'm lucky to call her my friend..."

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift pays tribute to her friend Ed Sheeran for his "fighter" spirit, insisting he does not let setbacks in his career deter him from moving forward.

"A few years ago, in a rare moment of admitting feeling defeated, Ed said to me, 'I'm never going to win a Grammy'," she writes. "Yes, you are, I said. You're going to sweep the whole thing one of these years. It was a few weeks later when he met me in a dance-shoe store in London, where I was picking out rehearsal outfits, and said, 'You have to hear this'. It was a song he'd just finished called Thinking Out Loud, which went on to win Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2016..."

And Kerry Washington celebrates Alicia for her authenticity.

"Last year, Alicia sparked a #NoMakeup movement," she writes. "She expressed her desire to go makeup-free, released her single In Common with bare, gorgeous cover art and began making public appearances with the same beautiful commitment. Why? Because Alicia doesn't hide her truth, her flaws, her dreams or her journey."

"It is that authenticity and vulnerability that endear her to us," she continues. "We are drawn to her honesty, we respect and adore her, and in doing so, we move closer to embracing our own true selves."