limelight
n.the center of public attention or interest. You are in the limelight when everyone is looking at you or talking about your work.
n.the focus of public attention or notoriety. Derived from a historical stage lighting technique, it is now used figuratively to describe high-profile visibility.
“The young actor is finally in the limelight.”
“After years of working behind the scenes, the scientist was thrust into the limelight by her groundbreaking discovery.”
“While some celebrities actively court the limelight to maintain their relevance, others find the constant public scrutiny to be an exhausting intrusion into their private lives.”
Usually appears in the singular and is almost always preceded by the definite article 'the'. Commonly follows the prepositions 'in', 'into', or 'out of'.
“But in 2016 he quietly disappeared from the limelight.”
“There are many good reasons why Burnley and West Ham are performing as Premier League tribute acts, slumming it in the Championship with the hope of a shot at the limelight once more.”
From lime + light.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.