Best TV Performances of 2025

Odessa A’zion was like a husky-voiced tornado barreling into movies and television this year. On the film side, she’s a wonder in Marty Supreme. On TV, she’s the most entrancing thing about Rachel Sennott’s I Love LA, a whirlwind of chaos with untamable hair and a stolen Balenciaga. A’zion plays Tallulah, the bestie and also client to Sennott’s Maia, an aspiring talent manager. Tallulah is hoping to make it as an influencer, but she’s not quite driven or ruthless enough to make it big just yet. A’zion plays her with a natural charm that makes it clear why people are drawn to her, but adds in a hefty dose of vulnerability so it’s evident this girl is a little bit of an outsider. She might be incredibly messy, but you can’t help but root for her. That’s the magic of A’zion’s elastic face. —Esther Zuckerman

Roddy Ho is disgusting. He is crude and rude and sexist and all manner of gross. Christopher Chung as Roddy Ho, however, is a singular delight. This season of Slow Horses put a spotlight on Chung’s performance as the Slough House gang’s resident IT whiz. Chung was the star from the season’s very first scene, which featured a sweatsuit-clad Ho dancing his way to work along to (what else?) Robert Palmer’s “Simply Irresistible.” His dancing commute sees him harass multiple women and kicks off some fresh spy games with a near-death experience — but, more importantly, it shows off Chung’s honest-to-goodness moves. Chung, who has a real-life side hustle as a personal trainer in London, manages to make Slow Horses’ slimiest misfit into an absolute thrill whenever he’s onscreen. Roddy Ho forever. —Claire McNear

Fans of the Liverpudlian actor have been raving themselves hoarse over both his film and British TV work for years (we implore you to seek out not just the three This Is England series that extended the mods-and-sods universe of the 2006 movie, but also The Virtues, his equally great 2019 collaboration with Shane Meadows). To see Graham finally get his flowers on these shores for this devastating limited series, about the aftermath of a 13-year-old boy’s murder of a classmate, was a huge vindication. And while we’re blown away by deserving Emmy winners Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty’s work in that standout third episode, it’s Graham who truly anchors this drama about the corrosive effects of incel culture on young men. The moment he realizes that his child is actually guilty and reflexively recoils from him is gutting enough. Yet the way Graham plays this father’s confusion, protectiveness, anger, and genuine sorrow over what’s happened to his son is the emotional backbone of the entire endeavor. That long-building breakdown at the end is enough to leave you raw and in tears as well. —David Fear

There is no television character this year that seems like a better hang than Ethan Hawke’s Lee Raybon on Sterlin Harjo’s Oklahoma-set noir The Lowdown. Lee is a self appointed “truthstorian,” a journalist and bookstore owner who has a habit of getting in trouble for digging too deep into the muck of local conspiracies. Hawke plays Lee with a ragtag energy that’s absolutely infectious. You can see how he’s both a nuisance and a smooth operator, as the actor melds his years of heartthrob status with the rough edges of someone who has seen it all. The performance adds to an incredible year for Hawke, who is also phenomenal in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, playing a character in complete opposition to Lee: the midcentury composer Lorenz Hart. —E.Z.

Most people were probably introduced to Tom Pelphrey via his one-season arc on Ozark — his take on a lost-soul sibling in a downward spiral remains the highlight of that show. In Brad Ingelsby’s follow-up to Mare of Easttown, he gets the chance to truly flex his chops, playing a sanitation worker whose side hustle is robbing local trap houses with a small crew in Pennsylvania’s Delco region. There’s a personal aspect to his character Robbie Pendegrast’s crime wave, which involves his family and an old score that needs settling; things get even more complicated when one of their raids goes horribly wrong and he must bring a victim’s son into his already chaotic household. Pelphrey turns this morally conflicted criminal into a walking contradiction, capable of both incredible tenderness and violence. What really makes his work stands out is how deftly he nails the compartmentalization of someone who’s got to balance vengeance and survival, emotional ties with righteous fury. It’s one of the least fussy yet most layered TV performances we’ve seen on a premium-cable prestige drama in years. And keep your tissues handy for his turn in the justifiably praised Episode Six. —D.F.

Vince Gilligan is keenly aware of the power of Rhea Seehorn’s face, and he makes incredible use of it in Pluribus, where the Better Call Saul star plays Carol Sturka, a woman who suddenly becomes one of the few people on Earth able to feel unhappiness. The series makes it clear that Carol wasn’t a particularly peppy person before most of the planet’s human citizens were turned into a smiling hivemind, but the juxtaposition of the barely buried anger in her eyes and her neighbors’ newfound joy is powerful. Though it’s not just simmering rage that makes Seehorn great; it’s also her ability to hit a punchline. She’s our sardonic avatar, carrying skepticism on her shoulders, cracking jokes as she tries to figure out just what the hell is going on in this not-so-brave new world. —E.Z.

In a show that was often exactly as advertised in its title, Will Sharpe leapt off the screen as a paragon of nuance and subtlety. His indie musician Felix, boyfriend to Megan Stalter’s exuberant Jessica, was a fully realized human instead of just a manic pixie dream guy — sweet without being a pushover, diffident but self-assured, aloof yet tender. Sharpe played moments of sincerity with an edge, imbued with intellect and vulnerability lurking behind Felix’s eyes. In nearly every scene, he offered viewers a bit of much needed breathing room amid Jess’ histrionics. Previously best known for his appearance in The White Lotus Season Two as Ethan, tech bro husband to Aubrey Plaza’s Harper, and for playing a tour guide in Jesse Eisenberg’s Oscar-nominated dramedy A Real Pain, the London-born actor proved with Too Much that he can carry a series — even one that’s not centered on him. —Maria Fontoura

Tramell Tillman was already one of the big breakouts out of the initial season of Apple TV’s hit dystopian workplace comedy — he’ll forever by synonymous with the phrase “defiant jazz.” Season Two, however, is where Tillman gets to add new levels to his smiling corporate enforcer Seth Milchick. He lets you see the cracks in the armor as Milchick starts to question both Lumon Industries’ methods and the company ceiling he’s starting to bump his against. By the end, he’s left trapped in both the office bathroom and a prison of his own making. Tillman still gets his share of showstopping set pieces — that marching band sequence is a killer. But the moment we keep going back to comes in Episode Three, when Milchick is presented with a series of paintings intended to make him feel like a part of Lumon’s mythological backstory. His murmured “Oh, my” speaks louder than any cri de coeur. There are centuries of social history that play out in miniature in Tillman’s exchanges with his scene partner Sydney Cole Alexander. The actor simply plays the dented dignity and cascade of tamped-down emotions that Milchick, and thousands of workers in similar situations, would feel. Then he goes right back to work. —D.F.

Michelle Williams is one of the most open-hearted performers working today, and that is evident in Dying for Sex, where she plays Molly, a woman with stage 4 cancer who leaves her husband to explore her sexual desires. Too many other actors would only focus on the tragedy of this scenario. Instead, Williams leans into Molly’s humor, whether she’s figuring out that she likes to dominate men or losing herself to an afternoon of masturbation. Yes, Williams is also able to make you weep, but she does so with a delicacy that would be impossible to replicate. When you inevitably lose Molly, it cuts deep because this person feels so real in Williams’ hands. She turns Molly into your best friend over the course of the limited series’ run. —E.Z.

Has there ever been an actor so fully melded with one of their characters in the public consciousness as Noah Wyle is with Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch? Be honest: If you had a horrific accident with a meat grinder at home, you would fully expect Noah Wyle could arrive and save your mangled forearm. And so would we. Not only that, he’d do it with all the calm and focus of Dr. Robby, and the heart and gravitas of a man who’s seen every type of tragedy darken his emergency department door over decades on the job. It would be a dangerous thing for many actors to return to a genre well that made them a star years prior. But ER veteran Wyle is so invested in the characters and stories of his new show (he also writes, directs, and serves as executive producer), that past experience only brings his performance to new heights. Noah Wyle is Dr. Robby. There’s no separating the two, and we hope it stays that way for as long as he keeps making The Pitt. —M.F.