It was a year of monotony, dread, and the false promise of a return to normalcy that, as 2021 winds down, has jerked us back inside to a depressing pandemic reality with such sudden violence we might all be suffering from spiritual whiplash.
That’s a lot of pessimism to combat, which is why we’re grateful for a standout year of film and TV to shock us into feeling things again just when everything threatened to get numb.
Some of the actors on this list of 2021’s best film and TV performances have already earned Emmys and critics’ awards for their works. Some will likely be mentioned when the Academy Award nominations are announced this winter. Others are smaller, weirder, and just plain delightful—the kind of excellent work we’re grateful to have a platform to celebrate and give thanks for, especially now.
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There are 21 entries on the list, because that seemed like a good number in the year 2021 to keep things under control and prevent me from waxing poetic about the actors whose work I admired until the mentions tallied in the hundreds. They’re presented in no particular order or ranking, and I hope you’re able to take the time to check out some of the ones you may have missed.
Simon Rex - Red Rocket
To play a person who is such a prime example of toxic narcissism and have him somehow be irresistible requires a performer of unblinking charm and charisma. Simon Rex is undeniably that. Playing a former porn star who’s returned to his hometown, former MTV VJ and Scary Movie star Rex is perfect casting—there are those videos from his own past lending a bit of a meta experience to watching the film—but also unexpected casting. The actor’s chameleon-like career had started to fizzle in recent years; that this is such a great comeback story only makes the performance sweeter to watch.
Ann Dowd and Martha Plimpton - Mass
Like several of the performances on this list, I don’t see how you can separate the work that Ann Dowd and Martha Plimpton do in Mass. The film is not an easy watch—it’s about the parents of a school shooter who, years later, meet with the parents of one of his victims. But the work Dowd, as the shooter’s mother, and Plimpton, as the victim’s, produce on screen is extraordinary. You watch as they figure out what it is they want or need from each other, connect in unexpected ways as mothers, and grieve what was lost—even if they’re coming from what might seem like opposing sides of the experience.
Cecily Strong - Saturday Night Live
Cecily Strong has always been among the MVP performers at Studio 8H, but this year finally saw an overdue appreciation for just how sensational she is on SNL. Her standout work as Fox News’ foghorn pundit Jeanine Pirro proved how great of an impressionist she is, especially with that finale turn where she belts “My Way” in a tub of red wine. And her sketch character work remains unrivaled, a host of kooky weirdos and extremists that never fail to make at least one cast member break. Then there is what may be her crowning achievement of the last year: a brave, candid, searing, and hilarious “Weekend Update” appearance in which she shared her own abortion story in reaction to new restrictive laws being passed, all while dressed, absurdly, as a clown—reflecting the absurdity of the conversation and the lengths women have to go to make it “palatable” for others.
Keeley Hawes - It's a Sin
The HBO Max limited series It’s a Sin was remarkable for how it chronicled the AIDS crisis in London in the ’80s through new and unexpected lenses. One of the most powerful sequences came in the last episode, when a mother played by Keeley Hawes storms up and down the hallway of the hospital where her gay son is being treated, demanding to find out from the nurses what is wrong and how this could be happening to her boy. Hawes’ ability to flit between mercurial, confused, heartbroken, and in denial in the aftermath of the hospital stay makes for some of the most devastating TV of the year, but also the most necessary.
Andrew Garfield - Tick, Tick...Boom!
As you watch Andrew Garfield’s tour de force performance in the musical Tick, Tick…Boom!, you become increasingly incredulous that the actor had never sung in public before director Lin-Manuel Miranda cast him in this movie. He plays Jonathan Larson, the composer and lyricist who would eventually create Rent, at a time in his life as a struggling artist desperate to make the next great work and have his talents validated. Garfield is electric; a lit fuse of passion, hope, frustration, and seemingly boundless energy, and a fascinating portrait of someone realizing he needs to come down to earth and acknowledge the pain and complexity of the world around him in order to make his mark.
Natasha Rothwell - Insecure
There may not be another performer more capable of eliciting a full-on, physical laugh—the kind that contracts your abs and has you involuntarily doubled over—with one line reading, typically accentuated with the perfect gesticular flair. That Natasha Rothwell is simply that funny playing Kelli on Insecure would be one thing. But this new, and final, season of the HBO series has also given her a gorgeous storyline about growth and enlightenment that Rothwell nails with a surprising grace and nuance, ensuring that Kelli will never be sidelined as just the funny best friend.
Ariana DeBose - West Side Story
By now, with awards season whipping into a frenzy toward the end of the year, you’ve probably heard what an absolute powerhouse Ariana DeBose is in West Side Story, particularly for the zeal and precision she brings to “America.” But DeBose’s myriad talents are such that the showstopping number is just one of her character’s highlights. She brings titanic emotion to the film’s second act, a volcanic portrait of grief, resentment, and resilience that not only won praise from her co-star Rita Moreno (who earned an Oscar for playing Anita in the original film), but also makes this Anita undeniably her own.
Woody Norman - C'Mon C'Mon
In any film anchored by a child actor, there’s a risk that the young performer’s preternatural talent will veer so far toward precociousness that everything becomes too cutesy, or even twee. That risk was especially heightened in a film like Mike Mills’ C’Mon C’Mon, about an uncle (Joaquin Phoenix) who had been estranged from his nephew (Woody Norman) and, in caring for him while his mother tends to a family emergency, ends up learning more than he ever imagined about life, love, and connection. Norman manages to walk that tightrope of cuteness with impressive skill, delivering a rare and realized child-actor performance—and with the young Brit delivering a flawless American accent to boot.
Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle - PEN15
It is almost unbelievable how convincingly PEN15 writers/creators/stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle play characters based on tweenage versions of themselves. It’s more than just a parlor trick or a physical sleight of hand. The degree to which they spiritually transform into 13-year-olds—channeling their ticks, anxieties, outsized emotions, and joy—is transportive, nostalgic, and occasionally traumatizing for all of us who remember just how painful and impossible growing up seemed to be. They are virtuosos of big feelings, both in their storytelling and in their impeccable performances, especially in the spectacular final episodes of the series.
Thuso Mbedu - The Underground Railroad
In Barry Jenkins’ epic The Underground Railroad, newcomer Thuso Mbedu shoulders a task so challenging it should be impossible. There’s the breadth of injustice, violence, and heartbreak that her character survives, as she somehow summons the strength to face the next struggle with steeliness and even hope. Mbedu has the most expressive eyes on television, conveying fear, vulnerability, and power like a kaleidoscope of the human experience, lending a sensitivity to the horrors of a slave’s journey through the racist South in the pursuit of freedom.
Jamie Dornan - Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Jamie Dornan will likely be an Oscar nominee in the Best Supporting Actor category this year. Sadly, it will be for the wrong film. It’s not that Dornan isn’t good in Belfast; he’s exceptional as a conflicted father negotiating the tension between family, home, and safety during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. It’s that his turn in the delirious comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is a masterwork of Hot Idiot acting. The character type has never known such nuanced, hilarious brilliance—complete with a rousing song-and-dance prayer offering belted to the seagulls on the beach. It’s nonsense. Beautiful, brilliant nonsense.
Anders Danielsen Lie - The Worst Person in the World
The Worst Person in the World has a lot to say about relationships and what we want or need from them. It’s hopeful and romantic. It’s cynical and nihilistic. It’s often absurd and, even more frequently, upsettingly real. It’s selfish and it’s generous. Throughout all of that, you flicker between loathing and deeply identifying with its characters, chiefly Renate Reinsve’s Julie. But it’s Anders Danielsen Lie’s performance as Aksel, a lover who plays a pivotal role in Julie’s life at two different points, that I can’t stop thinking about. He’s a man fighting his own demons, and is in some ways toxic, and in others, a perfect partner. He’s also someone forced to realize that love, life, and adventure have an expiration date—so what did it all mean when that day comes?
Troy Kotsur - CODA
We are not prepared to divulge just how many times the Sundance winner CODA broke us down to heavy, heaving sobs. No movie this year was as emotionally pitched, but also as feel-good. Troy Kotsur plays the father to Emilia Jones’ Ruby, the only hearing member of her family. (CODA stands for Children of Deaf Adults.) He deftly portrays the guilt of a parent who relies on his child for so much, the frustration of trying to connect with a person you love but who you may never be able to truly understand, and the yearning to create a loving, happy, and safe home for his daughter. There is a scene where he attempts, in his own way, to appreciate Ruby’s gift for singing, even though he can’t hear, that makes me weep just writing about it now.
Kieran Culkin - Succession
The cycle of facial expressions Kieran Culkin makes once his character, Roman Roy, realizes he accidentally sent an illicit photo to his father may be the best seven to 10 seconds of TV this year. The entire spectrum of the human condition flashes across his face all in one lightning-fast sequence. It’s cruel and nearly impossible to flag just one performance from Succession as the best, especially after this standout third season. But the way in which the finale saw Culkin deepening his character beyond his typical, bumbling swagger was the episode’s biggest surprise. We finally see actual empathy from Roman—and then, in the climax, an overwhelmed, almost nauseated horror—that reminds you Culkin has always been doing tricky, meticulous work on this show.
Heléne Yorke and Drew Tarver - The Other Two
What I love about the structure of The Other Two is that it asks, “What if we did 30 Rock, but there were two Liz Lemons?” The HBO Max series takes the DNA of Tina Fey’s protagonist (hapless in life, work, and love, but cracking razor-sharp, pop culture-tinged jokes along the way), makes the character a millennial, and then multiplies it by two. Of course, it takes a pair of genius actors to pull that off, and The Other Two gets them in Heléne Yorke and Drew Tarver. The pair play siblings Brooke and Cary as they navigate the outrageousness of the entertainment world they’re both trying to break into, struggle for a sense of self-worth and romantic satisfaction, and along the way, try not to get dizzy on life’s carousel of earnestness and delusion. Yorke and Tarver shine in their characters’ respective storylines. Choosing whether I laughed harder at how Brooke handles sleeping with an athlete or everything that happens to Cary in “The Hole Episode” is like choosing a favorite child. And that’s the thing: You can’t. This is a perfect double act, and they deserve to be recognized as such.
Taylour Paige - Zola
“Y’all wanna hear a story about why me and this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” That question launched a series of 148 tweets in 2015 from A’Ziah “Zola” King, who was a stripper recounting a tale so wild and epic that it went viral and became to be known as #TheStory. Considering the twists and turns of King’s account and the extreme tones that the film adaptation, Zola, flutters between in an attempt to recreate it on screen, any performer cast in the lead role would need to be nimble enough to take the audience along for the ride, but prodigious enough to stay grounded as the plot reaches escalating levels of “can’t-make-this-up” insanity. Taylour Paige delivers a classic “star is born” type of performance in this breakout role: a Cinderella story unlike one Hollywood had ever seen.
Julianne Nicholson - Mare of Easttown
Watching the first few episodes of HBO’s Mare of Easttown, it’s hard to shake the feeling that something big is coming down the pike for Julianne Nicholson’s character, Lori. She’s the best friend to Kate Winslet’s Mare, a Pennsylvania detective trying to solve a series of disturbing kidnappings and murders that have rattled their tight-knit community. Nicholson was such an MVP in her various pivotal supporting roles over the years that, surely, there was some major acting showcase for audiences to brace for. And holy hell, did Nicholson deliver when that time came. Her seismic eruption as a desperate mother was all the more noteworthy for how strategically she used stoic silence to just absolutely devastate you. Winslet and co-stars Evan Peters and Jean Smart gave showier performances, but this is one that blew everyone who watched it away.
Anthony Ramos - In the Heights
I don’t know if it was just that audiences weren’t ready to head back to theaters quite yet, if controversy over the casting overwhelmed things, or if people really just aren’t interested in movie musicals. But it’s surprising and depressing that In the Heights, an inventive and wondrous film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical, fizzled out so quickly. No buzz. Little end-of-year love. It deserves far more than that quiet fate, especially when it comes to Anthony Ramos’ lead performance: a triumph of singing, dancing, rapping, and being handsome and charming on screen that should have cemented him as one of the year’s biggest stars. Thankfully, the movie still exists on HBO Max and is still spectacular, as is Ramos in it. It’s not too late!
Jean Smart - Hacks
Jean Smart’s career-best work in Hacks might be the most universally celebrated performance of the year—I’m not sure it’s possible to tally how many awards and accolades she earned for it—and for good reason. The role of a domineering, aging comic with a filthy mouth and little patience could so easily dip into caricature and cliché, but Smart brought a seasoned dignity to the role of Deborah Vance. What’s more, she knew just when to show the cracks in the armor, and how much empathy and vulnerability to let peek through. It’s tempting to view Hacks as a love story, one of trust and friendship between Deborah and Hannah Einbinder’s young comedy writer, Ava—and it wouldn’t be wrong to do so. But it’s also a towering character study that proves Smart is among the greatest working actors of our time.
Amy Schumer - The Humans
Amy Schumer is somewhat of a revelation in The Humans, Stephen Karam’s film adaptation of his Pulitzer-winning play, in which a family confronts their proverbial ghosts over a stressful Thanksgiving dinner in New York. It’s not that her talent is a surprise—Inside Amy Schumer is one of the best sketch shows of the last decade, Trainwreck announced the arrival of a thrilling new comedy movie star, and she has a Best Actress Tony nomination for her Broadway debut. It’s that her character, Aimee, in The Humans showcases new depths of her talents. She’s self-deprecating and hilarious, but also broken and defeated, a weight that Aimee struggles to carry but also seems resigned to. It’s incredibly affecting work, a standout in an ensemble delivering some of the best film acting of the year.
Jennifer Coolidge - The White Lotus
Jennifer Coolidge earning the best reviews of her career for her performance in HBO’s The White Lotus felt like a vindicating moment for fans of her uproarious, peculiar, and scene-stealing comedy turns. It takes a certain genius to pull off those kinds of roles, though they’re often dismissed or written off. But with The White Lotus, her ability to elicit laughs with a simple grimace or unusual vowel pronunciation weren’t the only goods on display. So, too, was her deep well of pathos. Those emotions erupt in some of the most exhilarating scenes of the year—a funeral on a small ship, a breakdown during a date—reminding all of us not just what Coolidge is capable of, but that it’s OK to feel that big and that intensely, too.
