Who Actually Deserves an Emmy Nomination This Year?
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Every year, we ask ourselves the same questions about the Emmy Award nominations. If The Bear is a comedy, then why am I crying? The Handmaid's Tale is still airing? Do I even remember what shows I watched this year? So, Instead of rehashing the usual takes on why I predict the Emmys voting body with award Jeremy Allen White with another Emmy for playing chef Carmen Berzatto on The Bear, I took the time to list who I believe should win this year—regardless of their actual chances to receive a nomination tomorrow.
Below, you'll find entries from The Pitt, Severance, The Studio, Andor, The Bear, The Righteous Gemstones, and more of Esquire's best TV shows of 2025. Some of the actors listed below may still walk away with a trophy on Emmys night come September 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California. I sincerely hope they do! But in the event that these well-deserved performers go unrecognized by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, this is our chance to give our favorite actors their flowers.
No series blew me away more this year than Severance. The second season followed up one of the best cliff-hangers of all time in the season 1 finale with a sophomore effort that not only answered some of my most burning questions, but built upon everything I loved about this ingenious sci-fi workplace drama. If anyone ever asks me to recommend a current TV series, I say Severance every time.
Honorable mentions: The Pitt, Andor, The White Lotus, Paradise, The Agency, and Industry.
If there’s one show that can give Severance a run for its money this year, it’s The Pitt. The first season of the highly celebrated medical drama was one of the most pulse-pounding and emotional stories of emergency healthcare work that I’ve ever seen on TV. Created by ER’s R. Scott Gemmill, The Pitt is basically HBO’s prestige TV version of ER. Noah Wyle (also of ER fame), is the anchor that holds everything together. He doesn’t just lead the medical center through one tragedy after another, he’s also giving the best performance of his career so far. Read our interview with Wyle here.
Honorable mentions: Adam Scott (Severance), Sterling K. Brown (Paradise), Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us), Diego Luna (Andor), and Michael Fassbender (The Agency).
Did the voters not see Helen Mirren give it her all in two shows this year? She was one of the largest reasons why I kept returning to 1923 every week as the shotgun-wielding Cara Dutton. Then, she pulled double family matriarch duty by starring as the batshit Maeve Harrigan (Cara Dutton, crazy version) in MobLand. Not only is it due time to award the best of Taylor Sheridan’s TV empire, but it would feel quite silly to ignore how much Mirren entertained us this year.
Honorable mentions: Other than Britt Lower (Severance) in my honorable mentions, Variety doesn’t even include Keira Knightley (Black Doves), Marisa Abela (Industry), Kelly Reilly (Yellowstone), or Karen Fukuhara (The Boys) in their projected nominations list. Instead, the outlet lists Kathy Bates (Matlock), Keri Russell (The Diplomat), Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Melanie Lynsky (Yellowjackets). No shade to those amazing actresses, but I just can’t award the underwhelming Yellowjackets and The Handmaid’s Tale and anymore.
It felt a little strange to say that Severance was the king of TV and then pass up Adam Scott and Britt Lower’s nominations to actors on other shows, but the Supporting Actor trophy simply must go somewhere in Lumon offices. Despite Adam Scott’s true turn as a leading man in season 2, Severance’s ensemble-heavy plot also stars Trammell Tillman, John Turturro, Chrstopher Walken, and Zach Cherry. If I had to choose just one (and I do, sadly), Tillman is the clear choice. Mr. Milchick is the role he was born to play.
Honorable mentions: Turturro, Walken, and Cherry (Severance), Walton Goggins and Tayme Thapthimthong (The White Lotus), James Marsden (Paradise), Charles Edwards (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power)—R.I.P. Celebrimbor!—and Paddy Considine (MobLand).
This is another tough category, but folks around the Esquire office were dead-set on giving Genevieve O’Reilly her flowers for playing Mon Mothma on Andor. According to Variety’s predictions, the galactic senator isn’t expected to even receive a nomination. Instead, the voters are more likely to choose Katherine LaNasa (The Pitt), Carrie Coon and Parker Posey (The White Lotus), and possibly even Patricia Arquette (Severance). All fine picks! But did you hear Mon Mothma’s senate speech? It’s the most inspiring thing I heard from any politician—real or fictional—all year. Read our interview with O’Reilly here.
Honorable mentions: Katherine LaNasa (The Pitt), Taylor Dearden (The Pitt), Isabela Merced (The Last of Us), Dichen Lachman (Severance), Patricia Arquette (Severance), Carrie Coon (The White Lotus), and Parker Posey (The White Lotus).
The Guest Actor award is for actors who appear in one episode—or even just a single scene. No drama had better guests this year than The Last of Us. Partly, because the season was so haphazardly pieced together that even Pedro Pascal only featured in a couple episodes. But that disarray may win them a few Emmy Awards, as the short performances from Joe Pantoliano as a man bitten by the infected and Kaitlyn Dever as the new antagonist who—spoiler alert—kills Joel, were some of the year’s best.
Honorable mentions: Jon Bernthal (Daredevil: Born Again), John Noble (Severance), Gwendoline Christie (Severance), Catherine O’Hara (The Last of Us), and Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets).
In our rankings of the best TV shows of 2025 so far, our senior entertainment editor Brady Langmann wrote, “When I finished The Studio, I ran to a meeting and loudly (slash obnoxiously) declared it the best comedy of the streaming era.” Once I finally got around to it, it was clear why. There’s a lot working in The Studio’s favor—Seth Rogen, Hollywood parody, people playing fictional versions of themselves like Curb Your Enthusiasm—but its real strength lies in picking apart just what makes movie studios tick nowadays. Where FOX News hosts may lazily joke that everything is too woke, The Studio shows film executives freaking out in their conference rooms while planning the Kool-Aid movie because they’re worried that they may actually be perceived as not woke enough. Read our cover story with Seth Rogen here.
Honorable mentions: The Rehearsal, Hacks, The Righteous Gemstones, The Bear, Abbott Elementary, and What We Do in the Shadows.
A lot of amazing comedies debuted in 2025. Nathan Fielder in The Rehearsal was the only show that could render me speechless. Every week, as Fielder hilariously tried to fix the airline industry, recreate the life of Sully Sullenberger with giant puppets, or even stage an entire fake singing competition show, I sat staring at my TV just thinking, Nathan, you are a goddamn genius.
Honorable mentions: Seth Rogen (The Studio), Jeremy Allen White (The Bear), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows), Kayvan Novak (What We Do in the Shadows), Danny McBride (The Righteous Gemstones), and Benito Skinner (Overcompensating).
We should just retitle this award the “Jean Smart Award for Comedic Excellence." Get this: Smart has won this award for every season of Hacks. If she’s on TV playing Debra Vance, then this award is hers. Frankly, I can’t see the trend stopping this year.
Honorable mentions: Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary), Kathryn Hahn (Agatha All Along), Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face), Kristen Bell (Nobody Wants This), Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), and Wally Baram (Overcompensating).
We may see Goggins nominated for both Supporting Actor (Drama) and Supporting Actor (Comedy) this year, but it’s his comedic role as Billy Gemstone in the final season of The Righteous Gemstones that deserves recognition this year. Gemstones is packed to the brim with zany characters. You could throw Adam DeVine, John Goodman, and Tony Cavalero in here just as easily as Goggins, but every scene with Baby Billy exudes silliness. If you want to really drive home that The Bear isn’t a comedy (and critics always do), then award one of the funniest guys on TV this year instead.
Honorable mentions: Ike Barinholtz (The Studio), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear), Matty Matheson (The Bear), Tyler James Williams (Abbott Elementary), Harrison Ford (Shrinking), and Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live).
Okay. Look, I know I just complained that The Bear isn’t a comedy. And when I say that Liza Colón-Zayas should win this award, it’s equally as contradictory because there’s nothing about her starring episode, “Napkins,” that is ha-ha funny. But goddamn. I’m not the one that submits this show for Comedy, so don’t get angry at me. As much as I love the cast of Abbott Elementary, I have no qualms saying that Colón-Zayas gave one of the greatest performances in season 3 of The Bear that I’ve ever seen.
Honorable mentions: Janelle James and Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary), Kathryn Hahn (The Studio), Hannah Einbinder (Hacks), and Jessica Williams (Shrinking).
Among a host of actors playing fictional versions of themselves on The Studio—shout-out Martin Scorsese, Anthony Mackie, and Ron Howard—Dave Franco and Zoë Kravitz steal the show in the two-part finale. Basically, the two guest stars pretend that they are high out of their minds on mushrooms during an important CinemaCon presentation. Where Franco is mostly in his element here—the man has appeared in too many bro comedies to count—Kravitz is a delightful surprise.
Honorable mentions: Bradley Cooper (The Righteous Gemstones), Julianne Nicholson (Hacks), Jamie Lee Curtis (The Bear).
Adolescence is a heavy favorite to win at this year’s awards show, but I’m putting all my eggs in The Penguin’s basket. The Batman spin-off should serve as the new pinnacle for superhero-adjacent TV, and a lot of its success stands on the shoulders of its exceptional cast.
I could write four more paragraphs here, but I’ll take this space to say that I hope Colin Farrell, Critistin Milioti, and Deidre O’Connell sweep the Limited Series categories this year. The Penguin was campy, silly, and one of the most compelling character studies I’ve seen on TV in a long time. In The Penguin, Farrell is completely transformed. Milioti’s villain is a long way from her role in How I Met Your Mother, and O’Connell insane performance as Oz Cobb’s mother maybe deserves two Emmys instead of just one. Read our interview with Milioti here.
I hope Owen Cooper (Adolescence) takes home the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series. The 15-year-old is easily the most impressive emerging talent among all the actors up for nominations this year, and he found the perfect little slice of televised drama to show off his chops. Still, I can’t hide that I was absolutely in a state of glee over The Penguin every week last fall. Oz Cobb, I love you, man.
Honorable mentions: Presumed Innocent, Disclaimer, American Primeval, Brian Tyree Henry (Dope Thief) and Betty Gilpin (Three Women).
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