Lesser known actors/actresses who have the talent to get Oscar nominations if given the right role

Tatiana Maslany. If you saw her in Orphan Black, she can do anything.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson

For his performance as psychopathic drifter Ray Marcus in Tom Ford's thriller Nocturnal Animals (2016), he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Taylor-Johnson later starred as military commander Ives in Christopher Nolan's spy action epic Tenet (2020), and assassin Tangerine in David Leitch's thriller Bullet Train (2022). As part of Sony's Spider-Man Universe he will star as another Marvel character, Kraven the Hunter, in a 2023 self-titled film.

Margo Martindale

Andy Serkis

Jenny Slate

Hong Chau

Sheila Atim

Another vote for Margo Martindale

Carrie Coon was outstanding in a featured role (as Affleck's sister) in GONE GIRL. But I find her really lackluster in GILDED AGE.

Not a fan of Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I find him hammy and obvious in almost everything (and boring to watch in everything else). Yes, he's got an amazing body, and good for him for showing it off. But he needs to pick better projects.

I like Jenny Slate a lot as a personality. But when has she ever given an award-worthy performance?

Ann Dowd

I could see Jenny Slate doing well in some of well written dramedy movie. It would be hilarious if Jenny Slate or someone other former SNL cast member who isn't as well known as overrated Kate McKinnon managed to get an Oscar nominated role and their career took off more.

There's a character actress Mary Holland who mostly takes roles as weirdos, annoying women, or wimpy women in various TV shows and movies. But, she seems like someone who could do well in a dramedy type role similar to Jenny Slate.

Margo’s been busy with TV work but maybe her role in Cocaine Bear will garner notice. She’s outstanding in everything she does. (And is a terrific person, so would love to see her a contender.)

Beth Grant.

[quote] Tatiana Maslany. If you saw her in Orphan Black, she can do anything.

For a bit, it seemed like that movie Stronger was set up as Oscar bait for her and Jake Gyllenhaal. But, that movie flopped hard. I agree, she's terrific and given the right role could easily get an Oscar.

No one saw The Nest (it was released in 2020 when no one was paying attention), but Carrie Coon was terrific in it. That should have been her Oscar nomination.

You could probably make a great list made only of British actors, all waiting for their Olivia Colman style breakout.

Slightly off topic, but Tatiana Maslany is tragically wasted on that horrific She Hulk show

R12 I totally agree. That show was a total letdown.

Julianne Nicholson

Ella Purnell

Michelle Phillips

Karen Grassle

Heather Locklear

Mariah Carey

Julianne Nicholson is a good one! Her career has been a slow burn… never the big star like many of her peers but does lots of great work and I expect her to continue to get cast in quality projects.

But she was outstanding in Mare of Eastown and I could see it.

Ann Dowd was also who I thought of first. Phenomenal actress who I never really noticed until The Leftovers.

Julia Garner

Meh, by the end of Ozark, Julia’s schtick was tiresome to me, but I guess I’m an outlier.

Aaron Taylor Johnson? For being a piece of ass?

R21, I think that’s more an Ozark problem than a Julia Garner problem, but I got tired of her on that show, too.

Yes aunt Lydia will have an Oscar nomination

Well Julianne Nicholson certainly won't be winning anything for her humiliating nude scene in "blonde"

Loved Zoe in plot against America. But I thought clickbait was terrible trash, with a twist that didn't make a lick of sense. I agree that She said looks bland. The subject is tv movie or doc material not a feature film.

The Nest was an interesting film. Nice commentary on how social mobility is not always a good thing. Coon was great in it as well as gone girl.

R7 Holland interests me because she seems like an oddball type of actress you would find in the 1970s. Strange and quirky, I'm definitely watching her career closely.

Judy Greer

Kelly McDonald

Gil Birmingham

Not sure if he qualifies as "lesser known" but I'm sure a nomination is in his future = Ben Foster

[quote]Loved Zoe in plot against America. But I thought clickbait was terrible trash, with a twist that didn't make a lick of sense. I agree that She said looks bland. The subject is tv movie or doc material not a feature film.

I thought it was odd as fuck that she went from a well down miniseries to an awful trashy miniseries like Clickbait.

Tatiana Maslany had the role of playing the younger Helen Mirren’s real life character in The Woman in Gold and was inspired casting and completely mesmerizing in a small, but crucial role. She held the screen perfectly and flawlessly slid into being an early 20th century Viennese woman of privilege. She’s got an amazing skill set that should make her the present day Meryl Streep, but I guess she just hasn’t gotten the cinematic role to launch her properly. But when she does I can’t wait to see the parts and performances she nails and awards she’ll get.

I don’t think Hollywood and the Academy will ever forgive Zoe’s for her grandfather’s sins enough that she’ll get nominated, let alone awarded.

Kelly MacDonald has always seemed on track to have a bigger career, but it’s never really happened. It’s not because of lack of talent or even lack of opportunity. She may just be happy at the level of fame she has, which is still greater than most actors could think of having.

R32, no one is going to punish Zoe because of her grandfather, who died almost two decades ago and earned an extra Honorary Award on top of his competitive Oscars only a few years before that. Almost everyone involved in the black list is dead, and it’s not like people like Ed Harris and Amy Madigan, who refused to clap when Kazan won his award, are going to take it out on Zoe.

[quote]Holland interests me because she seems like an oddball type of actress you would find in the 1970s. Strange and quirky, I'm definitely watching her career closely.

I agree, she seems to have the acting style of people from past eras. She was a weird drama iindie movie called And Then There Was Eve. Her role was quite small, but had a serious tone which nailed quite well. I could see her being someone that could succeed in a drama role if directors and writers look past some of the comedy stuff she has done.

^I meant to type "who could succeed" instead of "that".

[quote]Kelly MacDonald has always seemed on track to have a bigger career, but it’s never really happened. It’s not because of lack of talent or even lack of opportunity. She may just be happy at the level of fame she has, which is still greater than most actors could think of having.

I also thought years ago she would have a very big career.

Viola Davis

Olivia Williams

Paddy Considine (much better known now finally because of House of the Dragon)

Elle Fanning

Jodie Comer

I could kind of see Sandra Oh pulling out an amazing Academy Award level movie performance at some point.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is decent enough, but in the end he's little more than just a hot slab of beef who is a tolerable actor.

Kraven the Hunter will be make or break for him in terms of becoming a major movie star, and I doubt he can pull it off (Kraven does not have the fanbase that Venom does).

Matthew Macfadyen; in fact, he had the right role a couple of years ago with "The Assistant", but the movie was barely released.

Brendad Ickson

Riz Ahmed is always good in his many films, but his role in VENOM was awful, it wasn't his best US accent and he was terrible villain. Riz was excellent in The Night Of HBO series (he won an EMMY for that role) and he did get an Oscar nod for Sound Of Metal, he lost to Anthony Hopkins.

Seems his behind the scenes nonsense is catching up with him, he doesn't have any major roles coming up.

Riz was set to do a UK series about a Pakistani family who were living in the UK for 30-40 years, he was writing and directing. The production shut down. The reason, Riz ripped off the entire premise from a South Asian student's thesis. The story gets even more convoluted, a famous Indian female director was involved in Riz ripping off the student. The student who wrote the thesis was her professor husband's student! The husband teaches at a major NYC university. Another person told me the husband was fired.

[quote]I could kind of see Sandra Oh pulling out an amazing Academy Award level movie performance at some point.

I agree. It would be similar to Allison Janney having various accolades for TV work and then getting an Oscar.

If Kerri Russell can get a movie role that lets her give the type performance she did on The Americans, I think she could win an Oscar.

I think it's funny that after setting the West End ablaze for a few years, and then not materializing in movies, it took doing a Western with Kevin Costner to propel Kelly Reilly back into the conversation. She has the chops.

Not lesser known but Brad Dourif. He's not getting any younger at 72 and should have won best supporting in 1975 for OFOTCN and nominated/won for Wise Blood in 1979. Character actors deserve better than say your typical leading man.

Madeline Brewer, best know for her performance of Janine in The Handmaid’s Tale, but also amazing in Orange is the New Black can really disappear into a role and I think she has great potential.

I know he has a Best Supporting. actor Emmy but would argue that Tobias Menzies is still not really recognisable to the average film goer.

He’s done some incredible work on tv, like in the Terror and the Crown, but for some reason hasn’t done comparable roles in films. I can totally see him pulling off an astonishing performance but he just needs to get a meaningful role.

Keri Russell (and Nathan Fillion, for that matter) was excellent in Waitress. I have rewatched that movie several times and really felt she nailed a small town, abused, down on her luck waitress.

Matthew McFayden is excellent and hot as hell. I have watched him in several of his projects, and he always seems to nail it.

Agree about Tatiana, Sandra Oh, Carrie Coon. Coon kind of came out of nowhere for me a few years ago (at least I never noticed her before that). I could see her getting a nom.

It blows my mind that Himesh Patel is getting so many good Hollywood roles - he popped up at the end of Enola Holmes 2 playing Dr Watson and I would expect he'll be in the sequel. I can only ever see him as Tamwar from EastEnders and he was awful, it's some weird black magic that has given him a career IMO

Himesh is one of the go-to actors that Mike Flanagan always gives a role to in his yearly/semi-yearly "horror/thriller" shows. He's gotten a lot of exposure through those shows/limited series.

I think you're confusing him with Rahul Kohli R53...

Oh man, you're right r54, thank you for the correction.

Now I'm embarrassed.

Angourie Rice and Eliza Scanlen are very talented and have the potential to be Oscar nominees someday.

Tara Reid. I see her as a great public intellectual like Susan Sontag or Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Tara could use a good roll.

I think Paddy Considine did a great job in "House of the Dragon" and I could see him doing greater things in the future, up there with Daniel Day-Lewis, etc.

DL Favorite Oliver Jackson-Cohen. He was very good in various roles, like The Man in the Orange Shirt, and those Mike Flanagan series.

As an aside, I wish Oscar voters would take more chances. I feel like they have a set of actors and actresses that they deem worthy and ignore other equally good and frequently better performances from lesser known performers.

R49 I could see her breaking out more after Handmaid's Tale ends.

Oscar voters need to stop placing weight on how a film does when selecting best performances.

Just because a movie didn’t catch fire doesn’t negate the power of a great performance.

And voters need to resist a good story… like when they finally award that actor who has been winless for decades, or they crown the actress in her big comeback.

[quote]It blows my mind that Himesh Patel is getting so many good Hollywood roles - he popped up at the end of Enola Holmes 2 playing Dr Watson and I would expect he'll be in the sequel. I can only ever see him as Tamwar from EastEnders and he was awful, it's some weird black magic that has given him a career IMO

Wasn't he an awkward teen on Eastenders? Yes, he's acting was awful. In the US, his breakthrough role was in that Beatle film.

Pretty sure not many Americans watched Eastenders, it was shown in the US on our public broadcast channels. IIRC, Eastenders started airing in US TV sometime in the 1980s.

The BBC decided not to renew their contract with PBS, the series was cancelled last year. In the US, the Eastenders episodes were years behind the UK episodes.

I don’t know about “lesser known”, but Sterling K Brown is somebody I would be watching.

I'm actually kind of surprised that Sterling K. Brown hasn't already done some Oscar bait type movie.

Samantha Robinson

For some reason, I think that Chloe Moretz could get a great role and play the hell out of it.

Jessie Buckley. Thread closed.

Daniel Roebuck

Michelle Monaghan

Chloe Sevingny

I could see Martha Plimpton as a veteran actress type who gets an Oscar nod with the right role.

Martha Plimpton. She’s been memorable in so many things.

Jessie Buckley and Chloe Sevigny are Oscar nominees!

The Jennifer Lawrence movie Causeway that just came out has a couple acclaimed theater actors who could qualify: Linda Emond, Jayne Houdyshell and Stephen McKinley Henderson.

Carrie Preston, Amanda Plummer, Rainn Wilson, Michelle Yeoh, Katey Sagal, Uzo Aduba

Diane Venora. Juilliard trained. Played Hamlet under Joseph Papp’s theater direction. Tends to be viewed more as a ‘character actor’ who worked with J. K. Simmons who later won an Oscar for Whiplash. If given the right role, she’d hit a grand slam.

[quote]The Jennifer Lawrence movie Causeway that just came out has a couple acclaimed theater actors who could qualify: Linda Emond, Jayne Houdyshell and Stephen McKinley Henderson.

I watched Causeway over the weekend and I thought it was decent movie that could have been fleshed out more especially Linda Emond's character as the mom of Jennifer Lawrence's character.

A Tracy Letts / Carrie Coon double nomination would be cool most likely well-earned.

Linda Lavin

Gaby Hoffmann has acted since she was a child and is fairly well known. She's someone who with the right indie movie role could easily get an Oscar nod.

OP, Zoe Kazan sucks. I've seen her in a few stage productions and she was inept.

Agree about Oliver Jackson-Cohen - he should've been an Emmy contender for Haunting of Hill House if Netflix had submitted it as a limited series instead of a regular drama. And Jessie Buckley is the best part of anything she's in, even crappy things.

Lisa Eichhorn

Treat Williams

Veronica Cartwright

R82, they're all in their 60s or 70s. It still could happen for any of them, but it's not like any of those actors are promising newcomers.

R79 She has one of the hairy bushes in Hollywood.

I could see Gaby Hoffman getting a serious Oscar bait role in the future.

Ron Cephas Jones

John Carroll Lynch is damn good.

Zoe Kazan should fight off Emily Blunt and Rooney Mara to play Dorothy Kilgallen.

R88 kazan I can definitely see in the part. Mara and blunt would be terrible, they're too cold. Dorothy was scrappy and witty, not some repressed ice bucket. I doubt she would have to fight either of them for the role unless the casting directors were complete morons.

Zoe Kazan is a good actress and has the look but she’s too mousy to play Dorothy Kilgallen

Well, she sucked in every show I've seen her in, R90.

Zoe Kazan was quite good in The Plot Against America.

Maybe she's better on tv, where she doesn't have to have the skills of a trained actor on the stage.

Tuesday Weld, shame she quit.

R90 who would you cast instead?

R87 he was amazing as the creepy fake father in the house zero tv series

My vote for the first on the OP's list.

You know how the Oscars are.

Won't they be surprised!

Actually it was called no end house. My mistake.

It is not surprising that nobody has mentioned M's untalented daughters.

Where and how did Christine Baranski get so popular now? She performed completely nude on stage back in the day and no one noticed. She is Juilliard trained, but so are many other Juilliard character actors are as well. I wonder who she did the casting couch dance with to get her recent good roles??

Mind you, there is very intense competition for female character actresses. Hmmmm?

Casting couch? She had a good but unspectacular career prior to the Good Wife and, when she knocked that out of the park, got a sequel and then Gilded Age.

Cecily Strong

There's this woman... one of those faces. The name just absolutely escapes me.

R101 she’s so repulsive to me. I’ll never get the love for her on here.

R104, Baranski specializes in WASPs of a certain age who are either bitchy, boozy, or both. It shouldn’t be that shocking why she has a lot of fans on DataLounge.

Kit Connor.

R103 You don't even remember your own daughters name. Harvey enabler!

Tom Burke is probably the best of British actors in his age group. He’s a bit too polished slick , as most of the drama school trained Brits are, but unlike most of them he retains enough rough edges to surprise.

Dick Delaware for "Cum Dribblers 4".

Interesting, how nobody mentioned me. I'm enjoying my Oscar nomination bitches.

Alfre Woodard Kimberly Elise Anika Noni Rose Sanaa Lathan

Guy Pearce. And he'll win the first time he's nominated.

[quote] Diane Venora. Juilliard trained. Played Hamlet under Joseph Papp’s theater direction. Tends to be viewed more as a ‘character actor’ who worked with J. K. Simmons who later won an Oscar for Whiplash. If given the right role, she’d hit a grand slam.

She's someone who should have a bigger career.

Sam Reid, who should probably be the next James Bond.

His career is pretty inconsistent, but he's generally the best thing in everything he's in.

Sam Reid.

Hope Davis

r44, why are you talking about Riz Ahmed in this thread? He ALREADY has an Oscar.

Jizz Ahmed

[quote][R44], why are you talking about Riz Ahmed in this thread? He ALREADY has an Oscar.

WTF are YOU talking about? Riz Ahmed didn't get an Oscar for the film he was nominated for, Sound of Metal.

Riz, and the director Aneil Karia, got an Oscar as a consolation prize for their ridiculous long form music video, The Long Goodbye.

I agree with several of these, especially Olivia Williams. She just acted rings around everyone in AN EDUCATION (which was pretty remarkable in a film that made Carey Mulligan a star and included such fine actors as Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson, Peter Sarsgaard, and Rosamund Pike), and the next year she got an even better part in the criminall underseen THE GHOST WRITER where she again knocked it out of the park. but she's not been much seen since then, and was criminally not given enough to do on the last season of THE CROWN (though one hopes she gets to show her stuff for the final season, which will likely focus a lot on Camilla).

Others I would like to see go up soon 9either because they have never or have not in a good long while):

*Alfre Woodard (probably the best older actress around today not to have one--sorry, Glenn and Michelle)

*Patricia Clarkson

*Anya Taylor-Joy

*Toni Collette (probably the best middle-aged actress around today who has yet to have one)

Toni Collette had an Oscar nod for The Sixth Sense. I wish she would have had one for Hereditary.

[quote]Toni Collette had an Oscar nod for The Sixth Sense. I wish she would have had one for Hereditary.

Hereditary? looool

It's extremely rare for a horror film to get nominated, let alone win an Oscar, especially a horror film with so much gore.

I feel asleep during Hereditary and what I did see of it was awful.

Toni Collette is really good in the recent comedy The Estate with Ana Faris & Kathleen Turner. Good to see filmmakers making something that throws political correctness out the door. I may be overrating it because so much comedy made in recent years is so bland.

Patricia Clarkson's been nominated

Bel Powley