Posted 59 minutes ago21 TV Actors Who Gave Such Funny, Heartbreaking, And Mesmerizing Performances In 2025, They Deserve An AwardTramell Tillman as Mr. Milchick in "Severance" Season 2 was one of the best performances of the year.by Nora DominickBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink There are some spoilers ahead! 1. Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch in The Pitt HBO Max The Pitt was my favorite show of 2025, so it's no surprise that Noah Wyle's performance as Robby tops my list of best TV performances of the year. Stepping back into a medical drama series after ER, Wyle doesn't miss a beat, commanding this talented ensemble cast. From the minute he steps on screen in Episode 1, Wyle's sheer charisma and drive to bring authenticity to what a medical TV show can depict is one of the strongest assets The Pitt has in its corner.
While Wyle is great all season, it's Episode 13 of the show's first season, titled "7:00 P.M.," that includes the performance that likely secured him the Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series. Consumed by grief, Robby breaks down sobbing, and it's there that the superhero facade of the character fully cracks for the audience. It's a masterful performance, and I cannot wait to see what Wyle does in Season 2. 2. Katherine LaNasa as Dana Evans in The Pitt HBO Max Overall, The Pitt has assembled one of the best ensembles on TV today. It's one of the show's greatest qualities. However, if I had to pick out just one other performance alongside Wyle's that knocked me over from this cast, it's Katherine LaNasa. An actor who has been working in Hollywood for years, LaNasa finally gets her big break with Dana Evans, a role that feels deeply lived-in. The highest compliment I can give LaNasa is that you can't tell where Dana ends and she begins. Dana is one of the beating hearts of The Pitt, and a lot of that is thanks to the mesmerizing performance LaNasa turns in from Episode 1 all the way through Episode 15 of the show's first season. LaNasa's performance earned her the Emmy Award for Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and it was one of the most heartwarming award show moments of 2025. 3. Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in Adolescence Netflix Adolescence was one of the best limited series of 2025, and it's thanks in no small part to Owen Cooper. Having never professionally acted before, then-13-year-old Cooper was plucked from obscurity when co-creator Stephen Graham, who also stars as Jamie's dad, wanted to cast an unknown actor for the role. And man, did it pay off so well. From the moment Adolescence begins, Cooper has the audience hooked. He's so talented that you probably have to remind yourself every five minutes that this is his first role. Cooper goes toe-to-toe with the heavy hitters in this stacked cast, giving a performance that I have thought about all year.
The first episode features a breathtaking performance from him, which only works so well because he's able to brilliantly balance the child-like qualities of Jamie with the sheer horror of what he has committed. I genuinely think Cooper gives one of the best debuts by a child actor of all time. So much so that he even sealed it with an Emmy Award. 4. Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in Andor Lucasfilm / Disney+ If The Pitt was THE best show of 2025, then Andor follows closely behind it. It was astounding what this Star Wars prequel was able to accomplish in the TV landscape, and part of it is thanks to Diego Luna's stunning performance as Cassian Andor. It's probably one of the greatest performances of the year, yet also one of the most widely overlooked. Luna has taken the character from Rogue One, which already had so much charisma, and made him an even deeper, more vulnerable character. So much so, rewatching Rogue One after the conclusion of Andor feels like a brand-new experience. Luna was great in the first season, but with Season 2, his performance reaches new heights, especially in scenes opposite Adria Arjona. I think his performance will go down as one of the best in the Star Wars canon. 5. Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma in Andor Lucasfilm / Disney+ Genevieve O'Reilly is a force to be reckoned with as Mon Mothma in Andor Season 2. Similar to Diego Luna, O'Reilly brought this character to new and exciting heights in 2025. She transforms the character from a powerful authority with a regal-like quality to a woman on the verge of sheer panic as she tries to stop the atrocities happening around her. O'Reilly has always been one of the unsung heroes of Andor, and in Season 2, she's given even more material that pushes her to give one of the best performances of the year.
Like Luna, the ensemble of Andor has been widely overlooked when it comes to awards season, especially the Emmys, and O'Reilly might be one of the biggest snubs from the whole bunch. Her speech in Season 2, Episode 9, where she urges the Senate to look in the mirror and come face to face with everything they've let happen. It's one of the best monolo