We’ve scoured candidates from the past year months of television and come up with just 12 actors that we believe have a shot at an Emmy nomination for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Eight of them will make it, but at this point, we’d only bet on one of them, “The Handmaid’s Tale’s” Bradley Whitford. That’s because none of the other seven nominees in last year’s field qualify this time around.
Granted, in this same category, Giancarlo Esposito landed a nod in 2020 for “Better Call Saul” and for his character in “The Mandalorian” in the Guest Actor category. He should be good here then, right? And John Benjamin Hickey‘s performance in “In Treatment” is too good to ignore, right? And in this weak field “The Crown’s” Tobias Menzies has a better than average shot, we’d assume? Maybe? Yeah, we’re still just betting on Whitford. [Posted May 4]
Likely
Tobias Menzies, “The Crown”
John Benjamin Hickey, “In Treatment”
Giancarlo Esposito, “The Mandalorian”
Bradley Whitford, “The Handmaid’s Tale”
Possible
John Lithgow, “Perry Mason”
Jonathan Bailey, “Bridgerton”
Michael K. Williams, “Lovecraft Country”
Anthony Ramos, “In Treatment”
Chris Sullivan, “This is Us”
Asia Kate Dillon, “Billions”
O.T. Fagbenle, “The Handmaid’s Tale”
Max Minghella, “The Handmaid’s Tale”
Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of the entertainment industry's most respected journalists and critics. Based in Los Angeles, he's the only current awards expert who previously worked on Oscar campaigns at a major movie studio. Over the years, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Vox, among others. He also co-founded the entertainment news site HitFix, which spawned a legion of influential Emmy and WGA Award-winning alumni.
