Best Supporting Actress in TV Nominees (Screen Awards 2025)

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The first annual Screen Awards are here to celebrate the best movies, TV shows, and anime! A panel of editors, critics, and industry professionals from ScreenRant, Collider, CBR, and MovieWeb worked together as the Screen Awards Jury to choose the nominees. They reviewed a whole year of great entertainment and narrowed down each category to just five finalists. You can find a complete list of nominees at the Awards Hub.

As CBR’s Movies & TV editor and critic, I watched a lot of great shows and movies this year. When it comes to the nominees for Best Supporting Actress in TV, five performers truly stood out. Even though they weren’t the main stars, their memorable performances stayed with me long after I finished watching.

Let’s dive right in. Here are the nominees for Best Supporting Actress in TV.

Carrie Coon (The White Lotus)

The third season of Mike White’s popular HBO series, The White Lotus, known for its dark humor and focus on the lives of guests at a fancy resort, moved its setting to Thailand. Like the previous seasons, it featured a talented cast including well-known stars and up-and-coming actors, with Carrie Coon being a standout performer.

Sarah Coon portrays Laurie Duffy, one of three friends who have known each other their whole lives. Their relationship is a complicated mix of affection and annoyance, making it both awkward and fascinating to watch. Laurie, a lawyer recently going through a divorce, joins her friends Jaclyn, a famous actress, and Kate, a suburban housewife, at a resort. Throughout their stay, the women playfully tease each other, share secrets, but ultimately remain close due to their long history and genuine care for one another.

Coon gives the most subtly complex performance of the season, brilliantly showing how closeness can turn into jealousy, competition, and bitterness, even while love still remains. The highlight is the final scene, where the actor, known for their powerful monologues, delivers a deeply vulnerable speech that perfectly captures the complicated and painful connection between the three characters in a single, heartbreaking moment.

Jennifer Coon received an Emmy nomination for her work on The White Lotus, bringing her career total to three nominations, including previous recognition for Fargo Season 3 and The Gilded Age. However, many viewers best remember her for her breakthrough role as Nora Durst in The Leftovers, where she first showcased her incredible ability to deliver powerful monologues.

Erin Doherty (Adolescence)

In the third episode of the psychological crime drama Adolescence, Erin Doherty plays Briony Ariston, a forensic psychologist having a particularly difficult day. She’s tasked with interviewing Jamie, a 13-year-old boy suspected of murder, and enters the story at its most intense moment. The four-part series offers a stark look at violence against girls committed by young boys, and is notable for being filmed entirely in single, unbroken shots. Doherty’s episode is perhaps the most gripping, focusing solely on Briony’s interrogation of Jamie as she shifts between professional distance and empathy while trying to determine what happened.

I was completely captivated by Doherty’s portrayal of Briony. Even though she wasn’t on screen for long, Doherty gave her so much depth and made her feel like a real person. What really struck me was Briony’s composure – she held it together so well until the very end, and then her breakdown was incredibly powerful and moving. It was a performance that really grabbed me and left me feeling deeply affected.

Emerald Doherty received an Emmy Award for her work on Adolescence, after first gaining recognition for playing Princess Anne in two seasons of The Crown. She also appeared with Stephen Graham, who created and starred in Adolescence, in the series A Thousand Blows.

Fiona Dourif (The Pitt)

Fiona Dourif immediately makes her character, Cassie McKay, one of the most interesting people in HBO’s The Pitt. This popular medical drama follows doctors during a particularly chaotic shift at a busy Pittsburgh emergency room. Each episode takes place in real time, covering just one hour – a technique similar to the show 24, which makes the already intense genre feel even more urgent and realistic.

At first, McKay seems like a totally put-together, capable person, but then you catch a glimpse of an ankle monitor and suddenly everything clicks differently. As the show goes on, you learn she’s a single mom, newly sober, and really battling to get her son back. It’s complicated by a really tense relationship with her ex and his new partner – it adds so much depth to her character and her struggles.

Dourif portrays McKay with instant warmth, making us understand her strong sense of fairness comes from past hardship, not a desire to be a hero. Her passionate dedication – whether she’s investigating a possible trafficking situation or dealing with a difficult patient – feels genuine, relatable, and powerfully moving. It’s a performance full of compassion, realism, and careful attention to emotional detail.

Before starring in The Pitt, Barbara Crampton was well-known for her role in the Child’s Play movies and the Chucky TV series (which sadly ended). Interestingly, she acted alongside her father, Brad Dourif, in Chucky, and he also makes a quick appearance as the father of her character in The Pitt.

Katherine LaNasa (The Pitt)

The strength of The Pitt lies in its talented cast working together, and Katherine LaNasa’s portrayal of Dana Evans is central to that success. Dana, a seasoned ER charge nurse, is the heart of the team and represents its experienced core. She’s a practical and caring leader who keeps the emergency room functioning smoothly, balancing both compassion and firmness.

LaNasa portrays Dana as a smart, funny, and deeply caring person. Her colleagues turn to her when they’re struggling, whether it’s with a personal crisis like a pregnancy and miscarriage, or just navigating the hectic hospital environment. She’s a calming influence, especially for the newer doctors. However, LaNasa plays the role with subtlety, hinting at the emotional toll the job takes on Dana without fully showing it.

In Episode 9, Dana’s composure finally breaks when a patient attacks her. This shocking event marks a turning point, with LaNasa brilliantly portraying the subtle understanding that even the most dedicated caregivers aren’t invincible. It’s a powerful and very human performance.

LaNasa received an Emmy Award for her work on The Pitt, adding to a career filled with notable roles in popular shows like ER, Big Love, Longmire, and The Deuce. She can also be seen in the recent series Daredevil: Born Again, where she plays Artemis Sledge.

Patricia Arquette (Severance)

Viewers were immediately hooked by Patricia Arquette’s chilling performance as Harmony Cobel (also known as “Mrs. Selvig”) in Severance. Even after being removed from Lumon Industries at the end of Season 1, her unwavering loyalty to the company and its beliefs remained unsettling. While Season 1 was full of unanswered questions and mystery, Season 2 gives Arquette more opportunity to explore Cobel’s character and add depth to her motivations. The episode “Sweet Vitriol” is a prime example, revealing Cobel’s origins in a seaside town where she first became dedicated to Lumon. It also unveils a major twist: Cobel was actually involved in developing the severance procedure itself.

Patricia Arquette’s character, Cobel, spends much of the second season appearing to assist Mark and Devon, but her real motives remain unclear. Arquette portrays Cobel as enigmatic and composed, keeping her true feelings hidden while occasionally revealing subtle hints of vulnerability. It’s a remarkably controlled performance that fits perfectly with the show’s intricate, puzzle-like narrative. Arquette is a highly acclaimed actress, having won an Oscar for Boyhood and Emmys for Medium and The Act. She’s also received two Emmy nominations for her work on Severance.

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2025-12-17 23:10