Life as a working actor seems like it must be a constant hustle, always looking to book their next role. When the work pays off and the stars align, it seems like some actors are everywhere we turn, channel/streamer-wise.
As audience members, we aren’t privy to the tricky schedule juggling, the crazy commutes, and pages of scripts to keep straight when working multiple projects. We just get to enjoy some of our favorite people doing what they do best. A lot.
So, here’s us taking a moment to salute the folks who we love to see on all the shows, all the time.
Dakota Fanning – Ripley, The Perfect Couple, All Her Fault
Dakota Fanning has been a book-lover’s dream lately, appearing in three high-profile literary adaptations in the past two years. She’s also had two movies — The Watchers and Vicious — come out in that time.
For her work on Netflix’s Ripley (based on the Patricia Highsmith series) in 2024, Fanning garnered nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the Emmys, the Golden Globes, and the Critics Choice Awards.
Later in 2024, she took on the murderous role of Abby Winbury on another Netflix adaptation, The Perfect Couple. In 2025, she and Sarah Snook anchored the Peacock hit limited series, All Her Fault, which was the most-watched original series launch for the streamer.
She’s currently lighting up the big screen with The Sun Never Sets and has a new untitled thriller series in the works at Apple TV.
James Marsden – Paradise, Your Friends & Neighbors
After substantial runs on Westworld and Dead to Me, Marsden turned his attention to a certain blue hedgehog and has only recently burst back onto the television landscape with a couple of fascinating series.
On Hulu’s Paradise, he plays Cal Bradford, the President of the United States in a post-apocalyptic context, but only in flashbacks, as he’s murdered in the premiere. Even dead, he appeared in every Season 1 episode and a good chunk of Season 2’s as well.
Next up, he joins the cast of Apple TV’s Your Friends & Neighbors Season 2 to complicate the life of fellow listicle member, Jon Hamm, as a new affluent neighbor whom Hamm’s character, Andrew Cooper, will probably burgle eventually.
Necar Zadegan – Mayor of Kingstown, The Rookie, CIA
Some people get really good at a certain kind of role. Over her very busy career, Necar Zadegan has played doctors, special agents, a president, and even a queen. But it’s as a lawyer that she really brings it.
Her first two starring roles were as ADA Scarlett Leon on Fox’s Rake and high-powered attorney Delia Banai on Bravo’s Girlfriends Guide to Divorce.
Currently, she holds down TWO Assistant District Attorney roles on different shows. On Paramount+’s Mayor of Kingstown, she plays ADA Evelyn Foley, while on ABC’s The Rookie, she recurs as the highly divisive ADA Vivien Eckert.
Clearly not one to rest on her screen credits, Zadegan has also joined the cast of the new FBI spinoff series, CIA, as Deputy Chief of Station, Nikki Reynard.
Harrison Ford – Shrinking, 1923
With the gravelly voice that still makes a Working Girl’s heart go pitter-pat, Harrison Ford shows no signs of slowing down even now, in his 80s.
He’s currently playing Dr. Paul Rhoades on Apple TV’s Shrinking Season 3. The character’s Parkinson’s Disease continues to progress, and Ford digs into his curmudgeonliness and demonstrates how heartfelt can still be sharp and witty.
In 2025, he starred in the second and final season of Paramount+’s 1923 as Dutton patriarch, Jacob, as he weathers blizzards, ambushes, and takeovers to preserve the family ranch.
Next up? Perhaps another return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a kinder, gentler Red Hulk/Thaddeus Ross? Ford is on record saying he’d like to romp in that playground again.
Helen Mirren – 1923, Mobland
Matriarch, thy name is Mirren. Dame Helen Mirren commands the spotlight with dignity, poise, and more often than you’d expect, a firearm of some sort.
On 1923, she ruled the ranch as Cara Dutton, quick to unload a shotgun into any intruder — two or four-legged — threatening her land or family. 1923’s series finale in 2025 dropped a week AFTER her other series, Mobland, premiered, also on Paramount+.
As Maeve Harrigan on Mobland, Mirren brings a chilling calculation to her trademark competency, playing her own game in the midst of a mob war. She will stop at nothing to achieve her objectives.
With Mobland renewed (and four more novels in the Thursday Murder Club series ripe for adapting into more films), Dame Helen doesn’t lack for dance partners these days or ever.
Jason Clarke – Murdaugh: Death in the Family, The Last Frontier
From Marshal to murderer, Jason Clarke was all over the streamers in October 2025.
Premiering the same week, he starred on both Apple TV’s short-lived The Last Frontier and Hulu’s true crime drama Murdaugh: Death in the Family.
On The Last Frontier, he was Frank Remnick, an Alaskan U.S. Marshal, tracking escaped convicts from a downed prisoner transport plane while also investigating the cause of the crash. He even rides a snowmobile across a cement floor in the finale.
To balance out the heroism of Remnick, Clarke tackled the role of Alex Murdaugh, the corrupt financier who thought killing his wife and son would distract from the imminent indictments. It did. But only until he was convicted, and then they indicted him anyway.
Fun facts: Murdaugh: Death in the Family was based on Mandy Matney’s 2021 Murdaugh Murders Podcast and the SIXTH television retelling of the case.
Patricia Arquette – Severance, Murdaugh: Death in the Family
It’s been a minute since Arquette’s seven seasons as Allison Dubois on Medium, but she continues to portray fascinating characters with hidden depths.
On Apple TV’s Severance, she dominates her space as Harmony Cobel, a powerful but damaged product of the Lumon Industries culture.
From the hard-nosed, unreasonably demanding manager of the severed floor to a victim of a restrictive and fundamentalist family, Cobel never fails to surprise with the layers the show unveils.
In the tragic role of Maggie Murdaugh on Murdaugh: Death in the Family, critics praised Arquette for her portrayal of a woman trapped in a life she thought she wanted, only to discover how wealth and privilege rob people of their humanity.
Zach Cherry – Fallout, Severance
Zach Cherry pivoted from his early performance career in improv comedy to a series of regular television and film roles, including the recurring MCU character, vlogger Klev.
He is most recently recognized for Prime Video’s Fallout, where he plays the naive and optimistic Woody Thomas, whose status is ambiguous at the end of Season 2.
On Apple TV‘s Severance, Cherry develops a more pronounced backbone as Dylan George, a team member working in Lumon’s Severed Floor.
From a highly compliant, reward-driven lackey to a confident, conspiratorial revolutionary, Dylan’s character arc has been an inspirational spark in a strange and convoluted world. In 2025, Cherry was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Severance.
Julianne Nicholson – Hacks, Paradise
Julianne Nicholson is the consummate creative chameleon, always physically recognizable, but so diverse in her performances that it gaslights the audience.
From cinematic appearances like Weird Al’s mother, Mary, on Weird: The Al Yankovic Story to long-running series-regular roles like Detective Megan Wheeler on NBC’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Nicholson demonstrates a range and versatility perfect for parachuting into any scenario.
On Paradise, she exudes inhuman efficiency and focus as Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond, a tech billionaire responsible for the creation of the bunker project. Traumatized by the death of her son Dylan, she sacrifices everything for Paradise.
Meanwhile, on HBO Max’s Hacks, you’d be hard-pressed to realize that Dance Mom, aka Mary Alice, is the same person. As Dance Mom, Nicholson is another sort of extreme.
Mary Alice starts out as a fun, wholesome self-taught performer, brought in as a light segment on Vance’s talk show. Success opens up a whole world of crazy, self-destructive behaviors, and scored Nicholson an Emmy win as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
Fun fact: She was also nominated as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Sinatra on Paradise at that same Emmys.
Jon Hamm – The Morning Show, Your Friends and Neighbors, Landman, Grimsburg
Jon Hamm will always be Don Draper to me and a generation of O.G. Mad Men Fanatics, but the man’s allowed to try new things. (Of course, the fact that he made an uncredited appearance in the stinger scene of 2010’s The A-Team movie also endears him to me 4EVA.)
Hamm plays a major role on Apple TV’s The Morning Show Season 3 as Paul Marks, a rich tech oligarch, in what seemed like a pat single-season arc. Delightfully, he returns in Season 4, putting on his white hat to help Jennifer Aniston’s Alex Levy rescue Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley Jackson from Belarusian authorities.
His involvement in The Morning Show Season 4 was necessarily limited as the first season of Hamm’s new series — also on Apple TV — Your Friends and Neighbors filmed around the same time.
On Your Friends and Neighbors, Hamm stars as Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a hedge fund manager who loses his job and turns to stealing from the homes in his rich neighborhood to maintain the facade of wealth for his family and social circles.
Coop’s escapades uncover secrets in every home. TV Fanatic spoke with Hamm’s co-star, Amanda Peet, and the show’s creator, Jonathan Tropper, about Your Friends and Neighbors Season 2, which premiered on April 3.
None of this even takes into consideration his work on Landman and Grimsburg in 2025, putting him even higher on this list of actors carrying heavy loads.
Nicole Kidman – Scarpetta, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Lioness
Once a queen of the silver screen, Kidman’s move to television has been no less regal.
After major roles on Big Little Lies, Lioness, and Nine Perfect Strangers, she’s currently anchoring the television adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta novel series on Prime’s Scarpetta as the title character, a forensic pathologist and chief medical examiner.
Meanwhile, on Apple TV, she works a different aspect of the human condition, mediating the relationship between Elle Fanning’s Margo and her baby daddy/college professor on Margo’s Got Money Troubles, premiering April 15.
And because Nicole Kidman’s work is never done, we’ll also see her on the return of Lioness this October.
Scott Speedman – Grey’s Anatomy, RJ Decker
With one appearance on Grey’s Anatomy Season 14 Episode 17, “One Day Like This,” Scott Speedman launched his character, Dr. Nick Marsh, into the Grey’s Anatomy-verse, returning as a regular cast member in Grey’s Anatomy Seasons 18 and 19, before easing back to a recurring, but still significant, role.
In 2024, Speedman tackled a dramatically different role on Peacock’s horror series Teacup, playing James Chenoweth, a Georgia carpenter desperate to protect his family from a mysterious threat.
Right now, we’re loving him as the titular private eye RJ Decker as he switches out his scrubs for tropical shirts and sun tan lotion.
Georgie Murphy – Small Achievable Goals, Gen V, Stumble
Before sprouting her unusually hair-raising superpowers on Prime’s spin-off to The Boys, Gen V, Georgie Murphy hit it big north of the 49th parallel with the CBC show, Small Achievable Goals, where she represents the Gen Z demographic as Chelsey, a young and optimistic co-worker supporting central characters, Kris and Julie.
If the leap from Canadian podcast creative to streaming misfit Supe wasn’t extreme enough, Murphy added to her exposure this past year as a regular cast and team member of NBC’s Stumble.
Murphy’s Sally is the Heådltston Buttons’ most positive and adorably oblivious flyer. Her ambition to pursue a career in Pet Detective work is completely in keeping with her worldview, and endears her to no end to another listicle entry, Taran Killam’s Boon E. Potter.
Len Cariou – Boston Blue, American Classic
As Henry, the eldest patriarch of the Reagan family, Len Cariou appeared 293 times on CBS’s Blue Bloods between 2010 and 2024. He reprises the role on the Blue Bloods spinoff, Boston Blue, on Season 1 Episode 13, “Beautiful Broken Things.”
Henry Reagan, a product of old-school police training and experience, carries with him values and personal trauma that often conflict with modern sensibilities. Joining the NYPD in 1952, he left a legacy of law enforcement that endures through three generations of his descendants.
On MGM+’s American Classic, Cariou plays another legacy founder, Linus Bean. Linus is the aging father of Broadway star Richard Bean, and his granddaughter, Miranda, also dreams of performing.
Linus Bean and his late wife founded their town’s theater, The Millersburg Festival Theatre, where, on American Classic Season 1, Richard plans to stage a groundbreaking production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.
Complicating Richard’s plan to have Linus perform the integral character of The Stage Manager is Linus’s descent into dementia. Endearingly, he comes out as a gay man on nearly a daily basis.
Kaitlin Olson – High Potential, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Abbott Elementary, Hacks
Kaitlin Olson has made a career out of playing characters that defy expectations.
On ABC’s High Potential, she stars as Morgan “Don’t-Call-Me-Gifted” Gillory, LAPD cleaner-turned-consultant, who uses her encyclopedic knowledge, powers of observation, and outside-the-box problem-solving skills to assist the police with their cases, all while raising three children and trying to find her missing first husband.
On HBO Max’s Hacks, she portrays Deborah Vance Jr., better known as DJ, the daughter of the famous and wealthy comedienne and product spokesperson. Raised in luxury and wanting for nothing, she has grown over the seasons of the show, developing her identity and independence.
And it really all began on FXX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, where she and real-life husband Rob Mac, together with Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Danny DeVito created a cultural phenomenon, where Olson plays “Sweet” Dee Reynolds.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been renewed through to its 18th season, making it the longest-running live-action sitcom in television history. The characters even crossed over to the other ground-breaking Philadelphia-based comedy on Abbott Elementary Season 4 Episode 9, “Volunteers.”
Taran Killam – High Potential, Stumble
In every era of television, the quintessential Father Figure emerges. As society evolves, so does that perfect parent we picture in each family ensemble. Here and now, that is Taran Killam in all his guises.
In his recurring role on High Potential as Ludo, he is the ultimate down-to-earth co-parent to Kaitlin Olson’s overstimulated genius, Morgan. He’s there to chauffeur, clean, and care for their kids, loving and including Ava just as much as his biological offspring.
He and Morgan may no longer be life partners, but that doesn’t mean he’s not there for her and their family. He understands and accepts her and recognizes that they’ll always be a major part of each other’s lives. Damn, that’s hot.
Likewise, over on Stumble, he’s the unquestioningly supportive marital half in the Coach Potter Duo. As football Coach Boon, he’s no-nonsense on the field. As Coach Courtney’s loving husband, he always has her back for whatever nonsense she needs to see her cheerleaders through to Daytona.
Constance Zimmer – Love Story, The Lincoln Lawyer, Fire Country
Constance Zimmer has never met a role she couldn’t embody with class and authenticity.
Most recently, she took on the daunting role of Ann Marie Messina on FX’s Love Story. As Carolyn Bessette’s mother, she touched the hearts of mothers everywhere with her moving wedding speech.
The same month as Love Story premiered, Netflix dropped The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4, wherein Zimmer portrays “Death Row” Dana Berg, a formidable LA District Attorney intent on beating protagonist Mickey Haller at all costs.
And if those two heavy-hitter characters weren’t enough, Zimmer’s made her mark on CBS’s Fire Country as recurring character, globe-trotting lawyer Renée Hoffman, last seen visiting Sharon in the aftermath of Vince’s death on Fire Country Season 4 Episode 3, “The Tiny Ways We Start To Heal.”
Nowhere Near a Complete List
Over to you, Fanatics! Who are the performers who make you cheer when they make an appearance? Whose faces brighten your day because they bring their all on every show? Which names spark joy when you spot them in the opening credits?
Drop your favorite double-, triple-, quadruple, duty superstars into our comments! Let’s share and compare our favorites!
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