Ebon Moss-Bachrach

Twenty-one years separate the bellboy in The Royal Tenenbaums from the role that made Ebon Moss-Bachrach famous. In between he did the New York character-actor rounds: First Waiter in The Believer, an MTV director in American Splendor, Charlie Stewart in Mona Lisa Smile, Henry in The Lake House, John Quincy Adams in the John Adams miniseries. Steady, invisible, unglamorous.

Television found him first. Desi Harperin on Girls, Niels on The Last Ship, David Lieberman on Marvel's The Punisher, Chris McQueen on NOS4A2, John Carreyrou on The Dropout. That is a decade of parts where he is the second or third most important person in a scene and the audience remembers him anyway.

Then Richie Jerimovich on The Bear from 2022, and two Primetime Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series plus two Golden Globe nominations. What he does with Richie is the whole argument for him as an actor: he plays a man operating permanently at maximum volume while making it obvious that the volume is fear. Almost nobody can be that loud and that legible at the same time.

Marvel noticed. He is Ben Grimm in The Fantastic 4: First Steps and carries the part into Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, which is roughly the most secure job an actor can hold right now. A Richie film, Gary, is also on the slate.