Movie-First Actors Whose Best Roles Are On TV

Prior to the advent of prestige television in the 2000s that was shepherded in by HBO dramas such as "The Sopranos," actors who were lucky to find themselves propelled to movie stardom tended to do so after cutting their teeth in television. From Leonardo DiCaprio in "Growing Pains" to Michael B. Jordan in "The Wire," many of today's biggest movie stars found initial success in TV before the silver screen.

Glenn Close was an early pioneer in the progression of movie stars making TV appearances on television when she starred in FX's Damages. However, the real groundswell began in 2013 when it was announced that the now disgraced Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey would star in Netflix's first original streaming series, "House of Cards." Since then, many Hollywood A-list actors migrated to television, finding more creative freedom in the extended structure of the miniseries, easier financing from content-hungry streaming services, and equivalent production value and pay. 

So while the following actors first earned their stature in film, their most iconic roles can be found on the small screen. Here are the movie actors whose best roles are on TV.

With a filmography as rich as Laura Dern's, it is a herculean task to pick her best. Her ongoing collaboration with David Lynch alone teems with potential options, from her breakthrough turn in the suburban nightmare that is "Blue Velvet" to her tour de force work in the mind-bending, experimental "Inland Empire." A case could even be made for her roles in the "Jurassic Park" franchise. Dern's finest work over the course of her five-decade career is always marked by a fearlessness to examine her character's less appealing, uglier sides.

She achieves this best in her performance as Amy Jellicoe in HBO's dramedy series "Enlightened," which revolves around a well-intentioned but destructive woman who suffers a nervous breakdown, attends rehab, then returns home to pick up the pieces with a new, spiritually evolved perspective. Over the course of two critically-adored but unfortunately under-watched seasons, Dern is given a broad canvas to explore Amy's unpredictable rage and paradoxical altruism. 

Dern's Golden Globe-winning performance could be considered the initial phase of what Vox labeled the Dernaissance, leading to her explosive performance in "Big Little Lies" and culminating in her Oscar-winning supporting turn in Noah Baumbach's "Marriage Story."

Taraji P. Henson is the epitome of a Hollywood multi-hyphenate. She's an Oscar-nominated actress, a celebrated animated voice performer, a talk show and awards show host, and a singer. Henson first gained attention for her major movie debut role in John Singleton's 2001 dramedy "Baby Boy," but her big breakthrough arrived in Craig Brewer's 2006 crime drama "Hustle & Flow," starring opposite Terrence Howard. As pregnant sex worker Shug, Henson granted viewers a first glimpse at the signature blend of tough love and biting wit that would define her roles for years to come.

Her career soared to new heights when she was cast in David Fincher's gothic fantasy drama "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," earning an Academy Award nomination for her tender, warm performance as Benjamin's adoptive mother. However, it was not until Henson reunited with "Hustle and Flow" her co-star Terrence Howard in FOX's soapy music business drama series "Empire" that she delivered the performance of her career as Cookie Lyon, the ex-wife of hip hop record label mogul Lucious (Howard). 

Henson delivered an electrifying performance as Cookie, wisely played as if Lady Macbeth was cast on a "Real Housewives" franchise, earning three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and one Golden Globe win over the course of six seasons.

Rob Lowe's storied career as an actor began in the 1980s when he got his big break playing disaffected bad boys in coming-of-age dramas with his Brat Pack peers, like Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of S. E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders" and Joel Schumacher's "St. Elmo's Fire." Over the following 30 years, Lowe has found him performing in seemingly every corner an actor could find in the entertainment industry. His roles have ranged from slapstick comedy in "Wayne's World," "Tommy Boy," and the "Austin Powers" trilogy to revered TV drama on "The West Wing" and the movie "Drew Peterson: Untouchable."

Still, his best role came when he joined NBC's "Parks and Recreation" in Season 2 as Type A fitness fanatic Chris Traeger, who may or may not be responsible for the proliferation of people saying "literally" literally all the time. Chris gives Lowe the vessel to share his best qualities as an actor, playing the unwaveringly optimistic, perpetually upbeat city manager with an endearing charm without ever feeling oppressive — something perhaps nobody else but Lowe could do.

Gaby Hoffman first attained success in acting as a child and achieved the difficult feat of sustaining it through adolescence and, now, well into her adulthood. She made a name for herself in her earliest performances opposite Kevin Costner and Amy Madigan in the baseball drama "Field of Dreams" and the late John Candy in "Uncle Buck." As Hoffman entered her teenage years, she continued taking roles in big-budget films like disaster-thriller "Volcano" but also in independent films like "200 Cigarettes" and "You Can Count On Me."

These latter roles would eventually lead her to an illustrious, Emmy-nominated career in high-brow comedy television, including a hilarious supporting turn on HBO's comedy "Girls" and the performance of her career on Amazon's groundbreaking dramedy "Transparent." As the ever-restless Ali Pfefferman, the youngest sibling of the Los Angeles Pfefferman clan, Hoffman is a revelation. She infuses her confrontational and prickly yet sensitive character with open-hearted grace as Ali yearns to understand their familial legacy and their place within that lineage.

Steve Carell's first movie credit was a small role as a pompous waiter who never speaks in John Hughes' 1991 "Curly Sue." The family comedy struggled at the box office and did Carell's burgeoning movie career no favors in its infancy, as it remains his worst-rated movie. Over a decade later, in 2004, Carell was hurled into major movie stardom with his first major film performance in Adam McKay's smash hit satire-comedy "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy." As Brick Tamland, the eccentric meteorologist with an IQ of 48, Carell introduced his comedic specialty to the world: the cringey, hapless fool.

He went on to perfect this style in several film roles including his first leading role in Judd Apatow's "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," but he reached his apex in his iconic turn as Michael Scott on NBC's "The Office." Carell had big shoes to fill in the American adaptation of the celebrated BBC original. After closely mimicking Ricky Gervais' character David Brent in the premiere season, Carell infused Michael Scott with more empathetic qualities, making him one of the more endearing — if incompetent — sitcom characters in recent memory. Even as he shifts to more dramatic roles, it is difficult to imagine Carell ever topping Michael Scott.

Kate Winslet is a chameleon of an actress with a penchant for taking chances. She wisely chose roles early on in her career that have both demonstrated her range and prevented her from being type-cast. She followed her audacious debut as a murderous teenager in Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures" by tackling Jane Austen in "Sense and Sensibility," Shakespeare in 1996's "Hamlet," and next, "Titanic," where she played the iconic Rose. Despite the fame that "Titanic" bestowed on Winslet, she continued to choose challenging roles, racking up seven Oscar nominations and an overdue win for "The Reader."

Her performance in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is her strongest work in film, but the best — and most challenging — role of her career can be found on the smaller screen in HBO's mystery miniseries "Mare of Easttown." As a dogged suburban Philadelphia detective investigating a murder in her hometown, Winslet delivers a masterclass performance, showcasing her finest skills as an actress — particularly her ability to mine pathos and humor from the darkest of circumstances. Winslet rightfully went on to sweep TV awards season, winning best actress prizes from the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, and the Primetime Emmys. This is a performance that lingers with you long after the case is solved.

Steve Buscemi's prolific movie career blossomed with his first in a series of collaborations with Joel and Ethan Coen in 1990's tremendous gangster drama "Miller's Crossing." Over the next 16 years, Buscemi and the Coen brothers have worked together in four feature films — "Barton Fink," "The Hudsucker Proxy," "Fargo," "The Big Lebowski" — and one short, "Tuileries," in the "Paris, je t'aime" anthology. Buscemi's work in the Coen's oeuvre and his role as Mr. Pink in Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" honed his reputation as one of the greater character actors of all time.

Buscemi showed a radically different side of himself as a performer in Terry Zwigoff's offbeat masterpiece "Ghost World" as Seymour, a gentle, harmless jazz enthusiast loner who becomes the morbid fascination of disaffected recent high school grad Enid (Thora Birch). He kept the surprises coming when he turned to television for the best role of his career — a much deserved leading one, finally — in Terence Winter's HBO prohibition drama "Boardwalk Empire." Buscemi is mesmerizing as corrupt Atlantic City treasurer Nucky Thompson, employing the unpredictable, menacing qualities of his Coen characters while in complete command of his craft.