When most people think of Hollywood, they picture the dazzling leads who dominate posters and awards-season chatter. But look more closely at any film and you’ll find the character actor. These performers may not always get top billing, but they bring texture, unforgettable quirks, and sometimes weirdness to every story. From eccentric neighbours to chilling villains, character actors make worlds feel lived in and exciting.
For early career performers, studying the craft of character actors is invaluable. They show how to transform completely, take risks, and create memorable work in supporting roles. Below, we round up some of the best character actors working today who may inspire you.
A character actor has developed a career playing distinctive roles rather than conventional leads. “A character actor is a film or television performer who specialises in portraying unique, offbeat, colourful characters in supporting roles,” Sam Kench writes for StudioBinder.
Character actors disappear into their parts and are sometimes unrecognisable from one role to the next. For many actors, these types of roles can be enormously satisfying.
Olivia Colman
Before winning Oscars and heading up prestigious dramas, Olivia Colman built her reputation as one of the UK’s most versatile character actors. From her early comedy work on Peep Show to her turn as Queen Elizabeth II on The Crown, Colman embodies roles with a rare mix of warmth, humour, and emotional depth. The Independent wrote of her role as Sophie on Peep Show that she is “often stealing focus from former Bruiser costars [David] Mitchell and Robert Webb.”
Her career proves that a character actor can break into leading roles. Of her Oscar-winning performance in The Favourite, Peter Bradshaw wrote in the Guardian that “just when we thought Olivia Colman couldn’t get any better, she steps up to movie-star lead status with an uproarious performance as Britain’s needy and emotionally wounded Queen Anne in this bizarre black comedy of the 18th century court.” In the film, Colman plays Queen Anne with lashings of expression; in the clip below, you can see her face tremble and contort with each new feeling.
Warwick Davis
If you like fantasy films, you’ll probably be a fan of Warwick Davis. He is a prime example of a character actor whose career has thrived on transformation and versatility rather than traditional leading roles. From his breakthrough as Wicket the Ewok in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (when he was just 11) to his mischievous turns in Willow and as Professor Flitwick and Griphook in the Harry Potter franchise, Davis has built a career by embodying vivid, often otherworldly characters.
What makes him such a strong character actor is his ability to ground even the most extraordinary roles with humanity and hilarity. Whether commanding a fantasy world or delivering sharp comic timing on British television, Davis demonstrates how character actors can shape entire stories without being the lead – so much so that in 2025, he was given BAFTA’s highest honour, the BAFTA fellowship.
In the clip below, Davis plays the goblin Griphook. He makes him sly and sharp, with a hint of danger.
Toby Jones
Toby Jones is the kind of actor whose presence can completely shift the mood of a scene, no matter how small the role. With his distinctive voice and ability to slip from affection to menace, he has built a career on making his parts scene-stealing and unforgettable.
In Infamous, he gave a chillingly fragile portrayal of Truman Capote, while in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, he delivered quiet precision as a weary intelligence analyst. Comedy fans know him for his BAFTA-winning turn in Detectorists, in which his understated eccentricity became the show’s beating heart. “One of my greatest delights is that my name is mentioned so often alongside Toby Jones,” Mackenzie Crook, Jones’ costar and the writer-director of the award-winning comedy series, told the Guardian. “I’m certain casting Toby made the show what it was. I don’t think he’d done a huge amount of comedy before Detectorists and he seemed to relish the opportunity, turning Lance from my two-dimensional sketch into a complex and heartbreakingly vulnerable character.”
He also left his mark on the Harry Potter universe, voicing the loyal house elf Dobby with such sincerity that the character became one of the series’ most beloved figures. Of Jones’ performance in the titular role in a West End production of Uncle Vanya, Guardian critic Arifa Akbar writes: “He is variously ridiculous, self-pitying, and made to look a fool by his unrequited passion for Professor Serebryakov’s young wife, Yelena (Rosalind Eleazar). But Jones brings a tortured truth to the role that renders him eminently likeable, even in these moments, and he never fails to move us.”
Jones is now known for his “eye for oddballs and outcasts,” and he has become an actor synonymous with great, big, exploding characters.
You can see how he infused character into the role of Dobby using just his voice in the clip below.
Imelda Staunton
A quintessential character actress UK audiences know well, Imelda Staunton has had a long, acclaimed career onstage and onscreen. From her BAFTA-winning lead role in Vera Drake to snooty and malicious Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series, Staunton excels at getting to the core of a character and delivering performances bursting with truth, horror, or feeling. “[Staunton is] an actor who has rarely opted for cosy,” Olivia Marks wrote in British Vogue, and Staunton told the magazine that she has always been drawn to “women who are a bit mad and a bit tortured.”
The actor has been awarded again and again for her stage work. In 2025, she won an Olivier Award for her role in Hello, Dolly!. “Staunton masters singing with feeling, never overacting or sentimentalising Dolly,” Akbar wrote of her performance. She has repeatedly played complex, morally ambiguous women, and she told Backstage she believes “every part you play is a character! Every part you play.”
The clip below shows Staunton as Mama Rose in the musical Gypsy. She brought a darker energy to the role than actors who went before her, with Michael Billington describing it in the Guardian as “one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen in a musical.”
Meera Syal
Meera Syal is one of the greatest South Asian actors working in British film, TV, and theatre. A consummate character actor, she can inhabit roles that range from comic to intensely dramatic with effortless authenticity. Whether in Goodness Gracious Me, in which she skewers cultural stereotypes with razor-sharp timing; as the hilarious Granny (Ummi) Kumar in The Kumars at No. 42; or her more dramatic turns on TV shows such as The Split, Syal brings every character vividly to life.
Syal has a gift for finding the humour and pathos in ordinary moments, transforming supporting characters into fully realised, unforgettable figures. She also has a unique knack for comedy. “I think a sense of humour can save your life,” Syal told the Times. “No one wants to beat you up if you make them laugh.”
In the interview below, Syal plays her role in The Kumars. You’ll see how she remains fully committed and is a master of improvisation.
Character acting is about transformation, risk-taking, and depth. Committing to a career in character acting can be fulfilling, exciting, and, if you’re lucky, even award-worthy. For actors at the start of their journey, studying the work of successful character actors is an invaluable way to learn how to stand out, scene after scene.