Chris Messina

The trophy case is thin, and that is part of the story. Messina's two Critics' Choice Television Award nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy Series, both for The Mindy Project, are the closest he has come to major competitive recognition, and neither turned into a win. What he has instead is something harder to quantify: a hit rate. He shows up in Argo the year it wins Best Picture, in Air for Ben Affleck, in Sharp Objects for HBO, in Birds of Prey for a franchise. Casting directors trust him with difficult men, and the industry keeps handing him work that matters. For a character actor, that is the real scoreboard.