Stars Who Turned Supporting Success into Leading Careers

Gene Hackman worked for years in television and on stage before an Oscar-nominated supporting turn as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), followed by a second supporting nomination for I Never Sang for My Father. The French Connection (1971) made him a leading man and won him Best Actor, and The Conversation confirmed it.

Morgan Freeman spent two decades on stage and in children's television, including The Electric Company, before his menacing supporting role in Street Smart (1987) earned an Oscar nomination at fifty. Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Glory and The Shawshank Redemption (1994) followed, and the authority of those leads made him one of Hollywood's most trusted presences.

Kathy Bates was a respected stage actor, Tony-nominated for 'night, Mother (1983), who kept losing screen versions of her own stage roles to bigger names and took small film parts for years. Rob Reiner cast her as Annie Wilkes in Misery (1990), which won her the Oscar for Best Actress, and leading and character roles have alternated ever since.

Philip Seymour Hoffman spent the 1990s stealing scenes in supporting roles, from Scent of a Woman to Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Almost Famous. Smaller leads such as Owning Mahowny built towards Capote (2005), which won him Best Actor, and he went on to carry The Savages, The Master and A Most Wanted Man before his death in 2014.

Bill Nighy worked for three decades on stage, radio and television before his scene-stealing ageing rock star in Love Actually (2003) won a BAFTA and made him a familiar face. Leads followed in The Girl in the Café (2005) and Sometimes Always Never (2018), and Living (2022), as a dying civil servant, brought him his first Oscar nomination.

Paul Giamatti was a dependable supporting player in Private Parts, The Truman Show and Man on the Moon before American Splendor (2003) and Sideways (2004) gave him leads built around his rumpled, articulate gloom. He won an Emmy as the title character in John Adams, and The Holdovers (2023) earned him a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.

Steve Carell spent years as a correspondent on The Daily Show and stole scenes in Bruce Almighty (2003) and Anchorman (2004). In 2005 he co-wrote and starred in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and took the lead in the American version of The Office, and later dramatic leads in Foxcatcher, which earned an Oscar nomination, showed his range.

Seth Rogen started as a teenage supporting player in Judd Apatow's Freaks and Geeks, worked as a writer on Da Ali G Show and played a sidekick in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Apatow then built Knocked Up (2007) around him, the same year his and Evan Goldberg's long-gestating script Superbad was released, and he has led comedies and produced since.

Bryan Cranston worked for two decades in guest spots, commercials and supporting television, best known as the dentist Tim Whatley in Seinfeld and as the father Hal in Malcolm in the Middle. Vince Gilligan, who had worked with him on The X-Files, cast him as Walter White in Breaking Bad (2008), which won him four Emmys and led to Trumbo and an Oscar nomination.

Melissa McCarthy played the chef Sookie in Gilmore Girls for seven seasons and spent years in improv with the Groundlings before leading the sitcom Mike & Molly (2010). Her supporting role in Bridesmaids (2011) earned an Oscar nomination and led to The Heat and Spy, and the dramatic lead in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) brought a Best Actress nomination.

Olivia Colman spent the 2000s in supporting comedy roles in Peep Show, Green Wing and Hot Fuzz, often cast as the sensible one. Paddy Considine's Tyrannosaur (2011) showed her dramatic depth, Broadchurch and The Night Manager followed, and The Favourite (2018) won her the Oscar for Best Actress before she played the Queen in The Crown.

Viola Davis built a Tony-winning stage career while taking small screen roles, and her single long scene in Doubt (2008) earned an Oscar nomination. The Help (2011) brought a lead nomination, How to Get Away with Murder (2014) made her the first Black woman to win the Emmy for lead actress in a drama, and she later led Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and The Woman King.

Chris Pratt was best known as the lovable slacker Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation, with small parts in Moneyball and Zero Dark Thirty, when James Gunn cast him as Star-Lord. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Jurassic World (2015) made him a blockbuster lead within a year, after nearly a decade of supporting work.

Bob Odenkirk was a comedy writer for Saturday Night Live and co-creator of Mr. Show before he was cast as the shady lawyer Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad (2009). The spin-off Better Call Saul (2015 to 2022) gave him six seasons as a lead and a string of Emmy nominations, and in his late fifties he became an unlikely action star in Nobody (2021).

Mahershala Ali spent years in supporting television roles, including the lobbyist Remy Danton in House of Cards, before winning supporting Oscars for Moonlight (2016) and Green Book (2018). He then took the lead in the third series of True Detective (2019), playing one man across three decades, and in the drama Swan Song (2021).

Pedro Pascal worked for nearly two decades in guest roles on television procedurals, at times close to giving up, before his charismatic Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones (2014) and Javier Peña in Narcos. The Mandalorian (2019) and The Last of Us (2023) then made him one of the most in-demand leading men in the world.

Jeremy Allen White spent eleven seasons as Lip Gallagher, one of many siblings in the ensemble of Shameless (2011 to 2021), alongside small film roles. The Bear (2022) put him at the centre as the chef Carmy Berzatto, winning him Golden Globes and Emmys, and he went on to play Bruce Springsteen in Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025).

Andrew Scott was a respected Irish stage actor whose screen fame came from supporting roles: Moriarty in Sherlock (2010) and the priest in the second series of Fleabag (2019). Leads followed in Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers (2023) and Netflix's Ripley (2024), and his one-man Vanya won him an Olivier Award the same year.

Jeffrey Wright led Basquiat (1996) early on but spent most of the next three decades as a celebrated supporting actor, winning a Tony and an Emmy for Angels in America and playing Felix Leiter in the Bond films and Bernard in Westworld. Cord Jefferson's American Fiction (2023) finally gave him a lead built around his dry wit and earned him a Best Actor nomination.