Emmys 2020: Supporting Actor, Drama — Our Dream Nominees

The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards will be airing (in some form!) on Sept. 20. Before the real nominees are unveiled on July 28, we at TVLine have come up with our own dream nominations in 15 major categories. Scroll down to see our ideal contenders for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, then give us your thoughts!

BILLY CRUDUP, THE MORNING SHOW

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: If in the last year there was an actor who had a better time in his role than Crudup did playing media Svengali Cory Ellison, we don't know about it. The versatile actor had us under his spell from the moment Cory swanned onto the scene, bathing the role in a cocky smoothness that seemed effortless. His sense of amusement was infectious, and we didn't want to like Cory... but we did: All thanks to Crudup's considerable talents.

DAVID HARBOUR, STRANGER THINGS

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: Emmy, we need to have a little heart-to-heart. We know that Harbour's been nominated before; it's not like you've overlooked him. But he deserves — richly deserves — acknowledgment a third time for Season 3. Because whether Hopper was fantastically failing to keep his cool as the parent of a hormonal teenager, quarrelling with crush Joyce like he himself was a hormonal teenager or shooting her a "last" look that spoke volumes about opportunities squandered, Harbour wasn't just all in, he was outstanding.

JOSH O'CONNOR, THE CROWN

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: We didn't expect to be riveted and moved by the story of Prince Charles, but O'Connor won us over with a captivatingly empathetic portrait of a conflicted young man. Season 3 of the Netflix period drama saw Queen Elizabeth's eldest son fall in love with Camilla Shand, and O'Connor deftly played Charles' giddy infatuation, along with his heartbreak and rage when his conservative family voiced their disapproval. He let us see the Prince of Wales in a whole new light — and added yet another jewel of a performance to The Crown's treasure chest.

KIERAN CULKIN, SUCCESSION

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: As the mischievous Roman Roy on HBO's rich-jerks drama, Culkin is an endless source of wicked insults and snide eye rolls; he's truly one of the most entertaining characters anywhere on TV. And in Season 2, with Roman embarking on a fascinatingly strange relationship with Gerri and buying a soccer team to please his domineering dad (the wrong team, as it turns out), Culkin also revealed a glimmer of authentic human emotion beneath all the mockery. We still wouldn't make him CEO... but an Emmy nomination is a decent consolation prize.

MATTHEW MACFADYEN, SUCCESSION

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: Few TV characters are as hilariously hapless as Tom Wambsgans, and it's truly a credit to Macfadyen that he's made the shamelessly groveling stiff so easy to make fun of. (Hell, his own wife Shiv does it all the time.) When Tom melted down during an instant-classic testimony scene, though, and when he blurted out his grave doubts about his marriage, Macfadyen also showed us Tom is more than just a punchline. He is an excellent punchline, though.

TOM PELPHREY, OZARK

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: It came as no surprise that the Season 3 arc surrounding Wendy's bipolar younger brother Ben ended tragically. What did surprise us was how hard we took the character's fall — and credit for that unexpected emotional gut punch goes to Pelphrey. The actor delivered a consistently dynamic performance all season long, climaxing with the Netflix drama's penultimate hour which found the two-time Daytime Emmy winner grounding his character's mental spiral with searing, heartbreaking authenticity.

TONY DALTON, BETTER CALL SAUL

WHY HE DESERVES A NOD: The Breaking Bad universe is brimming with memorable villains, and Dalton vaulted into the top tier this season as ruthless drug runner Lalo Salamanca. Armed with an easygoing charm and a seemingly superhuman physicality, Lalo always seems to be thoroughly enjoying life as a bad guy, and Dalton is so winning in the role, we almost forget we're not supposed to be rooting for him. In Season 5, Lalo confirmed that he's a force to be reckoned with — and Dalton did, too.