Oscars 2025: We Look Back At Each Acting Nominee's Past TV Roles

We'll be tuning into Sunday's Oscars ceremony to catch a glimpse of some of the biggest stars from the big screen — but we can't shake the feeling we've seen them somewhere before.

Yes, before they were invited to compete on Hollywood's biggest night, this year's Oscar acting nominees all took a spin on the small screen as well. Some of them — like Anora breakout Mikey Madison — first caught our eye with a TV role, while others — like Conclave nominee Isabella Rossellini — graced TV with their presence only after establishing their stardom at the cineplex. But television is the great equalizer, and even huge movie stars like Timothée Chalamet and Demi Moore booked a few TV roles before hitting it big at the box office. (General Hospital fans know what we're talking about.)

So in honor of this year's Academy Awards (airing this Sunday at 7/6c on ABC), we're taking a look back at all 20 acting nominees' previous TV roles, both embarrassing and Emmy-worthy. Read on to travel back to a time when A-list stars like Ariana Grande were just plugging away on the small screen every week, and then tell us in the comments who you're hoping to see take home Oscar gold this year.

Brody won the Oscar for Best Actor for The Pianist in 2002 at the ripe old age of 29 — the youngest winner ever in the category — so he didn't spend a lot of time toiling on the small screen before getting his big break. Lucky for us, though, at 15 years old, he did co-star in Mary Tyler Moore's short-lived CBS sitcom Annie McGuire in 1988, playing stepson Lenny. (That's him on the upper left.) Brody has returned to TV in recent years, too, with supporting roles on Peaky Blinders and Succession and playing Lakers head coach Pat Riley on Winning Time. 

Yes, there was a time when this heartthrob was just another struggling actor trying to make it in Hollywood. Before breaking out in 2017's Call Me by Your Name, Chalamet played teen Luke on USA's Royal Pains (seen above) and then spoiled rich kid Finn Walden on Homeland, who got Dana Brody into deep trouble in Season 2. Oh, and as is required by SAG regulations, he also appeared in an episode of Law & Order.

Euphoria fans knew that the Sing Sing nominee had serious acting chops years ago, from his time playing Zendaya's sober coach Ali on the HBO teen drama. (He's returning for Season 3, too.) He also played the enigmatic Victor Strand on the AMC zombie spinoff Fear the Walking Dead and currently voices Norman Osborn, aka the future Green Goblin, on Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Digging into the archives, Domingo was also a troupe member on Logo's The Big Gay Sketch Show (!) and played a variety of roles on the Don Johnson cop drama Nash Bridges. 

Fiennes is an old-school movie star, meaning he has mostly steered clear of television for his entire three-decade showbiz career. But! Before he earned his first Oscar nod for Schindler's List, he faced a withering interrogation from Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison in a 1991 episode of Prime Suspect. (Watch it here.) He's also done some voiceover work for TV documentaries and popped up as the Bishop of London on the UK comedy Rev.

Stan is nominated for playing a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice, but we know him best as Cap's sidekick Bucky Barnes in the Marvel movies — a role he reprised in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Solider. Before that, Stan played Serena's love interest Carter Baizen on Gossip Girl (seen above) and royal son Jack on the NBC drama Kings. He also co-starred in USA's Political Animals and played the Mad Hatter on Once Upon a Time before earning an Emmy nomination as rocker Tommy Lee in the Hulu limited series Pam & Tommy.

The U.K. native actually has more TV credits on her résumé than films, even winning a Daytime Emmy for a live performance on NBC's Today as a cast member of Broadway's The Color Purple. She starred opposite Ben Mendelsohn in the HBO crime drama The Outsider, appeared as Abbi's Anthropologie manager on Broad City (seen above) and played soul singer Aretha Franklin in Season 3 of NatGeo's Genius. The bulk of her work, though, is in voiceover, with roles on Star Wars: Visions and Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, among many others.

Gascón electrified audiences as a Mexican drug lord who transitions to become a woman in Netflix's Emilia Perez, but she didn't appear from nowhere. She co-starred in the Mexican teen drama Rebelde, seen above, in 2022. Prior to her transition, she acted in male roles under her birth name Juan Carlos Gascón, appearing in dozens of episodes of Mexican telenovelas like Wild Heart and El Señor de los Cielos.

Fans of prestige TV remember Madison from her days playing Pamela Adlon's headstrong eldest daughter Max on the FX family dramedy Better Things, which she began playing at age 17. The show lasted for five seasons and served as a springboard for Madison to book roles in the 2019 Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood and 2022's Scream before landing the lead role (of a lifetime) in Anora.

Demi Moore was always a movie star, right? She was part of the Brat Pack! Well, daytime TV fans would beg to differ. They know that Moore first dipped her toe into showbiz as Jackie Templeton on ABC's General Hospital back in 1982. A few years later, Moore's movie career took off, but she returned to TV in recent years, with roles on Empire, FEUD: Capote Vs. The Swans and the Paramount+ hit Landman.

The I'm Still Here actress — and daughter of Central Station Oscar nominee Fernanda Montenegro — is a bit of an unknown to American audiences, but in her native Brazil, she's a huge star. That's thanks to her work on Brazilian sitcoms like Os Normais (aka Normal People), which was adapted into a big-screen film, and Tapas & Beijos (aka Slaps & Kisses), both of which ran for more than 70 episodes each.

Alright, this one nearly stumped us: Unless you're a connoisseur of Russian television, you probably haven't seen Borisov — who's garnering raves for his nominated turn as henchman Igor in Anora — on the small screen before. But he did have a number of roles on Russian TV, including Afghan war veteran Uncle Alik on the coming-of-age dramedy Mir! Druzhba! Zhvachka! (seen above), along with acclaimed roles in films like The Bull and AK-47.

Before playing lovably obnoxious cousin Benji in A Real Pain, Culkin played lovably obnoxious brother Roman Roy on the HBO drama Succession, winning an Emmy in 2023 for the fourth and final season. But he tallied up a few other TV credits besides that as well, including a turn as low-level crook Rye Gerhardt in Season 2 of FX's Fargo (seen above) and voice roles on Solar Opposites and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, reprising his Scott Pilgrim vs. the World film role.

Like Adrien Brody, Norton shot to film stardom in his 20s with a breakout role in 1996's Primal Fear, so he never did a lot of TV while starting out, and still hasn't. But his fame did lead to a few prominent guest spots, including a hilariously weird role as musician Izzy LaFontaine in a Season 1 episode of Modern Family.

Like every Australian actor, Pearce did a stint on the long-running Aussie soap Neighbours before hitting it big in Hollywood with movies like L.A. Confidential and Memento. But he's circled back to TV as well, teaming up with Kate Winslet for a pair of HBO miniseries: 2011's Mildred Pierce and 2021's Mare of Easttown (seen above). He also co-starred in the Netflix supernatural series The Innocents and played Ebenezer Scrooge in FX's recent adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

Culkin's fellow nominee was also Culkin's co-star on Succession, with Strong playing depressed scion Kendall Roy on the HBO drama and winning an Emmy in 2020. Prior to that, Strong had roles on CBS' The Good Wife (as pollster Matt Becker), the TNT crime drama Mob City and Showtime's Masters of Sex (as psychologist Art Dreesen, seen above).    

Before she took the mike as folk legend Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown, Barbaro first caught our eye as dating show contestant Yael on the acid-tongued satire UnREAL (seen above). She also co-starred in the ill-fated #OneChicago spinoff Chicago Justice (it only lasted one season), along with supporting roles on The Good Cop and Splitting Up Together. Currently, she stars as Arnold Schwarzenegger's secret agent daughter on the Netflix action series FUBAR, which was renewed for Season 2.

Grande was on TV before she was old enough to vote, playing Cat Valentine on Nickelodeon's Victorious and then on spinoff Sam & Cat. When she wasn't busy being a pop superstar, she also played a sorority girl on Fox's Scream Queens and guest-starred on Jim Carrey's Showtime series Kidding.

The Brutalist nominee first cut her teeth on British TV, playing an aspiring witch on the family series The Worst Witch and then a teen twin on the creepy small-town drama Meadowlands (seen above). Jones also guest-starred on Doctor Who and Girls and reprised her Rogue One role as Jyn Erso in the animated series Star Wars: Forces of Destiny.

This actress is practically Hollywood royalty — her parents are Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Robert Rossellini — so she didn't do any television before breaking out on the big screen with Blue Velvet. That means most of her TV roles have been guest spots, including memorable turns on Alias (as Russian intelligence officer Katya Derevko) and 30 Rock (as Jack's ex-wife Bianca). But our favorite has to be her visit to Friends in 1996 (seen above), playing herself as one of Ross' celebrity "hall passes"... only he left her name off his laminated list at the last minute! Oh, Ross.

She's starred in blockbuster film franchises like Avatar, Star Trek and Guardians of the Galaxy and earned her first Oscar nod this year for Emilia Perez. But Saldaña has a TV past, too: Along with the requisite Law & Order roles, she co-starred with Erika Christensen and Bridget Moynahan in the short-lived ABC drama Six Degrees. She also took the Mia Farrow role in a 2014 NBC miniseries adaptation of Rosemary's Baby (seen above) and currently stars as CIA officer Joe in Paramount+'s Lioness.