20 binge-worthy TV shows starring Oscar winners

Big Little Lies was not the first TV show to feature an Oscar winner, but the HBO drama did help usher in the era of TV networks making a big splash with some A-list actors. Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, both Oscar winners, headlined the cast of Big Little Lies from the beginning, with future Oscar winner Laura Dern in the mix as well. Then, the pulpy drama kicked it up another notch for the second season by adding none other than Meryl Streep. With Katharine Hepburn no longer with us, no more acclaimed actress could be found.

J.K. Simmons spent years as a venerated character actor, often popping up on TV. But starring roles were not common. Things can change once you win an Oscar, though, as Simmons did for Whiplash. Simmons got to star in the showy sci-fi series Counterpart on Starz, playing not one but two lead roles.

Julia Roberts was not high on our list of movie stars we ever imagined starring in a TV show, right up there with Tom Cruise or Sandra Bullock. Then, it happened, though you might have missed it somehow. Oddly, Amazon Prime had a psychological thriller starring Roberts on the slate, but Homecoming still seemed to fly under the radar. Roberts wasn’t even the only notable actor from the first season of the show, as Bobby Cannavale and Sissy Spacek were both on the show as well.

Robin Williams rose to prominence on the sitcom Mork & Mindy. He became a major movie star, mostly in comedies, but Williams’ dramatic acumen was occasionally on display, including in Good Will Hunting, where he won his Oscar. After a stretch of mediocre movies, Williams returned to the sitcom. The Crazy Ones was a CBS show created by David E. Kelley and featured Sarah Michelle Gellar. Despite the hype and the creative forces at work, The Crazy Ones was a shrug of a show and canceled after one season.

When people talk about Chico and the Man, they usually talk about Freddie Prinze. That’s because he’s Freddie Prinze Jr.'s father, who was the breakout star of the show, and, tragically, the show ended when Prinze took his own life at the age of 22. Here, we are talking about “The Man." Jack Albertson is surely best known as Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. However, in addition to playing Grandpa Joe and costarring in this sitcom, Albertson won a Tony on the stage and an Oscar on screen for The Subject Was Roses. He also won an Emmy for Chico and the Man, making him a Triple Crown of Acting club member.

Weeeeelllll…look, a two-time Oscar winner became the star of Netflix’s first significant original show. It was huge at the time! House of Cards is culturally notable as we now live in a world featuring a surplus of streaming shows. Of course, we also have avoided mentioning this actor, because he has become a controversial figure due to allegations we still won't mention here. It's Kevin Spacey. House of Cards booted him before the end of the show’s run.

Political satires that don’t land are some of the clunkiest projects. HBO’s The Brink had the cache of Jack Black and Oscar winner Tim Robbins as the leads. By the way, Black’s acting career really began with Robbins’ Actors’ Gang troupe. How was The Brink received? Let’s just say that HBO had given it an early renewal for a second season but then rescinded that offer to cancel it.

Most people, especially in America, were first introduced to Christoph Waltz in his Oscar-winning role in  Inglourious Basterds. Then, a lot of people may not have seen him until Django Unchained, when he won another Oscar. Did you see his show The Consultant? It’s another Amazon Prime show starring an Oscar winner that felt like it did not make an impact on the populous.

We could have noted True Blood, which stars Holly Hunter’s fellow Oscar winner for The Piano in Anna Paquin. However, Paquin was a child at the time, so her becoming a TV actor in adulthood doesn’t feel the same. Hunter was an established actor when she got her TNT drama Saving Grace. Later in life, she would co-star in the sitcom Mr. Mayor alongside Ted Danson.

Oscar winners moving to television is not entirely a modern phenomenon. Ernest Borgnine won an Oscar for Marty, a Best Picture winner mostly remembered for being referenced in Quiz Show. That was a ‘50s film, and by 1962, he was starring in a sitcom. Borgnine was the lead of McHale’s Navy, which began life as a one-hour dramatic TV special. The comedic version ran for 138 episodes and was quite successful.

Jamie Foxx went from an Oscar winner to a game show host. Okay, so it wasn’t immediate, but that’s still weird to think about. Granted, Foxx was not an expected Oscar winner. He had been a comedian and sitcom star, but then he played Ray Charles and won Best Actor. After his movie stardom began to flag, he took a gig hosting FOX’s Beat Shazam. Hey, he can probably film an entire season in a week, and he was able to get his daughter a gig. Why not?

Jeff Bridges had a long, storied career before he won his Oscar. His first notable film (after some TV appearances in his dad Lloyd’s various shows) was 1971’s The Last Picture Show. Bridges won his Oscar (a career-achievement type of victory) for 2009’s forgotten Crazy Heart. Well into his career and life, Bridges took a role starring in The Old Man, a thriller for FX. Fittingly, he was in his seventies.

Jane Fonda, a winner of multiple Oscars, moved to TV later in her career and life, like Bridges. Her show was a bit lighter and more intensive in terms of scope. After all, Grace and Frankie ran for seven seasons and 94 episodes on Netflix. Fonda and Lily Tomlin star as two women of a certain age who become friends after their husbands leave them for one another. In terms of the Netflix success spectrum, Grace and Frankie fell somewhere in the middle.

Emma Stone made Maniac between Oscar wins. She had her La La Land trophy, but in 2018, when this Netflix limited series dropped, Poor Things was well into the future. We mention the trippy sci-fi show, not just for Stone, though. While Sally Field is in a supporting role, almost tertiary, she’s a multi-time Oscar winner.

David E. Kelley apparently likes to try to build TV shows around Oscar winners. If you remember Harry’s Law at all, it’s probably because a lot of TV fans and critics had fun with it, as the marketing and ads were not exactly subtle or encouraging. Still, Kathy Bates was getting a chance to star in a legal dramedy from the guy who created The Practice and Ally McBeal. Unfortunately for Bates, Harry’s Law only ran for two seasons and 34 episodes, and even its meme-worthiness has dipped considerably.

Michelle Yeoh has had quite a couple of years. In 2022, Everything Everywhere All at Once came out, and early in 2023, she won Best Actress at the Oscars. Then, in 2023, she was in the Disney+ TV show American Born Chinese, and in 2024, in Netflix’s anticipated The Brothers Sun. Of course, there was some bitter with that sweet. Both of those shows were canceled after one season.

We mentioned The Last Picture Show earlier, and Cloris Leachman won an Oscar for that film. Around the same time, The Mary Tyler Moore Show was starting its run, and Leachman played Phyllis on that show. After Valerie Harper got her Rhoda spinoff, Leachman, in turn, got a Phyllis spinoff. Phyllis was the least of the Mary Tyler Moore Show spinoffs, but it still ran for a couple of seasons.

Geena Davis got the titular sitcom treatment, and it makes sense. By 2000, she had an Oscar for The Accidental Tourist and another nomination for Thelma & Louise. Davis played Teddie Cochran, a fancy New York socialite who moves to the suburbs and becomes something of a de facto stepmom. Even with Davis’ cache, the show was canceled before the first season even finished. ABC didn’t bother airing the season finale. That’s cold.

Oscar winners appearing on True Detective is far from a rarity. Matthew McConaughey starred in the first season, which began airing right after he won Best Actor for Dallas Buyers Club. As such, those projects largely coincide. Indeed, Mahershala Ali won his second Oscar right when season three of the show in which he starred began to air, but he already had his first Oscar from Moonlight . On the other hand, Jodie Foster, starring in season four, was very much an acclaimed Oscar winner hopping onto a TV show, as she had won her two Academy Awards for acting decades earlier.

Two fairly young, fairly recent Oscar winners starring together in a limited series? Apple TV spared no expense to bring attention to WeCrashed , one of a handful of miniseries about dicey tech companies that became suddenly trendy in the 2020s. Of course, Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway also signed on as executive producers of  WeCrashed, but that was a reasonable tradeoff. While Leto and Hathaway are polarizing, the consensus on the series was positive.