20 Best Netflix Series Performances Of All Time, Ranked

Published Nov 9, 2026, 3:30 PM EST Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock. There’s so much content on Netflix that it has both some of the best movies and TV shows ever made, and some of the worst. Some of the acting you’ll find in Netflix’s library is Hallmark-level tripe: Joey King in The Kissing Booth, David Spade in Father of the Year, Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey in Holidate. But you’ll also find some of the greatest acting ever captured on film: Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems, Vanessa Kirby in Pieces of a Woman, Joel Edgerton and William H. Macy in Train Dreams. So, here are the greatest acting performances in any Netflix original series. 20 Millie Bobby Brown As Eleven Stranger Things Since her breakout role as Eleven, Millie Bobby Brown has become one of Netflix’s go-to contract stars, and it’s easy to see why. Eleven stole the show in Stranger Things’ first season, and Brown demonstrated an impressive amount of depth and range for such a young performer in such a limiting role. When we first met Eleven, she was completely alone and she couldn’t speak, so Brown had absolutely nothing to work with to endear us to this character, and yet she pulled it off. Eleven quickly became a beloved sci-fi icon. 19 Cristin Milioti As Nanette Cole Black Mirror Cristin Milioti was so great in Black Mirror, the show ended up giving her episode a sequel to continue her story. Nanette Cole is a young programmer whose consciousness is transferred into her boss’ twisted “It’s a Good Life”-style sociopathic fantasy world. When she gets there, Nanette is just one of the despicable Robert Daly’s digital playthings. But by the end of her first intergalactic adventure, she’d managed to turn the tables on her oppressor and free herself from his cybernetic shackles. It was an empowering journey, and Milioti played every step of it perfectly. 18 Andrew Scott As Tom Ripley Ripley When Netflix first announced its Ripley series, it didn’t seem like we needed another Ripley adaptation. We’ve seen it all before, and Matt Damon already gave an iconic turn that defined the character on the big screen in The Talented Mr. Ripley. But Ripley ended up being a worthwhile readaptation. Not only did it have gorgeous, moody, monochromatic cinematography to make it more visually engaging than the movie; Andrew Scott did something completely different from Damon, and used the extra hours of a TV series to really explore the psyche of this curious character. 17 Claire Foy As Queen Elizabeth II The Crown Everyone in The Crown did a great job of humanizing the royals, including everyone who played Queen Elizabeth II throughout her reign. Olivia Colman was spectacular as an older Queen Elizabeth, but Claire Foy was the one who got everyone hooked on The Crown in season 1. Foy set the gold standard for The Crown’s ever-changing cast going forward. She embodied this regal historical figure in all her glory, but also interrogated the human being just under the surface. 16 Victoria Pedretti As Nell Crain The Haunting Of Hill House Nell is the most tragic of all the Crains. She never did anything wrong, she just wanted her family to get along, and she’s the one who suffered the most from their dysfunctions. It was heartbreaking to see Violet McGraw’s young Nell go through all that trauma, but even more devastating to see those traumas sunken into Victoria Pedretti’s anxious eyes as grownup Nell. The revelation that Nell was being haunted by her own future self all this time makes Pedretti’s performance even more impressive. She’s both the haunter and the hauntee in this chilling haunted-house tale. 15 Ali Wong As Amy Lau Beef Steven Yeun and Ali Wong both gave fantastic performances as the lead characters in Beef, and they both won much-deserved Emmys for them. They both committed so wholeheartedly to the petty rage that you fully believe these two people have nothing better to do than torment each other. Wong has a slight edge over Yeun, because she had a more complicated character to play, and a tougher character to make us like. Danny is just an angry guy who’s fed up with the system, but Amy’s misery is a lot more nuanced. 14 Omar Sy As Assane Diop Lupin Omar Sy is essentially giving a performance within a performance in Lupin. Assane Diop is a lot like Jean-Paul Belmondo’s antihero Michel from the French New Wave classic Breathless. In Breathless, Michel emulates the hard-boiled characters of Humphrey Bogart. In Lupin, Assane emulates fictional master thief Arsène Lupin, who was created by Maurice Leblanc in the early 20th century. Sy nails that two-sided performance, capturing both the mask Assane wears and the real Assane underneath it. 13 Hamish Linklater As Father Paul Hill Midnight Mass A mysterious priest arrives in a remote town at the beginning of Mike Flanagan’s deeply personal horror opus Midnight Mass. Hamish Linklater’s subtly frightening, yet undeniably charismatic portrayal of this God-fearing eccentric keeps you hooked as Midnight Mass unfurls its vampiric mystery. In the early episodes, Linklater maintains a mesmerizing air of mystery around Father Paul Hill, so we’re not quite sure what to make of him. But, the more overtly villainous he gets, the more fun Linklater has with the character. 12 Wagner Moura As Pablo Escobar Narcos One of the toughest challenges an actor can take on is playing a legendary real-life figure. When an actor is cast to play John Lennon or Cleopatra or Martin Luther King, Jr. or some other historical icon, they have to look beyond the myth to the man (or woman). Pablo Escobar is both a revered folk hero who gave back to the community, and a notorious crime kingpin who ran one of the most ruthless drug cartels ever assembled. Wagner Moura managed to find the humanity in Escobar when he played him in Narcos. He deconstructs the mythos to show us that Escobar was just a human being like anyone else. 11 Charlie Cox As Matt Murdock Daredevil A little over a decade after Ben Affleck’s disastrous Daredevil movie, Charlie Cox finally did the Man Without Fear justice on-screen. Netflix’s Daredevil series is both a brutal, bloody comic book actioner and a gritty, engaging prestige crime drama. Charlie Cox ripped the Matt Murdock written by Frank Miller right off the page. The Daredevil from Miller’s comics — the brooding antihero, wracked with Catholic guilt — is the Daredevil that Cox brought to the screen. Cox was perfectly matched with a huge, intimidating Vincent D’Onofrio as his arch-nemesis, Wilson Fisk; their intense cat-and-mouse feud is comparable to Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Heat.