11 Breakout TV Stars of 2023: India Amarteifio, Ronald Gladden & More
It’s been a great year of TV. It was a historic one, for sure, with the writers and actors of Hollywood spending the summer and fall of 2023 striking for a better future in the industry. What they were fighting for was the preservation of the art form, a way to keep the shows we love running and pave the way for new artists to break through the industry. While some shows were absent in the fall lineup because of the strikes, there are still fantastic episodes of TV to look back on this year.
Fans have been treated to a litany of standout performances in 2023. Here, we’re looking back on the performances that turned previously unknown actors into new stars and supporting actors into leads. In 2022, we had a hybrid list of breakout and breakthrough stars. The difference is that with the former, the actor gave a performance that put them on the map in earnest for the first time. The latter were actors who had been seen in previous projects (sometimes some of the biggest titles on TV), but a new performance transformed them from supporting cast into actors who will be in lead roles from that point on.
This year, our standout performance selection focuses entirely on the breakout, not breakthrough, stars — the people who make us eager to see what they’ll do next.
Here are TV Insider’s picks for the breakout stars of 2023, in no particular order.
1. India Amarteifio, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
India Amarteifio is more known for her roles on U.K. TV. Queen Charlotte was her breakout role for U.S. audiences.
Bridgerton‘s Queen Charlotte origin story is one of the best tales told in Shonda Rhimes‘ romantic period drama franchise. Just six episodes of this limited series was enough to make us weep in its final, gorgeous moments, when the aged Charlotte and George (Golda Rosheuvel and James Fleet) hide under the king’s bed and are swapped in with their younger selves, played with wistful and bold spirit by Amarteifio and Corey Mylchreest.
Amarteifio pulled off an impressive feat of capturing the essence of a character made famous by another actor while imbuing her own artistic perspective into the younger version. By doing so, her performance justified the existence of this spinoff because it made us care to know how the elder Charlotte came to be. This Netflix series wouldn’t have worked without a winning performance from its leading lady. Now, with Charlotte’s backstory logged, Bridgerton is made all the more rich.
2. Nabiyah Be, Daisy Jones & The Six
Nabiyah Be played disco queen Simone Jackson in the Emmy-nominated Prime Video musical series. Before sharing the screen with Riley Keough as the titular, Stevie Nicks-inspired Daisy Jones, Be had a small role as Killmonger’s (Michael B. Jordan) girlfriend, Linda, in the beginning of 2018’s Black Panther. Her only other credit was a 2021 short called White Wedding.
Be is a theater star (she was the original Eurydice in the 2016 off-Broadway production of Hadestown), but Daisy Jones & The Six is her big TV break. She commanded attention on the screen as Simone and gave viewers a supporting character arc to really care about. Simone’s music is some of the highlights of the show’s already impressive soundtrack, and we fully believed in Be’s portrayal of the character’s star power.
3. Ruibo Qian, Our Flag Means Death Season 2
Ruibo Qian had a memorable guest star appearance as a wild, drunk girl on Broad City, among other guest star roles over the years, but playing the Pirate Queen of Our Flag Means Death Season 2 was her big break.
As a woman raiding ships captained by men, Zheng Yi Sao had to play the likability card to win over her enemies. But underneath the surface, she was manipulating her way to victory by capitalizing on men’s assumptions that women can’t be cutthroat. Even while taking their ships by force, Zheng made everybody like her. Her solidarity expressed through a shared hatred of the British Navy, and a deep desire to return to pillaging without the Crown’s interference, made it impossible not to dig her vibe.
This was made possible by Qian’s quiet confidence and intelligence she put into the character. She brought a fun, feminine energy to the Max comedy’s second season with her downright adorable tenderness that matched the sweetness of Samson Kayo‘s Oluwande. Our Flag Means Death has an avid fan base behind it, with a cohort of characters they passionately love. That Qian was a beloved addition to Season 2 is proof of her talent. We’d love to see her leading an irreverent rom-com.
4. Ronald Gladden, Jury Duty
This guy didn’t even know he was a star! That’s the whole premise of Freevee‘s comedic hit Jury Duty.
Ronald Gladden thought he had consented to a documentary detailing what it’s like to be part of a jury, so imagine his sheer shock when his fellow jurors got into hilariously unbelievable antics during the “trial” process. The reveal that he was not only in a competition show, but had won the competition by being a kind person at the end of the season was a highlight of the TV year.
Gladden shot to stardom because of the collective obsession with Jury Duty, so much so that he now has an overall deal with Amazon MGM Studios. We’re excited to see what comes of his career next, but the most honorable of mentions goes to the ensemble around him in this series.
Some parts of Jury Duty were scripted, but the nature of the series forced its actors (which includes James Marsden as himself in a now Emmy-nominated performance) to improvise like the show depended on it — it quite literally did. Gladden would not be where he is if it weren’t for the staggeringly talented comedic actors who were key to making Jury Duty succeed. No cast is more deserving of this year’s SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
5. Aminah Nieves, 1923
Taylor Sheridan‘s Yellowstone universe puts its indigenous characters through far too much trauma than is narratively necessary. That said, Aminah Nieves‘ performance in 1923 wasn’t impressive just because she had to film some brutal scenes while playing Teonna Rainwater.
Teonna endured countless physical traumas while stuck at an abusive residential school in 1923 Montana. Nieves brought heart and a powerful sense of justice to every scene of the Paramount+ prequel, oftentimes speaking volumes while saying nothing at all. She showcased a powerful resilience in the scenes following her escape from the school. Teonna also never crosses paths with the Dutton family in Season 1, making her have to carry most of this subplot on her own. She succeeded. That this is one of Nieves’ first major acting roles (her first on-screen credit was in 2021) is an impressive feat.
The Season 1 finale set Teonna up for more danger in Season 2, but we hope and assume the character’s fighting spirit will win out in the end.
6. Keivonn Woodard, The Last of Us
Perhaps the most memorable breakout star of this year is also the youngest. The 10-year-old only appeared in two episodes of The Last of Us‘ first season, but it was an arc no one who watched the series can forget.
As the young Sam running from trouble with older brother Henry (Lamar Johnson) in this post-apocalyptic world, viewers fell quickly in love with the character. Keivonn Woodard‘s eminently sweet and innocent demeanor caused this, and the tenderness of the scenes with his on-screen big brother were poignant each time we were treated to them. That’s what made it so crushing when Sam and Henry met a tragic fate after their narrow escape from death with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey, who’s not on this list because of their Game of Thrones experience, but don’t worry — Ramsey is listed in our Best Performances of 2023 roundup).
Woodard and Johnson both received Emmy nominations for their performances, making Woodard the first Black deaf actor, and second deaf actor ever, to be nominated for an Emmy and the youngest actor to ever be nominated in this guest star category.
7. Lizze Broadway, Gen V
Broadway was a scene-stealer as Gen V‘s Emma Meyer. Unlike Jaz Sinclair‘s Marie Moreau, Emma has been raised to promote herself/her powers. Her superhero name is Little Cricket because she can get small, but we learn she has to purge to get small, which adds a dark layer to her character. She sees the best in most people, which is tough to come by in The Boys universe.
Broadway brought a wonderful vulnerability to the character and made Emma a funny, sympathetic, layered presence in the series, which also required her to go off on her own in some episodes. Broadway had to be able to carry a scene on her own, and she did so well. There will be more to see from this star in Gen V Season 2.
8. Aria Mia Loberti, All the Light We Cannot See
Aria Mia Loberti is a true breakout. The Netflix series, based on the Pulitzer prize-winning novel of the same name by Anthony Doerr, is Loberti’s first-ever acting role after years of struggling to break into the industry.
She leads the World War II drama as Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind French girl broadcasting coded radio messages from a Nazi-occupied seacoast village. Through this role, Loberti became the first person with low vision to have a lead role in a TV series.
TV Insider and TV Guide Magazine’s head critic, Matt Roush, said Loberti is an “exquisite newcomer” and is “the best reason to watch” the four-episode limited series. Her compelling performance speaks for itself in the show, and the fact that she has brought needed representation to an underrepresented community is an added bonus.
9. Jelani Alladin, Fellow Travelers
Jelani Alladin previously had a supporting role in the ill-fated The Walking Dead: World Beyond, but it’s Fellow Travelers that has really shown what this theater actor can do.
Alladin plays Marcus Gaines, a Black journalist and closeted gay man who’s good friends with Matt Bomer‘s Hawkins Fuller and Jonathan Bailey‘s Tim Laughlin in the Showtime drama about the Lavender Scare of the 1950s and the three decades that followed. Alladin goes toe-to-toe with Bomer in each scene they share, showing he can easily keep up with seasoned TV vets. And the decades-long romance Marcus has with co-star Noah J. Ricketts as Frankie Hines (another series standout) makes for a compelling supporting plot to the show’s central story. And the addition of Jerome (Jude Wilson) later on in the limited series makes their familial storyline even more dynamic.
Alladin’s performance helps make the supporting plot of Fellow Travelers some of the season’s best. Given his theater history (he played Kristoff in the original Broadway cast of Frozen and also starred as Hercules in the off-Broadway Disney production), we’d love to see him added to the already stacked cast of Broadway stars in The Gilded Age. Perhaps we’ll see him in a possible Season 3?
10. Gabriel Basso, The Night Agent
In a TV landscape chock full of political action series, The Night Agent was an unexpected hit. At the center of it was Gabriel Basso as the titular night agent, Peter Sutherland.
Basso plays well as an underdog who has no idea who he can trust. Grappling with this fact makes his journey throughout the season believable. And on top of having to lead the dramatic interpersonal side of the Netflix series’ plot, Basso was great in the many action scenes this show demanded of him. Netflix renewed The Night Agent for a second season, and we’re excited to see this budding action star grow.
11. Ignacio Diaz-Silverio, Primo
Ignacio Diaz-Silverio plays Rafa in this Freevee family comedy. He’s a teen coming up in a rough neighborhood who shows promise academically, and he’s being raised by a single mom, Drea (Christina Vidal), and her five brothers, who serve as Rafa’s father figures. They’re all wildly different/incapable of giving collective advice, making for a hilarious family dynamic, but the actor does well with carrying the weight of the premise for the series.
Diaz-Silverio’s Rafa balances well with the uncles and conveys a sense of awkwardness and uncertainty, even though the character is on a good path. The actor hits the subtle comedy beats well without ever being exaggerated, and we’re excited to see more from him in a potential second season.
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