Ginger Gonzaga

Gonzaga arrived through comedy rather than drama school, and her first sustained exposure was as a host: Hulu's daily pop culture show The Morning After, which ran from 2011 to 2012 and required her to be quick, opinionated and likeable on camera five days a week. That is unusually good training for the job she ended up doing.

For a decade after that she was one of American television's most reliably employed supporting players, and the credit list is close to a survey of the era's comedy: Maureen on Anger Management, Peggy on Legit, Maya on Mixology, Christy on Togetherness, Maggie on I'm Dying Up Here, Emma on Wrecked, Audrey on Claws, Vivian on Kidding, Meg on Living with Yourself, Anabela on Space Force. The specific thing she does is play the friend who is funnier than the lead and knows it, delivering plot as gossip so you never notice you are being handed exposition.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law finally made that a front-facing job. As Nikki Ramos she is the audience's way into a show that spends most of its energy being clever, and the warmth is entirely hers rather than the script's. She followed it by taking over Helen Tasker, a role with a very famous prior occupant, as co-lead of the 2023 True Lies series. On film she is Gina in Ted, Jill in Dean and Erica in Punching Henry, all of which are smaller than she is.