Krysten Ritter

Modelling came before acting for Krysten Ritter, born in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania in 1981, and her first television years were spent in the margins: Gia Goodman on Veronica Mars, a run on Gilmore Girls, guest spots on shows nobody remembers. Breaking Bad changed that in 2009, with Jane Margolis, a short but pivotal role she returned to a decade later in El Camino.

Her register is dryness. Ritter is fast, deadpan and slightly bored, and she plays exhaustion where other actors would play rage, which is the reason Jessica Jones worked. Across that series and The Defenders she gave the Marvel machine a hero who is hungover, unwilling and rude to everybody, and got more comedy out of it than the scripts strictly contained. The same timing had already carried Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, a sitcom that lasted two seasons and is much better than its ratings suggested.

Film has used her less well. She spent the late 2000s as the acerbic best friend in romantic comedies, from 27 Dresses to What Happens in Vegas to Confessions of a Shopaholic to She's Out of My League, all of which are roughly the same part. The interesting film work is smaller: Listen Up Philip, Big Eyes, The Hero. She also wrote, co-produced and starred in Life Happens, and works as a musician and an author.

Since Jessica Jones ended, the pattern has been guest-lead runs in other people's shows, including Love and Death, Orphan Black: Echoes and Dexter: Resurrection, plus a supporting turn in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. She returned to Jessica Jones for Daredevil: Born Again.