Jesse Plemons

Jesse Plemons (/ˈplɛmənz/; born April 2, 1988) is an American actor. Known for his work with auteurs and portrayal of eccentric characters, his accolades include a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and nominations for an Academy Award, two BAFTAs, two Golden Globes Awards, and three Primetime Emmy Awards.

Plemons began his career as a child actor and had his breakthrough role as Landry Clarke in the NBC drama series Friday Night Lights (2006–2011). He subsequently portrayed Todd Alquist in the fifth and final season of the AMC crime drama series Breaking Bad (2012–2013) and its sequel film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019). He received Emmy nominations for his roles as Ed Blumquist in the second season of the FX anthology series Fargo (2015), the Netflix anthology series Black Mirror (2017–2025), and the HBO Max miniseries Love & Death (2023).

Plemons received further recognition with supporting roles in the films Paul (2011), The Master (2012), Bridge of Spies (2015), Game Night (2018), The Irishman (2019), Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). He played lead roles in Other People (2016), I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020), Windfall (2022), and Kinds of Kindness (2024). He won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for the latter and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a rancher in The Power of the Dog (2021). He received BAFTA, Actor Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Lead Actor for his portrayal of a conspiracy theory–obsessed beekeeper in Bugonia (2025).

Plemons is known for being typecast as quiet and unnerving characters in his most prominent roles, such as Breaking Bad, Black Mirror, and Kinds of Kindness. His acting style is characterized by his Texan accent, cowboy-inspired persona, and dramatic pauses in his speech.