The TV IV:IVy Awards/2006/Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Candidates to be considered the Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series for work in a series which first aired one or more episodes in the United States between June 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006. Please read carefully the Definitions and Guidelines before putting a candidate up for nomination.

Definitions

drama

Any live-action (non-animated), scripted (non-documentary, talk or news) episodic (airing on a recurring basis), non-limited series categorized as a Drama on the TV IV. In the case of shows which are categorized as both Comedy and Drama (and only in those cases), the show will be categorized on the basis of runtime: Less than 40 minutes should be considered a Comedy, 40 minutes or more should be considered a Drama.

actress

A human female performer in a scripted series, including voice actresses and female actresses portraying male characters.

lead actress

An actress who is First Billed in an episodic series at any point during the eligibility year.

Guidelines

Please feel free to propose as many or as few candidates as you like in each category. If you change your mind or wish to retract a candidate, don't worry about editing the page, as it could cause some confusion down the road. (If you propose one unworthy enough, it will most likely not make it past the nominating process, anyway.) Feel free to discuss yours or others' proposals as much or as little as you choose. Tell us why you feel a candidate should be considered, or why someone else's candidate is a horrible choice and should not be considered. (Just remember to follow standard TV IV discussion rules regarding civility.)

Please mark all proposed candidates in bold, and link the show titles, even if the linked articles are empty or stubs. Try to avoid using bold elsewhere in the discussion. (To mark a candidate in bold, surround the name with two sets of three apostrophes, and use double brackets for linking, '''[[like this]]'''.) We must have a series for which each actor is being nominated, so be sure to include one. (For instance, to propose Sarah Michelle Gellar for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, write: "Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy the Vampire Slayer".)

Candidates Discussion

Here's my first five:

• Kristen Bell, Veronica Mars: Again, the best actress to portray a teenaged heroine in a drama since Sarah Michelle Gellar on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• Emily Deschanel, Bones: She took a little while to loosen up and get into the role, but by the middle of the season, she had fully defined her character of Dr. Temperance Brennan and the tension with Seeley Booth, but by the time she did, the series became really good.
• Jennifer Garner, Alias: Tabloid fever aside, Garner convincingly portrayed Sydney Bristow's voyage into the uncharted waters of motherhood, and she had plenty of acting meat to chew on with the emotional twists this season.
• Ellen Pompeo, Grey's Anatomy: The best drama your girlfriend makes you watch, much of the reason why it is such a hit is because of how believable and likable Pompeo is in the lead role.
• Jeanne Tripplehorn, Big Love: The emotional heart of HBO's Shakespearean drama about fanatical Mormons, Tripplehorn turns in the best performance of her career as an ordinary suburban mother and wife who is in anything but ordinary circumstances.

Your turn. JCaesar 22:24, 1 June 2006 (EDT)

• Lauren Graham, Gilmore Girls: Continuously overlooked by the major awards because of the nature and network of her show while being lauded by every major critic who has actually bothered to watch her performance. Lauren gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as young mother Lorelai Gilmore and this season she had some of her best moments as her character had succesive falling outs with her daughter, her parents and her fiance. This year may be her last chance to win anything since show runner Amy Sherman-Palladino who gave the character much of it's uniqueness and best moments is leaving the show.

--The-jam 12:44, 2 June 2006 (EDT)

I second Lauren Graham, I can't believe nobody's given her the time of day in the big awards shows because she's so amazingly fantastic in the role. --Boco_T 01:54, 4 June 2006 (EDT)

Yet more praise for Lauren Graham. Her emotional range is incredible. And not just at hitting the highs and the lows, but being able to believably portray everything in between. --duskrequiem 09:53, 12 June 2006 (EDT)

• Chloë Sevigny, Big Love: As Nicki Grant, Sevigny is the most fanatical, unpredictable and, frankly, dangerous of Bill Henrickson's three wives. Sevigny is skilled at pulling off all the many faces of Nicki and is therefore the source of most of the character drama on the show. JCaesar 08:04, 15 June 2006 (EDT)
• Mary McDonnell, Battlestar Galactica: The emotional core of the show, she keeps the focus on humanity as the civilian leader of the fleeing survivors. This year she's had some pretty tough scenes to act through including the deaths of her two closest advisors and her own worsening cancer which required her to be weak while appearing strong. Her acting ability is most evident in the scenes between her and Edward James Olmos's Bill Adama. These scenes tend to carry a lot of emotion, subtext and complexity but come off as very real and natural. Their relationship at times was strained but through mostly subtle acting you could see them get closer and closer together making their final scene of the season together when she admits to fixing the election all that much more touching. If you listen to producer Ronald D. Moore's podcasts discussing their scenes together it's quite clear that a lot of the depth and complexity of these scenes is added by the two of them playing off each other so well.The-jam 12:11, 15 June 2006 (EDT)