FACES OF 2026
A museum in Los Angeles, a gallery in New York and 12 of the year’s most compelling actors. At LACMA and Sprüth Magers, we photographed the performers who defined this season of television—and asked them what art has to do with it.
Photography by Roman Koval Fashion Editor Chris B. Kim
Lamorne Morris, Spider-Noir
Morris has been showing off his range for more than two decades, from the seven seasons he spent on New Girl to the fifth season of Fargo, where his performance as a doomed cop won him an Emmy. On Spider-Noir, he plays Robbie Robertson, a freelance journalist for the Daily Bugle who helps the Spider (Nicolas Cage) uncover a grand conspiracy gripping Depression-era New York City. Sharing the screen with Cage, Morris brings just the right balance of dramatic weight and rat-a-tat comedic rhythm to the rain-drizzled homage to 1940s film noir.
Diego Calva, The Night Manager
Calva’s vulnerability was his superpower in his breakout role in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, but he wields that trait like a weapon in the second season of the British spy series The Night Manager, playing foe-with-a-heart Teddy Dos Santos. His charged performance makes his scenes opposite Tom Hiddleston unpredictable in more ways than one, adding dimension to an antagonist who could have easily been played as a mustache-twirling baddie.
Ken Leung & Myha’la
Ken Leung, Industry
Leung has been beloved for his roles on Lost, The Night Shift and Avatar: The Last Airbender, making him the perfect actor to play Eric Tao, the warped mentor of Myha’la’s Harper Stern on Industry. Eric has toed the line of what being a leader means, pushing Harper and her colleagues to the bounds of their capabilities, not to mention the limits of the law. But when he falls into a moral depravity that even Harper can’t forgive, Leung plays his fall from grace with devastating impact.
Myha’la, Industry
Myha’la has been an undeniable force since Bodies Bodies Bodies, but she hit the big time as Harper Stern in HBO’s finance drama Industry, a role she’s owned for four seasons. Staying true to the cutthroat attitude that gave Harper an edge on the trading floor back in Season 1, Myha’la conveys Harper’s success-at-any-cost ethos, occasionally flashing a rare sliver of conscience in a soulless capitalist system.
Justine Lupe, Nobody Wants This
It would be easy for Lupe to play Morgan, the know-it-all sister of Kristen Bell’s Joanne, as the entitled and superficial L.A. shiksa blonde that the outside world perceives her to be. But Lupe pushes the role further, threading hints of insecurity into her sassy one-liners that nod to a creeping self-doubt Morgan faces as she struggles to find love like the one her sister is experiencing. It’s a three-dimensional role typically reserved for series leads.
Morgan Spector, The Gilded Age
As the head of the robber baron Russell family, Spector’s George has to indulge the whims and ambitions of his status-hungry wife Bertha while keeping a steady but ruthless eye on his business endeavors. Russell embodies that internal battle with ease—and looks great doing it. Through three seasons and counting, we’ve watched George fight for his family’s standing against impossible odds. Whether he’s negotiating a fortune-making deal or defending his daughter’s heart, fans can’t get enough of their favorite “railroad daddy.”
Rhea Seehorn, Pluribus
No one in Hollywood is doing it like Rhea Seehorn. As the muse at the center of Vince Gilligan’s latest television masterpiece, she carries this complicated sci-fi drama with a masterful performance as Carol, one of a few individuals left unaffected by an alien virus hive mind. Having suffered the loss of her wife shortly after the infection began, Carol carries a heavy grief with her as she resists efforts by the Others to join them. She makes questionable decisions and is beyond snarky, but she is eminently lovable.
Rebecca Hall, The Beauty
In a world where beauty is seemingly eternal, of course Rebecca Hall stands out. Ryan Murphy’s foray into sci-fi stars Evan Peters and Hall as FBI agents investigating a mysterious disease that turns those infected into the most optimal versions of themselves. This involves a macabre, but painfully beautiful transformation, which Hall’s Jordan Bennett undergoes before any other character on the show. Her performance not only brings the limited series’ premise to life in dazzling fashion, but it also kicks off a romance that you won’t soon forget.
Alessandro Nivola & Sarah Pidgeon
Alessandro Nivola, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette
Nivola has always been one of those criminally underheralded actors guaranteed to make any project better, with roles in projects like Face/Off, American Hustle and The Brutalist. He does it again in Love Story as legendary designer Calvin Klein. Nivola plays him with the perfect blend of hauteur and warmth, lighting up every scene with a magnetism only he could deliver, still leaving space for Sarah Pidgeon’s Carolyn Bessette as she navigates this fantastical love story.
Sarah Pidgeon, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette
Pidgeon proved her acting chops in the survival series The Wilds and the drama Tiny Beautiful Things, but it was her turn as Carolyn Bessette in FX’s Love Story that endeared her to mainstream audiences. Pidgeon embodies Bessette’s effortless charisma to a tee, while also leaving room for vulnerability as a woman falling in love with JFK Jr.
Gerran Howell, The Pitt
Howell endeared himself to audiences as Whitaker, the Midwestern med student who can trap rats and is the butt of every joke, despite his stellar work ethic, clear morals and noble intentions. In Season 2 of the HBO Max hospital drama, Howell imbues the newly minted Dr. Whitaker with confidence and authority, in addition to his trademark sweetness.
Paul W. Downs, Hacks
Downs has long been lauded for creating Hacks alongside Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky, but the final season of the beloved comedy gives him the chance to flex his muscles as a performer. Standing as one of the emotional and moral cores of the HBO Max comedy, Downs provides a steady ground for the women around him, including Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder and Megan Stalter, to shine.
Credits
FASHION MARKET EDITOR: DAN VICTORIA GLEASON PRODUCER: DAISY ROBINSON DP AND CAMERA: TONY CORELLA DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: SNAKE GARCIA PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT: ARIC VAN HALEN FASHION ASSISTANTS: TONY SOTO, JEN RIM, EDDIE CARMELO AND JUAN TAPIA PRODUCTION ASSISTANT (LA): JOSH CRANE PRODUCTION ASSISTANT (NY): RAYA HABBAL SPECIAL THANKS: LACMA, SPRÜTH MAGERS LOS ANGELES AND SPRÜTH MAGERS NEW YORK.
Roman Koval
is a Ukrainian-born, Los Angeles–based photographer. His portraits play sharpness against blur, push color to saturation and let light leak across the frame, giving his pictures the intimacy of memory.
TheWrapBook – Issue 06 – The Art of Television
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