British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor

The British Academy Television Awards are given out by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). They are informally known as the BAFTA TV Awards. They have been awarded since 1954.

British Academy Television Award
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	British Academy of Film and Television Arts
First award	2010
Currently held by	Ariyon Bakare for Mr Loverman (2025)
Website	http://www.bafta.org/

From 1968-1997, the BAFTA TV Awards and the BAFTA Film Awards were presented in one joint ceremony. Since 1998, there have been two separate ceremonies. The film awards are held in February, two weeks ahead of the Academy Awards (Oscars) in America, while the Television awards are held in late May. The BAFTA TV Award is the UK equivalent to the Emmy Award in the United States.

The awards for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress were first presented at the 2010 ceremony.

Winners and nominees

Matthew Macfadyen was the first winner of the award in 2010 for Criminal Justice. He also won in 2022 and 2024 for Succession.

Martin Freeman won for Sherlock in 2011, he also won a Primetime Emmy Award for the series.

Andrew Scott won for Sherlock in 2012

Tom Courtenay won for Unforgotten in 2016

Tom Hollander won for The Night Manager in 2017.

Ben Whishaw won in 2019 for A Very English Scandal, he also won a Primetime Emmy Award for the series.

Will Sharpe won for Giri/Haji (2020)

2010s

Year	Actors	Work	Character	Network
2010 (56th)
	Matthew Macfadyen	Criminal Justice	Joe Miller	BBC One
	Tom Hollander	Gracie!	Monty Banks	BBC Four
	Benedict Cumberbatch	Small Island	Bernard Bligh	BBC One
	Gary Lewis	Mo	Adam Ingram	Channel 4
2011 (57th)
	Martin Freeman	Sherlock	Dr. John Watson	BBC One
	Brendan Coyle	Downton Abbey	John Bates	ITV
	Johnny Harris	This is England '86	Michael "Mick" Jenkins	Channel 4
	Robert Sheehan	Misfits	Nathan Young	E4
2012 (58th)
	Andrew Scott	Sherlock	Jim Moriarty	BBC One
	Stephen Rea	The Shadow Line	Gatehouse	BBC Two
	Martin Freeman	Sherlock	Dr. John Watson	BBC One
	Joseph Mawle	Birdsong	Jack Firebrace
2013 (59th)
	Simon Russell Beale	"Henry IV, Parts I & II": The Hollow Crown	Falstaff	BBC Two
	Harry Lloyd	The Fear	Matty Beckett	Channel 4
	Stephen Graham	Accused	Tony	BBC One
	Peter Capaldi	The Hour	Randall Brown	BBC Two
2014 (60th)
	David Bradley	Broadchurch	Jack Marshall	ITV
	Jerome Flynn	Ripper Street	Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake	BBC One
	Nico Mirallegro	The Village	Joe Middleton
	Rory Kinnear	Southcliffe	David Whitehead	Channel 4
2015 (61st)
	Stephen Rea	The Honourable Woman	Sir Hugh Hayden-Hoyle	BBC Two
	Adeel Akhtar	Utopia	Wilson Wilson	Channel 4
	James Norton	Happy Valley	Tommy Lee Royce	BBC One
	Ken Stott	The Missing	Ian Garrett
2016 (62nd)
	Tom Courtenay	Unforgotten	Eric Slater	ITV
	Ian McKellen	The Dresser	Norman	Channel 4
	Anton Lesser	Wolf Hall	Thomas More	BBC Two
	Cyril Nri	Cucumber	Lance Sullivan
2017 (63rd)
	Tom Hollander	The Night Manager	Major "Corky" Lance Corkoran	BBC One
	Daniel Mays	Line of Duty	Danny Waldron	BBC Two
	Jared Harris	The Crown	King George VI	Netflix
	John Lithgow		Winston Churchill
2018 (64th)
	Brían F. O'Byrne	Little Boy Blue	Steve Jones	ITV
	Adrian Dunbar	Line of Duty	Ted Hastings	BBC One
	Anupam Kher	The Boy With The Topknot	Sathnam’s Father	BBC Two
	Jimmi Simpson	Black Mirror: USS Callister	James "Wally" Walton	Netflix
2019 (65th)
	Ben Whishaw	A Very English Scandal	Norman Josiffe	BBC One
	Alex Jennings	Unforgotten	Tim Finch	ITV
	Kim Bodnia	Killing Eve	Konstantin Vasiliev	BBC One
	Stephen Graham	Save Me	Fabio "Melon" Melonzola	Sky Atlantic

2020s

Year	Actors	Work	Character	Network
2020 (66th) [1]
	Will Sharpe	Giri/Haji	Rodney Yamaguchi	BBC Two
	Joe Absolom	A Confession	Christopher Halliwell	ITV
	Josh O'Connor	The Crown	Charles, Prince of Wales	Netflix
	Stellan Skarsgård	Chernobyl	Boris Shcherbina	HBO / Sky Atlantic
2021 (67th) [2]	Malachi Kirby	Small Axe: Mangrove	Darcus Howe	BBC One
	Kunal Nayyar	Criminal: UK	Sandeep Singh	Netflix
	Tobias Menzies	The Crown	Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
	Michael Sheen	Quiz	Chris Tarrant	ITV
	Rupert Everett	Adult Material	Carroll Quinn	Channel 4
	Micheal Ward	Small Axe: Lovers Rock	Franklyn Cooper	BBC One
2022 (68th) [3]	Matthew MacFadyen	Succession	Tom Wambsgans	HBO / Sky Atlantic
	Callum Scott Howells	It's a Sin	Colin "Gladys Pugh" Morris-Jones	Channel 4
	Omari Douglas		Roscoe Babatunde
	David Carlyle		Gregory "Gloria" Finch
	Nonso Anozie	Sweet Tooth	Tommy Jepperd	Netflix
	Stephen Graham	Time	Eric McNally	BBC One
2023 (69th) [4][5]	Adeel Akhtar	Sherwood	Andy Fisher	BBC One
	Samuel Bottomley	Somewhere Boy	Aaron	Channel 4
	Josh Finan	The Responder	Marco	BBC One
	Salim Daw	The Crown	Mohamed Al-Fayed	Netflix
	Jack Lowden	Slow Horses	River Cartwright	Apple TV+
	Will Sharpe	The White Lotus	Ethan Spiller	Sky Atlantic
2024 (70th) [6]	Matthew MacFadyen	Succession	Tom Wambsgans	HBO / Sky Atlantic
	Amit Shah	Happy Valley	Faisal Bhatti	BBC One
	Éanna Hardwicke	The Sixth Commandment	Ben Field
	Harris Dickinson	A Murder at the End of the World	William "Bill" Farrah	Disney+
	Jack Lowden	Slow Horses	River Cartwright	Apple TV+
	Salim Daw	The Crown	Mohamed Al-Fayed	Netflix
2025 (71st) [7][8]
	Ariyon Bakare	Mr Loverman	Morris De La Roux	BBC One
	Damian Lewis	Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light	Henry VIII	BBC One
	Christopher Chung	Slow Horses	Roddy Ho	Apple TV+
	Jonathan Pryce		David Cartwright
	McKinley Belcher III	Eric	Michael Ledroit	Netflix
	Sonny Walker	The Gathering	Adam	Channel 4

Superlatives

Record	Actor	Programme	Age (in years)
Oldest winner	Tom Courtenay	Unforgotten	79
Oldest nominee
Youngest winner	Malachi Kirby	Small Axe : Mangrove	30
Youngest nominee	Samuel Bottomley	Somewhere Boy	21

Actors with multiple wins and nominations

Multiple wins

The following people have won the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor multiple times:

3 wins Matthew Macfadyen

Multiple nominations

The following people have been nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor multiple times:

3 nominations Stephen Graham Matthew Macfadyen 2 nominations Adeel Akhtar Salim Daw Martin Freeman Tom Hollander Jack Lowden Stephen Rea Will Sharpe

Programmes with multiple wins and nominations

Multiple Awards

2 awards Sherlock Succession

Multiple Nominations

6 nominations The Crown 3 nominations It's a Sin Sherlock

2 nominations Happy Valley Line of Duty Slow Horses Succession Unforgotten