BENJAMONSTER AWARDS 2021: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Today's award is Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series!

Check out the nominees and winner from 2020!

This year's nominees are:

OLIVIA COLMAN as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown (Netflix)

EMMA CORRIN as Princess Diana in The Crown (Netflix)

BRANDEE EVANS as Mercedes in P-Valley (Starz)

ELARICA JOHNSON as Autumn Night in P-Valley (Starz)

ELISABETH MOSS as June Osborne in The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu)

MJ RODRIGUEZ as Blanca Rodriguez in Pose (FX)

JORDAN KRISTINE SEAMON as Caitlin Poythress in We Are Who We Are (HBO)

And the Winner Is...

EMMA CORRIN

The Crown (Netflix)

We all knew The Crown would be buzzy for season four because it got to the Charles and Diana years. But the show knocked it out of the park with the casting of Emma Corrin as Princess Diana. She had her mannerisms and demeanor down perfectly while taking Diana on a journey through the 1980s. Corrin understood all the understated appeal of Diana and the genuine kindness mixed with a deep sense of insecurity. When playing someone as iconic as Princess Diana, it would have been easy to give a very surface level performance. But Corrin brought tremendous depth to the role and was a revelation. Considering how many people have had something to say about Diana while she lived and since her death, it's really impressive that Corrin could bust through all that and take things back to basis with a character who was a princess but also a very real person. I will miss Emma Corrin's portrayal in Season Five.

Thoughts on the Rest of the Nominees:

This category was dominated with actresses from The Crown and P-Valley. Returning nominee Olivia Colman was overshadowed at times by her co-stars who had more meaty material (Corrin, Josh O'Connor and Gillian Anderson). But she is the main character in the show and she provided a grounded center to everything that happened. The two P-Valley actresses, Elarica Johnson and Brandee Evans went on very different journeys with Johnson being more front and center in the first half of the season and Evans in the back half. Both were very strong characters that helped P-Valley be so much more than a "stripper show." Elisabeth Moss finally saw her character get past being tortured time and time again and showed new depth in the character. Returning nominee Mj Rodriguez continued to be the heart and soul of Pose in its final season. Finally, Jordan Kristine Seamon gave a very interesting performance and went on an interesting journey in We Are Who We Are.

Tomorrow: Outstanding Limited/Anthology Series!

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