BENJAMONSTER AWARDS 2026: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Today's award is Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series!

Past Awards in This Category: 2025   2024   2023   2022   2021   2020

This year's nominees are... 












KRISTEN BELL as Joanne Williams in Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
QUINTA BRUNSON as Janine Teagues in Abbott Elementary (ABC)
HANNAH EINBINDER as Ava Daniels in Hacks (HBO Max)
ELLE FANNING as Margo Millet in Margo's Got Money Troubles (Apple TV)
WENDI MCLENDON-COVEY as Joyce Henderson in St. Denis Medical (NBC)
TAYLOR ORTEGA as Morgan in Big Mistakes (Netflix)
JEAN SMART as Deborah Vance in Hacks (HBO Max)

And the Winner Is...
ELLE FANNING
Margo's Got Money Troubles (Apple TV)
It was hard to not give this award to one of the two Hacks ladies but this year's best Lead Actress performance came from the always reliable Elle Fanning in perhaps her best role yet. As Margo Millet, Elle Fanning had a lot of life to navigate. She was a new mother of a baby without a father in the picture, a struggling student trying to get by, a wounded daughter trying to build relationships with her parents. For all the crises thrown at her character, Elle Fanning kept the character light on her feet and infused Margo with humor and heart. She has a great sense of comedic timing but uses it judiciously to create a very complete character.

Thoughts on the Rest of the Nominees:
This award has been dominated by Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder in recent years. They were both great as always int he final season of Hacks but it wasn't the best season and they were at their very best even though they were still pretty darn good. I though Quinta Brunson came off more of a down season and had a stronger year (drunk Janine is a true comedic find). Taylor Ortega was a great pair with Dan Levy who had equally great delivery in Big Mistakes. Kristen Bell continues to be interesting and fun in Nobody Wants This. And finally, Wendi McLendon-Covey really dialed into the humor and sympathy in a modern day version of Michael Scott on St. Denis Medical.

Tomorrow: Outstanding Limited/Anthology Series!

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