Actor: Jesse Eisenberg

Jesse Eisenberg was nominated for Best Actor for The Social Network, playing Mark Zuckerberg with a delivery so fast that Sorkin’s dialogue lands as aggression instead of wit.

The Squid and the Whale and Adventureland show the earlier register, and Zombieland gave him comedy.

He is also a playwright and novelist, and directed A Real Pain, which he wrote and starred in and which won Kieran Culkin an Academy Award. He has been publicly ambivalent about acting as a career.