Actor: Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling was a Mickey Mouse Club performer as a child and broke through in The Believer and Half Nelson, the latter bringing a Best Actor nomination for playing a teacher with a crack addiction.

Drive established the persona that stuck: a man who barely speaks, whose violence arrives without escalation, and the film is largely built on his silence.

La La Land required a year of piano training, and Barbie revealed a comic capacity that surprised almost everyone, earning him a supporting nomination for playing Ken as an existential crisis.