“Succession is the mountain that I would like to climb for the rest of my life,” said Jeremy Strong in an interview with the HFPA about the show that has led to his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Television Series, Drama.
In Succession, Strong plays Kendall Roy, the eldest of the Roy siblings, Roman, Shiv, Connor, and Kendall, who all fight to take over their father’s conglomerate, Waystar Royco. In the first season, Kendall’s attempt to make this happen fails and he is left in a state of shock from a dramatic event that has made him the subject of his father’s manipulation. However, in season 3, the rebellious – and at times cocky although at the same time terrified – son gets closer to his goal
“I think the central question of Succession is: can you escape family?” said Strong about the premise of the HBO series. “The very first time I went to the writers’ room in London, that was on the wall on a 3-by-5 note card as the very first question and is posited as the central question…I really think we see each of these characters struggling with whether they can free themselves from this family and from the legacy that they have inherited and the way that it defines them. We all fight this battle.”
Succession was created by the English screenwriter Jesse Armstrong and won a Golden Globe for Best Drama TV series in 2020. Brian Cox, who plays the overbearing patriarch of the family, Logan Roy, also won the award for his performance that same year. Now, Strong is nominated in that same category along with his co-star Brian Cox. Co-stars Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin have also received Golden Globe nominations for their portrayals of Shiv and Roman in the Best Supporting Actress and Actor categories. 
“It is just in their DNA,” says Strong about the behavior of the Roy family members. “Other people under other circumstances might not value that legacy as much or care about who becomes the CEO of Waystar Royco – as most people don’t. But for them, that has been set up from their earliest lives as the myth they live by. It is the defining monomyth, and it is all they know. And it is a great question that the writers ask: can they create a new myth? And can they maybe at some point escape the narrative that they are so stuck in?” You know – who is Kendall apart from his father and apart from that striving?”
Jeremy Strong has a long list of high-profile films on his CV, such as Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012), Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Ava DuVernay’s Selma (2014), Adam McKay’s The Big Short (2015) and Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen (2019). He played the countercultural activist Jerry Rubin in Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020); he had previously worked with Sorkin on Molly’s Game (2017).
Jeremy Strong was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 25, 1978. He is married to Danish psychiatrist, Emma Wall, with whom he has three young daughters.