Nominee Profiles 2021

Four years after his first Golden Globe nomination for his performance as Nasir Khan in the gripping mini-series The Night Of, British actor Riz Ahmed returns to the Golden Globe nominee roster. Nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for Sound of Metal by Darius Marder, Ahmed delivers a vulnerably poignant performance as Ruben, a heavy-metal drummer who rapidly loses his hearing while on tour.

English actor, comedian and provocateur extraordinaire, Sacha Baron Cohen is a two-time nominee for this year’s Golden Globe: as Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, (directed by Jason Woliner, the film is also a nominee as Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy) and as Best Supporting Actor for Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7.  Mostly known for his unorthodox, bizarre, fictional characters, which he honed and perfected with his seminal TV series Da Ali G Show (in which he created the Borat and Brüno characters, among many others), Baron Cohen, who will turn 50 in October, also shows real acting skills as radical leader Abbie Hoffman in Chicago 7.

Amanda Seyfried received her first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Marion Davies in David Fincher’s Mank.   She has starred in several successful movies, including Mean Girls, Mama Mia!, Letters to Juliet, Lovelace, and Fathers and Daughters.

Jared Leto’s breakout role was in the cult TV series, My So-Called Life playing the teenage heartthrob, Jordan Catalano. He then took on roles that challenged that image by playing characters with dramatic physical characteristics, such as Fight Club where he was beaten to a pulp, Requiem for a Dream for which he lost 30 pounds, and Chapter 27 for which he gained 60 pounds.

We probably should thank our lucky stars that Tahar Rahim got bored studying sports and computer science in Strasbourg and Marseille and decided to pursue his passion instead: film. Born in Belfort, France – Rahim, whose family had immigrated from Oran, Algeria – pursued his first love at the Paul Valery University of Montpellier.

From the predatory Alex Forrest of Fatal Attraction to the manipulative Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons or the iconic Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians – not forgetting the ambitious lawyer Patty Hewes of the TV drama Damages – Glenn Close has enjoyed her share of complex parts, for which she has already earned three Golden Globes. This year the actress is up for her fourth nomination for her performance in Hillbilly Elegy.

Film fans of a certain age will likely always associate Bill Murray foremost with the anarchic comedies of his early career – the words “It just doesn’t matter!,” from his iconic “demotivational” speech in Meatballs, forever ringing in their ears. But like a fine wine, the 70-year-old actor seems to be just getting better with age.

The multi-talented James Corden, who is an actor, comedian, singer, writer, producer and television host, always credited the upbringing by his social worker mom and his musician father as the secret to his success. Growing up in Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire with two sisters in what he described as a “glorious family environment,” Corden admitted that he was the quiet one out of the three of them.

Maria Bakalova made her grand entrance into world cinema in the movie Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. The Bulgarian actress caught the eye of critics and Hollywood players alike for her faux innocent comic role and she was rewarded with a Best Actress in a Comedy nomination by the HFPA, by SAG and by the New York Film Critics Circle.

An aging man with progressing dementia lives with his daughter in an apartment in The Father. Her name is Anne and is played by Olivia Colman from a script written by Florian Zeller, who also directs her in the film.