Since she began her career as a child actress in primetime TV dramas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead has established herself as one of the most interesting actresses in Hollywood. Winstead has all the trappings to be one of the biggest stars on the planet — she can act rings around some of her competition, she’s absolutely gorgeous, and she can even sing, as evidenced by her musical project Got a Girl — but she remains choosy when it comes to the roles she plays, a trait which has helped her carve out one of the most fascinating filmographies of any actress her generation.
From comedy to award-winning dramas to even dabbling at being a scream queen, Winstead has demonstrated she not only has range but the ability to take an otherwise lackluster project and elevate it through her performance alone. While she’s most recognizable by her impressive film resume, Winstead’s TV projects are just as varied and her work just as captivating. Here are her best TV series to date, ranked from least to best.
Honorable Mention: Ahsoka (2023)
While it’s way too soon to tell where Ahsoka will land on this list, the Star Wars show is already shaping up to be a contender for one of the top spots on this list. The series starring the longtime animated favorite who’s “not a Jedi” just premiered to already glowing reviews, with many fans praising Dave Filoni’s writing in particular. Winstead plays the live-action Hera Syndulla, who Star Wars Rebels fans will recognize as Ghost‘s captain and pilot. Hera is one of the best, if not the best, pilots in all of Star Wars and a capable and compassionate leader to her crew. It’s a great role for Winstead to explore and we can’t wait to see what she does with it in the coming episodes.
8. Passions (1999-2000)
After getting her start playing small parts in other network TV shows, Winstead got her first main role when she joined the cast of the NBC soap opera Passions. In the drama, Winstead plays Jessica Bennett, a character who mostly existed as a foil for her older sister Kay; Jessica was the “good” albeit nagging younger sister while Kay was the rebel who was always getting into trouble, including a stint in Hell (as one does on many a daytime soap). It’s a small role and one Winstead left only a year after joining, but she proved she was great at scene-stealing even when given little to do.
7. The Beauty Inside (2012)
Although not technically a television series, this 2012 web series is too good to not merit a mention on this list. The Beauty Inside is a collaboration between Intel and Toshiba meant to advertise computers, but it’s also a moving, well-developed romantic story centered around an intriguing sci-fi premise. The main character Alex wakes up in a new body every day, making relationships fundamentally impossible. Alex has dealt with this as best as he can, developing a career where he never has to interact with anyone face to face, but his carefully crafted life begins to fall apart when he meets Winstead’s character in the antique furniture shop he frequents.
While the Korean film and TV remakes are more well-known than the original, this is worth a watch; its interactive nature — audiences had the chance to play versions of the main character via video testimonials as well as interact with his Facebook timeline — was innovative at the time and helped it win a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding New Approach to an Original Daytime Program or Series.
6. Wolf Lake (2001-2002)
Before there was Twilight, there was Wolf Lake: a short-lived supernatural drama about a small town in Washington overrun with werewolves. Overrun might be too strong of a word, but the town sure has a lot of werewolves living in it unbeknownst to the general public. The show revolves around a detective trying to determine what happened to his fiancé who has gone missing right after she accepts his proposal; left with only her severed hand, Detective John Kanin travels to her hometown of Wolf Lake to get to the bottom of this mystery.
The mystery is that the town is full of werewolves, but John is unaware, spending much of the season trying to figure that out. Winstead plays the daughter of another sheriff as well as the love interest of a teenage werewolf, played by Paul Wesley of The Vampire Diaries fame. Although the show was well-loved by viewers, it was cancelled halfway through its first season. The remaining episodes would air later on UPN and the show has maintained a cult following after it was released to DVD in 2012.
5. Mercy Street (2016-2017)
If you’re a fan of historical dramas, you’ll likely enjoy Mercy Street. This PBS series stars Winstead as one of two real-life American nurses who work in the same hospital despite being on different sides of the Civil War. Winstead plays Mary Phinney von Olnhausen, a nurse and abolitionist whose diaries were published posthumously as the book Adventures of an Army Nurse in Two Wars. The book serves as the inspiration for much of the show and characters and events are often taken directly from its pages.
Lasting for two seasons, the show received mostly positive reviews from viewers and critics, although one common criticism was that the show was too dramatized for a story based in reality. Those critics should take their complaints to the real Mary Phinney herself, as her memoir is even more dramatic than the show would lead one to believe.
4. The Returned (2015)
Winstead had previously impressed audiences as the lead character in Final Destination 3, proving she has what it takes to shine in the horror genre. One year before she’d star in the critically acclaimed 10 Cloverfield Lane, Winstead was one of the main cast members of this 2015 American remake of the popular 2012 French series of the same name. The show is set in a small town where people who died years prior begin to reappear as though nothing has happened, terrifying their confused loved ones.
The show is almost a scene-by-scene remake of the original, but the story and performances are just as compelling in any language. Winstead plays Rowan (Adèle in the original), a woman who is shocked to see her late fiancé reenter her life a decade after his death. Unlike the French series, The Returned was cancelled shortly after its first season aired, leaving audiences with a suspenseful cliffhanger and little resolution.
3. BrainDead (2016)
Winstead continues her run of critically loved but short-lived TV shows with BrainDead, a 2016 satrical sci-fi political thriller comedy (that’s a lot of genres) where aliens have infiltrated Washington D.C., eating people’s brains, and taking control of their bodies. The gag is when these critters infect some members of Congress, most people don’t notice a change.
The show follows Winstead as Laurel Healey, a documentary filmmaker who’s run out of funds for her next project and has agreed to work as a political staffer for her brother, Democratic Senator Luke Healey, while she plans her next move. She soon uncovers the alien conspiracy and endeavors to put an end to the alien bugs once and for all. It’s a quirky comedy with a lot of suspenseful moments and Winstead’s varied delivery, which is appropriately deadpan or emotional as needed, is a big part of why the show is so fun.
2. Love, Death, & Robots (2019)
Winstead reunited with The Beauty Inside costar Topher Grace in an episode of the Netflix sci-fi anthology series Love, Death, & Robots where the two play a couple who discover an entire civilization living inside of their retro fridge. As many well-watched viewers would tell you, it’s not a unique premise — The Simpsons and The Twilight Zone have offered their own TV takes on the idea before — but it’s a beautiful episode. It’s easy to see why the two became so enamored with the world inside their fridge; aside from just being wonderfully designed, it’s incredibly fast-paced, spanning entire eras in minutes. The two watch the little world transition from prehistoric to modern to futuristic over the course of one evening, offering commentary while they watch.
It’s a short episode but an enjoyable one nonetheless, and one I found emotionally compelling. Although we know the little civilization just as long as Winstead. and Grace’s characters, it’s hard not to grow somewhat attached as you watch them build, fight wars, and progress as a society.
1. Fargo (2017)
Winstead’s best TV role to date was Nikki Swango, the magnetic and cunning antihero in season three of FX’s anthology series Fargo. It’s hard to agree with Nikki’s actions but it’s undeniably exciting to watch her plot ways to better her station in life throughout the season. Along with her character’s boyfriend (played by Ewan McGregor, who she married after filming), the two steal from his brother (also played by McGregor) in what they think is a foolproof, get-rich scheme but soon find they’re biting off more than they can chew. The two get wrapped up in a murder case, but these high stakes are what allow Nikki to shine as a character.
Nikki proves herself capable of keeping up with criminal masterminds, using the strategic mind she’s developed from playing competitive bridge and Winstead proves her versatility, playing a femme fatale with a complex, dangerous personality.
As Ahsoka kicks off and a Scott Pilgrim vs. The World anime starring the film’s original cast is set to premiere soon, Winstead’s TV career is still on the rise. Very impressive for an actress two decades into her career!
