From George Clooney to Steven Yeun, these actors went from TV stars to the Oscars

In recent years, the trend of seeing A-list movie stars making the transition to TV has become commonplace. Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant and Regina King have all migrated towards TV and the awards have followed.

But making the transition from TV to films has always been a tough one, especially for actors who spent years playing a character that audiences identify them with for the rest of their career.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. From Clooney to Yeun, Gosling to Hudson, these stars proved that you can start on the small screen and still make it all the way to the Academy Awards.

STEVEN YEUN

Started From TV: The Walking Dead

Now We Here: First Asian actor nominated for Best Actor for Minari at this year’s Academy Awards.

Most fans know Steven Yeun from his six years on The Walking Dead, where he played the lovable and heroic Glenn Rhee. Yeun’s time on The Walking Dead came to an end in one of the most gruesome deaths ever shown on the small screen and frankly, we’re still not over it, but TWD wasn’t Yeun’s only TV role. The actor had already appeared in The Big Bang Theory, Law & Order: LA, and went on to act on Drunk History and in the recent remake of The Twilight Zone.

GEORGE CLOONEY

Started From TV: Roseanne, ER

Now We Here: Clooney has been nominated for six Oscars and won Best Supporting Actor for Syriana and won Best Picture as a producer on Argo.

George Clooney may be one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, but the early days of his career included several short stints on sitcoms like Roseanne, The Golden Girls, The Facts of Life, Bodies of Evidence and Sisters.

His first on-screen TV role was a show called E/R, not to be confused with the medical drama ER, which would launch his career in the mid-1990s. His first major Hollywood role was in 1996’s From Dusk Til Dawn. Since then, he’s starred in a movie or two…or 30.

TOM HANKS

Started From TV: Bosom Buddies

Now We Here: Six nominations and two wins.

Like Clooney, Tom Hanks has also been nominated for six Academy Awards and won two, taking home back-to-back Best Actor wins in 1993 and 1994 for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.

Before becoming America’s Dad and one of the most beloved film stars of all time, Hanks landed a role on the ABC series Bosom Buddies. The show led to a guest spot on Happy Days, where Hanks met Ron Howard, who would later cast him in Splash and help launch his film career.

VIOLA DAVIS

Started From TV: NYPD Blue, New York Undercover

Now We Here: Four nominations including one win and one pending.

Viola Davis started her career on the stage, performing off-Broadway and eventually making her Broadway debut in 1996. She appeared in a handful of TV series, including NYPD Blue and New York Undercover before moving to film and earning her first two Oscar nominations for Doubt and The Help.

Since then, Davis has split her time between film and TV, spending six seasons as lawyer Annalise Keating on How To Get Away With Murder and during that same time won her first Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Fences. She received her fourth nomination this year for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

GOLDIE HAWN

Started From TV: Good Morning World, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In

Now We Here: Won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Cactus Flower.

Goldie Hawn started her career in the short-lived TV series Good Morning World before joining the cast of the sketch comedy series Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. While appearing on Rowan & Martin, Hawn also filmed the 1969 movie Cactus Flower, which earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and helped kick off her film career.

SALLY FIELD

Started From TV: Gidget, The Flying Nun

Now We Here: Three Oscar nominations and two Best Actress wins.

Sally Field began a successful TV career in the late 1960s, first as the title character surfer girl in Gidget and later as Sister Bertrille in The Flying Nun. In 1973, she joined the cast of The Girl with Something Extra for one season and left to study acting.

Field later began appearing in films, including Smokey and the Bandit, and played the title role of union organizer Norma Rae in the 1979 film, which earned Field her first Oscar for Best Actress. Field won Best Actress again in 1985 for Places in the Heart and was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for 2012’s Lincoln.

JAMIE FOXX

Started From TV: The Jamie Foxx Show, In Living Color

Now We Here: Two nominations and one win.

Comedian, producer, musician and actor Jamie Foxx got his start doing stand-up before joining the cast of the sketch series In Living Color, starring opposite Jim Carrey, David Alan Grier and several members of the Wayans family (let’s not forget Fly Girls Jennifer Lopez, Carrie Ann Inaba, Laurieann Gibson and Rosie Perez).

Foxx eventually launched his own series The Jamie Foxx Show and starred in a few films during that time, including Any Given Sunday and Ali. Foxx made his mark on Hollywood when he won Best Actor at the 2005 Academy Awards for his portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray. That same year, Foxx was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Collateral.

MICHELLE WILLIAMS

Started From TV: Baywatch, Step By Step, Dawson’s Creek

Now We Here: Four-time Academy Award nominee

Michelle Williams’ early acting experience includes guest roles in some of the most popular shows of the 1990s, including Baywatch, Step By Step, and Home Improvement. Williams eventually landed her career-launching role as Jen Lindley on Dawson’s Creek. Starring on all six seasons, Williams switched mostly to film roles after Dawson’s Creek ended. She’s yet to take home an Oscar but has been nominated twice for Best Supporting Actress (Brokeback Mountain, Manchester By The Sea) and twice for Best Actress (Blue Valentine, My Week With Marilyn).

WILL SMITH

Started From TV: Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Now We Here: Two Oscar nominations for Best Actor.

In 1990, rapper Will Smith made the transition to the small screen with the hugely successful and groundbreaking Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. During the six years Smith played his alter ego on screen, he began accumulating massive film roles, first with 1993’s Bad Boys and later in Independence Day. By the time Smith play Muhammad Ali in 2001’s Ali, he was a bona fide movie star and earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Smith was nominated again in 2006 when he starred opposite his son Jaden Smith in the drama The Pursuit of Happyness.

LEONARDO DICAPRIO

Started From TV: Growing Pains

Now We Here: Six Oscar nominations and one Best Actor win.

Fans of the late 1980s sitcom Growing Pains will likely remember the homeless teen Luke Brower, who temporarily moved in with the Seavers. A young Leonardo DiCaprio’s first TV role quickly led to the big screen with a starring role opposite Robert DeNiro in the very powerful and very heartbreaking This Boy’s Life.

The A-list actor was first nominated in 1994 for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, earning three more acting nominations before finally winning Best Actor for his role in The Revenant. DiCaprio was nominated again in 2020 for his role in Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood. Luke Brower has come a long way.

RYAN GOSLING

Started From TV: The Mickey Mouse Club, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Breaker High, Young Hercules

Now We Here: Two Best Actor nominations.

American kids of the mid-1990s will remember Ryan Gosling from his dancing, singing and acting on The Mickey Mouse Club opposite Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Canadian kids will remember him from just about every other show on TV at the time, including Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Goosebumps, Breaker High and Young Hercules.

The Canadian actor made the jump to features in 2000’s Remember The Titans, followed by dramas like The Believer, Murder By Numbers and eventually becoming a romantic lead in The Notebook. Gosling earned his first Best Actor nomination for 2006’s Half Nelson and was nominated again for La La Land, which notably did not win Best Picture.

OPRAH WINFREY

Started From TV: Um, she’s Oprah Winfrey.

Now We Here: Two nominations and one win.

Oprah Winfrey began her career in television as the youngest and first Black woman to be a news anchor at Nashville's WLAC-TV. Winfrey went on to host her own morning show in Chicago before becoming the host of the hour-long daily Oprah Winfrey Show, which ran from 1986 to 2011.

In 1985, Winfrey played the fierce and forbiddable Sofia in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. The role earned Winfrey a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Winfrey was awarded her first Oscar in 2011, winning the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Winfrey was also part of the cast of 2014’s Selma, which was nominated for Best Picture.

MORGAN FREEMAN

Started From TV: The Electric Company

Now We Here: Five Oscar nominations and one Best Supporting Actor wins.

Morgan Freeman started his career as an actor and dancer in off-Broadway productions before joining The Electric Company, a children’s show on PBS. After leaving the series, Freeman went back and forth between the stage and TV roles, including two years on the soap opera Another World.

Freeman began booking larger film roles in the late 1980s, including 1988’s Street Smart, which earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Freeman was nominated for Best Actor for Driving Miss Daisy and The Shawshank Redemption, winning his first Oscar in 2005 for Best Supporting Actor in Million Dollar Baby. Freeman’s most recent nomination arrived in 2010 for his role in Invictus.

JENNIFER HUDSON

Started From TV: American Idol

Now We Here: Won Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls.

In one of the best TV-to-film glow-ups of all time, Jennifer Hudson went from the finals of American Idol in 2004 to winning Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls in 2006, which was also the Grammy winners’ first feature role.

Hudson has continued to split her time between music and films and returned to TV for the shows Smash, Empire and as a coach on The Voice.

DEV PATEL

Started From TV: Skins

Now We Here: Best Supporting Actor nomination for Lion.

Dev Patel made his acting debut in the UK series Skins, spending two seasons as Anwar Kharral and starring opposite future fellow Hollywood crossover stars Nicholas Hoult, Daniel Kaluuya and Joe Dempsie.

Patel once again made a massive impact with his first feature role as the lead character in Slumdog Millionaire, which earned 10 Academy Award nominations and took home eight, including Best Picture. In 2016, Patel starred opposite Nicole Kidman in the film Lion, which was based on the true story of Saroo Brierley, who found his way back to his small Indian hometown after being adopted by a couple in Australia. Patel was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his dramatic starring role.

BEFORE YOU GO: Oscars nominations making history

[video_embed id='2160714']BEFORE YOU GO: Oscars nominations making history[/video_embed]