Succession supercharged their careers. But who’s done the best work since?

2 months ago 6

It’s been 2½ years since Succession, the most celebrated television series of the past 10 years, concluded. The fortunes of the Roy clan and their contentious corporate empire, Waystar Royco, inspired obsessive viewing: we hung on every privileged machination and scything insult. It was the kind of show that could completely change the trajectory of an actor’s career, and across four seasons the cast was exceptional. But what did they subsequently do with the opportunity and access afforded them?

Enough time has passed that we can begin to rate how the leading players in Succession’s ensemble have fared. The marks below – listed from lowest to highest – are based on the quality of each actor’s post-Succession work across various mediums, how they’ve managed their professional profile, and the general vibes of their celebrity era. If this was a Vaulter (RIP) article it would be titled “Which Succession Star Jump-Scared the Shark (It’s Not the Jerk You Expect).”

Nicholas Braun 6/10

Nicholas Braun plays Andy Kaufman in the 2024 film Saturday Night.

A successful child actor who transitioned into being an extremely tall man, Braun has gravitated to indie work and character roles since finishing up as the perpetually obsequious Cousin Greg. The New York Times was iffy on his lead performance in the off-Broadway production Gruesome Playground Injuries, while he fared better with the dual roles of Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman in the 1970s biopic Saturday Night. Braun was so good as the hapless Greg that he gets a bonus point for not being typecast in his work since.

Alan Ruck 6/10

Alan Ruck as Mike Allred and Jamie Foxx as Willie Gary in The Burial.

Before nailing the role of failson Connor Roy, who steered clear of the family business but thought he’d make a great president of the United States (stay true, Conheads!), Alan Ruck was well into the fourth decade of a successful career as a working actor – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Speed and Spin City were just a few of his many credits. Ruck has happily returned to that life, playing a lawyer seconded by Jamie Foxx’s legal showman in The Burial (Amazon Prime) and the dual role of hedge fund founding twins in a second-season episode of the murder-mystery Elsbeth (Paramount+). Kudos for not succumbing to ego after Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

Brian Cox 6.5/10

Brian Cox in horror-comedy The Parenting.

When you’re closing in on 80 years old, as Cox is, the criteria for a successful career are different. The ever-quotable Logan Roy might be the perfect final peak, so he’s allowed to now enjoy himself. Cox has continued to do a raft of voice work and starred in some minor movies; the horror-comedy The Parenting (HBO Max, Binge) is the pick of the litter. His best acting might well be in an Uber Eats advert in which he plays a mature-age uni student. The proud, pro-independence Scotsman has also celebrated his homeland, returning to the stage in Edinburgh for the play Make It Happen and narrating this stirring celebration of the men’s national football team qualifying for next year’s World Cup.

Justine Lupe 7/10

Kristen Bell (left) as Joanne and Justine Lupe as Morgan.

This is a good example of leveraging a career opening. Lupe’s Willa Ferreyra was initially a small role on Succession, Connor Roy’s high-end escort turned girlfriend, whose debut as a playwright was cursed by sand mites and savage reviews. The character rightly became more prominent with each season, and post-Succession Lupe has taken another step up, getting third billing in the showy supporting role of Morgan Williams, youngest sister and podcasting partner to Kristen Bell’s Joanne in the hit Netflix romantic-comedy series Nobody Wants This. Lupe has been a standout in both seasons, hitting the mark with every one of Morgan’s savage appraisals.

Matthew Macfadyen 7.5/10

Matthew Macfadyen as Charles Guiteau in Death by Lightning.

One of those self-effacing British actors with impeccable technical skills, Macfadyen was aces in the recent Netflix historic drama Death by Lightning, where he played a 19th-century US presidential assassin. His Charles Guiteau was cringeworthy and incompetent, the type of role Macfadyen finessed as Succession’s dogged interloper and Roy son-in-law Tom Wambsgans. The performance was accomplished but you could also argue it was familiar. Given that an exposition-heavy supporting role in Deadpool & Wolverine didn’t pop, it would be good to see some more from Macfadyen. His turn as John le Carre’s iconic British spymaster George Smiley in coming series Legacy of Spies sounds promising.

Jeremy Strong 8/10

Jeremy Strong (left) as Roy Cohn, the lawyer who takes a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) under his wing.

Somehow both pompous and ruthless, Strong’s Kendall Roy was the tragic backbeat of Succession. A method actor, much to Brian Cox’s chagrin, Strong has doubled down on serious dramatic roles. He won a Tony Award for his 2024 Broadway performance in Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, and was Oscar nominated – losing to Succession co-star Kieran Culkin – for his unflinching turn as Roy Cohn, the reptilian lawyer who schooled a young Donald Trump, in the caustic biopic The Apprentice (Stan), before making the most of a narrowly written role as the caring manager in Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. Can he find the right leading-man role? Should he try? At least he’s leading the pack in fashion, recently levelling up his red-carpet look to crypto-bro dandy.

Kieran Culkin 8.5/10

Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg play polar-opposite cousins in A Real Pain.

Hilarious with a streak of self-loathing as the irreverent Roman Roy, Culkin has taken two big swings since Succession ended. The first: following in the footsteps of Al Pacino, playing the lead role of Ricky Roma in a high-profile Broadway revival of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. It was not well-received. But it doesn’t matter because Culkin was close to astonishing as the chaotic and deeply troubled half of an odd-couple comedy-drama, opposite writer-director Jesse Eisenberg, in A Real Pain (Disney+). It was a performance that genuinely furthered his Succession work and he gave a true-to-form acceptance speech when he won the Academy Award for best supporting actor.

Sarah Snook 9/10

Sarah Snook as Marissa, Michael Pena as Detective Alcaras, and Jake Lacy as Peter (background).

All hail Sarah Snook! Like Culkin, this Australian star has pursued a single prominent project on both the stage and the screen but in her case both have delivered. Having mastered the role of Shiv Roy, the compromised daughter who couldn’t resist seeking her flawed father’s approval, Snook won acclaim for playing 26 roles on London’s West End and then Broadway in the solo show The Picture of Dorian Gray. Her Tony Award from Broadway, along with a Succession Emmy, means she’s halfway to EGOT. November’s streaming mystery All Her Fault (Binge), with Snook headlining as a mother whose child goes missing, was a sharp thriller carried by Snook’s compelling mix of guilt and anger. The performance has just earned her a Golden Globe nomination too. An impeccable one-two career punch.

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