Primetime Emmys Biggest Nomination Snub: Ozark Star Tom Pelphrey

As any viewer of Ozark, the hit Netflix drama that stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, knows after watching the third season, Tom Pelphrey completely brought it and blew everyone away with his role as Linney’s bipolar-suffering brother, Ben. Curiously, his name was left off the list for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series this year.

Tom Pelphrey Primetime Emmys Snub

Adding insult to injury is the fact that today is the actor’s birthday! Alas, this morning all of the nominations for the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards were announced and his name was a glaring omission. Co-stars Bateman, Linney, and his onscreen girlfriend, Ruth (last year’s Emmy winner Julia Garner), were all feted with nominations and there’s a good chance his fellow actor will be submitting work they did with Pelphrey.

While his success in the role may have been a surprise to many of Ozark’s viewers, it sure wasn’t to those who had watched the actor in his first television role as Jonathan Randall on Guiding Light.

His raw power as the son of multi-Daytime Emmy-winning actress Kim Zimmer’s Reva Shayne set daytime on fire at the time and earned the talented newcomer two Daytime Emmys in the Outstanding Younger Actor category in 2006 and 2008. During a recent appearance on The Locher Room, Zimmer talked up her former TV son’s appearance on Ozark, saying had it been in a film, he’d be getting an Oscar nomination.

While his character was briefly spoken about in an earlier season, Wendy Byrde’s (Linney) troubled brother Ben first appeared during Season 3. From the moment he came onscreen, he demanded attention with his bigger than life persona but also showed an amazingly tender side as he fiercely defended anyone he cared about in his life — including Marty’s (Batemen) trusted right hand in business, Ruth.

Their love story, as almost everything on Ozark, seemed destined to be doomed but as a viewer, you couldn’t help but hope they might make it. Alas, nothing is easy in their world and what Ben comes up against (both internally and externally) was definitely Emmy-worthy material — especially a four-plus minute monologue in a taxi.

The fact such a standout performance is going unrewarded is… dare we say considering the world of Ozark… a crime.