Emmys 2017: Mariska Hargitay, Katheryn Winnick, Gillian Anderson top Drama Actress picks

In what shouldn’t be a surprise to any loyal TV viewer out there this year, the Actress in a Drama Series category for the upcoming 2017 Primetime Emmys is stacked. Across the board, you have wonderful performers who have brought their all to their roles this season. Unfortunately, you have a window in which there are only a few people who can actually be nominated. The six that actresses that the CarterMatt staff has chosen this year are the ones who really delivered, and made us feel everything from joy to heartbreak.

Of course, in addition to sharing our own personal CarterMatt staff picks for the category, we want to hear from you as well! That’s what the attached poll is all about.

How do you vote? It’s easy. Just pick your favorite of the nominees at the bottom of the article, and you can do so however many times you like — you may need to clear the cache first. (Note that if you are visiting on mobile and do not see the poll, you may need to click to view the non-AMP version of the page.) If your favorite is not on our list, be sure to leave us a comment in the box below with your choice. We still want to hear from you!

The 2017 Emmy nominations will be formally announced on July 13. The results of all of our CarterMatt Emmy polls will be formally revealed on July 12 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific. They will officially close in the minutes leading up to that time.

Our Nominees – Actress in a Drama Series

Gillian Anderson, The Fall (Netflix) – A gripping, emotional performance that may be one of the Anderson’s best in a storied career full of great ones. There was a economic quality to it in that Gillian had to make the most of what was a limited run of episodes, but she did just that in making Stella Gibson a powerful, but flawed character bent on getting the truth no matter what. Somehow, this worked to further elevate the British drama mold further, and it showed every facet of her acting arsenal.

Claire Foy, The Crown (Netflix) – Try to find a more nuanced, grounded performance of Queen Elizabeth than what Foy brought to the show throughout the first season. She was powerful, determined, and commanded every scene that she was a part of as a Queen should. For a role with this much history behind it, you needed someone who captured the essence of the Queen without suffering under the weight of the role. Foy did that, and accomplished in the process one of the rarest feats of all: Making it appear easy.

Mariska Harigitay, Law & Order: SVU (NBC) – Hargitay somehow remains under-valued despite doing 18 seasons of the same show in the same role while managing to breath fresh life into her character each season. The fact that she is able to still find this kind of power within Olivia Benson after all this time merits recognition and praise, and she brought it to another level in such episodes as the season 18 premiere “Terrorized,” “American Dream,” the finale “Sanctuary,” and one of our favorite episodes of the season “Next Chapter,” where Benson faced both a challenging case and a difficult personal decision.

Katherine Langford, 13 Reasons Why (Netflix) – Langford put a face to one of the most challenging roles of the past year in Hannah Baker, a teenage girl chronicling her path to suicide. This was dark, violent, and had to be incredibly harrowing to play — there is no escaping the darkest corners of Baker’s mind, and she had to bring everything from the rage to the heartache and the pain to the screen that was difficult to watch, but an important story to tell. Not only was this emotionally taxing, but she also took on some of the most visceral and gut-wrenching scenes of suicide in recent memory.

Abigail Spencer, Timeless (NBC) – The fun thing about Timeless is that Spencer played not only Lucy Preston, master historian, but also a wide array of different characters within her in various time periods. While she was able to bring the necessary emotion and pain to give scenes when needed, there was also a spirit behind what she did. Lucy was brave, she was adventurous, and she brought so much heart and fun to a series with an incredibly bold, ambitious presence. She was the engine that kept the machine going, and presented one of the most likable characters on television in the process.

Katheryn Winnick, Vikings (History) – With every year that goes by, Winnick somehow still finds a way to breathe so many more dimensions into Lagertha. On a series with so many powerful men, she is still one of the most imposing figures, and there is so much heart and in passion this character. This season we watched her kill Aslaug, and take over the throne in an epic battle, but we also saw her take on some more personal stories that included watching her lover start a relationship with her son, dealing with the incredible pain of her one true love Ragnar dying and knowing that Ragnar’s sons will be coming to kill her.

Other Favorites – Taraji P. Henson, Empire (Fox), Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu), Christine Baranski, The Good Fight (CBS All Access), Evan Rachel Wood, Westworld (HBO)