AMY RYAN
Past Gem: The Wire season 2

Ryan, nominated for an Oscar for playing the single mother of a kidnapped tot in Gone Baby Gone, played another single mom throughout season 2 of The Wire. As Baltimore port police officer Beatrice ''Beadie'' Russell, she's the one who discovers a shipping crate with 13 dead women inside and, without any homicide investigating experience, soon finds herself out of her depth and forced to rise to the occasion.