Kieran Culkin

Kieran Culkin plays Roman Roy in Succession. Roman's jokes arrive so quickly that they can feel like a way of keeping the conversation away from anything he cannot comfortably discuss. Culkin makes the speed entertaining without hiding the insecurity behind it.

His film work includes Igby Goes Down, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and A Real Pain. On television, he plays Rye Gerhardt in the second season of Fargo.

Roman is an especially good part for an actor who can turn a physical response into a line of dialogue. A shift in posture or an aborted gesture can reveal the discomfort that the joke is trying to cover. The performance makes him funny and difficult without making those qualities cancel each other out.