The AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama is an accolade given by the

Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) is a professional organisation of film and television practitioners in Australia. The Academy's aim is "to identify, award, promote, and celebrate Australia's greatest achievements i ...

(AACTA), a non-profit organisation whose aim is to "identify, award, promote and celebrate Australia's greatest achievements in film and television." The award is handed out at the annual

AACTA Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industr ...

, which rewards achievements in

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

and

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s. From 2000 to 2010, the category was presented by the

Australian Film Institute The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsi ...

(AFI), the Academy's parent organisation, at the annual Australian Film Institute Awards (known as the AFI Awards). When the AFI launched the Academy in 2011, it changed the annual ceremony to the AACTA Awards, with the current prize being a continuum of the AFI Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama. The award was first presented in 2000 as Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role in a Television Drama Series until 2002, when the title was changed to Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama. In the following year, the title was changed to Best Actor in a Supporting or Guest Role in a Television Drama or Comedy. By 2006, a separate comedy accolade was established, and the name changed to the current one. The AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama is given for performances in television

drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-ge ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

, telefeature, children's

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

or children's drama series. Candidates for this award must be human and male, and cannot be nominated for best lead actor in a television drama in the same year, for the same production. Luke Carroll, Aaron Fa'aoso,

Damian Walshe-Howling Damian Walshe-Howling (born 22 January 1971 in Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian actor, well known for his role as Andrew "Benji" Veniamin in the Australian underworld drama, ''Underbelly'', for which he won the Best Supporting or Guest Ac ...

and

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...

have all received two nominations each, more than any other actor, with Walshe-Howling winning one in 2008.

Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years listed correspond to the year that the television programme aired on Australian television; the ceremonies are usually held the following year. The actor whose name is emphasised in boldface and highlighted in yellow have won the award. Those that are neither highlighted nor in bold are the nominees. When sorted chronologically, the table always lists the winning actor first and then the other nominees. (User must click on the appropriate decades to access the winners and nominees of each year.)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role in a Television Drama Series

Best Actor in a Supporting or Guest Role in a Television Drama

Best Actor in a Supporting or Guest Role in a Television Drama or Comedy

Best Guest or Supporting Actor in Television Drama

References