Rhea Seehorn can make a character's anger funny without softening the unhappiness behind it. We rate her highly, particularly when a series such as Pluribus gives her room to be difficult.
Fi1m perspective
In Pluribus (2025), Rhea Seehorn lets Carol Sturka's anger dominate a scene, then makes the unhappiness behind it harder to ignore. She is funny without turning Carol into a grump whose objections we are expected to find endearing. We were unsettled by the way her resistance to compulsory happiness could be comic and painful within the same stretch of performance. Seehorn gives the anger force and lets the distress show through without asking us to approve of everything Carol says.
The move to a lead role follows years of supporting work. Early television parts, including I'm With Her (2003–2004), kept her in supporting comic or sardonic roles. Better Call Saul (2015–2022) gave her Kim Wexler, a lawyer whose place in the series grew from supporting to central. Kim gave her room to convey thought through expression and physical detail, with little dialogue to explain it. With Carol, she moves from that restraint to an emotionally open lead who can be exhausting company.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) offers much less to work with. Seehorn plays Judy, a marshal with a grudge, in a script by Chris Bremner and Will Beall that keeps adding factions and family complications. Editors Asaf Eisenberg and Dan Lebental push the exposition along as quickly as the action, leaving little time for any of it to matter. We found the film's set pieces more persuasive than its crowded plotting, and Seehorn's presence is not a reason to overlook that weakness.
Vince Gilligan wrote Pluribus specifically for Seehorn, and its willingness to let Carol remain difficult makes it the more rewarding place to watch her. The reservation is the time spent repeating a disagreement we already understand. Editors Skip Macdonald, Chris McCaleb and Joey Liew allow the story to develop slowly, sometimes beyond what Seehorn's performance needs. Patience lets her make Carol a person we care about, but it cannot make every pause worthwhile. Start there for Seehorn, provided a stubborn character and an unhurried series sound like company worth keeping.
Biography
Rhea Seehorn is an American actress and director. She is best known for her role as attorney Kim Wexler in the AMC series Better Call Saul (2015–2022).
Seehorn was born Deborah Rhea Seehorn on 12 May 1972 in Norfolk, Virginia. She graduated from George Mason University in 1994 with a BA in Studio Art and began her career in theatre in Washington, D.C. Her other television credits include Whitney (2011–2013) and Franklin & Bash (2011–2014). She played Judy in the film Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) and Carol Sturka in the series Pluribus (2025).
For Better Call Saul, Seehorn received two Satellite Awards for Best Supporting Actress and one Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television. She has also directed episodes of Cooper's Bar (2022–2023).
