This is a list of the British Academy Television Awards for Best Actor. The Best Actor award was initially given as an "individual honour", without credit to a particular performance, until 1962, when Rupert Davies won for his performance in Maigret. Since 1970, nominees have been announced in addition to the winner. The Actor category was split into Leading Actor and Supporting Actor starting in 2010. Michael Gambon holds the record of most wins in this category with four, including three consecutive wins, followed by Robbie Coltrane with three, all of them also being consecutive. Benedict Cumberbatch was received the most nominations for this award, with six. Winners and nominees 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s {| class="wikitable" |-style="background:#bebebe;" ! style="width:5%;"| Year ! style="width:20%;"| Actors ! style="width:25%;"| Work ! style="width:20%;"| Character ! style="width:12%;"| Network |- |rowspan=5 style="text-align:center"| 2020 (66th) |-style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Jared Harris |Chernobyl | Valery Legasov | Sky Atlantic |- |Stephen Graham |The Virtues | Joseph Lowery | Channel 4 |- |Takehiro Hira |Giri/Haji | Kenzo Mori | BBC Two |- |Callum Turner |The Capture | Shaun Emery | BBC One |- |rowspan=7 style="text-align:center"| 2021 (67th) |-style="background:#B0C4DE;" |Paul Mescal |Normal People |Connell Waldron | BBC Three |- | John Boyega | Small Axe: Red, White and Blue | Leroy Logan | rowspan="3"|BBC One |- |Paapa Essiedu |I May Destroy You | Kwame |- |Shaun Parkes | Small Axe: Mangrove | Frank Crichlow |- |Josh O'Connor |The Crown | Charles, Prince of Wales | Netflix |- |Waleed Zuaiter | Baghdad Central | Muhsin al-Khafaji | Channel 4 |- |rowspan=7 style="text-align:center"| 2022 (68th) |-style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Sean Bean| Time| Mark Cobden| BBC One|- | Samuel Adewunmi | You Don't Know Me | Hero | BBC One |- | David Thewlis | Landscapers | Christopher Edwards | Sky Atlantic |- | Olly Alexander | It's a Sin | Ritchie Tozer | rowspan="2"|Channel 4 |- | Stephen Graham | Help | Tony |- | Hugh Quarshie | Stephen | Neville Lawrence | ITV |- |} Actors with multiple wins and nominations Multiple wins The following people have been awarded the British Academy Television Award for Actor multiple times:4 winsMichael Gambon3 winsRobbie Coltrane2 winsAlan Badel Peter Barkworth Sean Bean Alec Guinness Mark Rylance John Thaw Multiple nominations The following people have been nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Actor multiple times:6 nominationsBenedict Cumberbatch5 nominationsRobbie Coltrane4 nominationsKenneth Branagh Michael Gambon Albert Finney