# WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Play

The WhatsOnStage Award for Best Performer in a Male Identifying Role in a Play is an annual award presented by WhatsOnStage.com as part of the annual WhatsOnStage Awards. Founded in 2001 as the Theatregoers' Choice Awards, the WhatsOnStage Awards are based on a popular vote recognising performers and productions in London's West End theatre.
This award is given to a person who has performed a leading male identifying role in a play during the eligibility year. Introduced in 2001 as the award for Best Actor in a Play, the category was renamed in 2022 in an effort to be more inclusive. The category was discontinued following the 2022 ceremony and was replaced with the gender-neutral WhatsOnstage Award for Best Performer in a Play.
First presented to Conleth Hill at the inaugural ceremony, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Spacey and David Tennant are the only actors to have won the award twice.

## Winners and nominees
### 2000s

| Year | Performer | Play | Male Identifying Character |
| 2001 | Conleth Hill | Stones in His Pockets | Charlie Conlon |
| 2002 | Alan Rickman | Private Lives | Elyot Chase |
| 2002 | Ben Daniels | Tales from Hollywood | Ödön von Horváth |
| 2002 | Henry Goodman | Feelgood | Eddie |
| 2002 | Jasper Britton | Japes | Michael |
| 2002 | Paul Rudd | The Shape of Things | Adam Sorenson |
| 2002 | Simon Russell Beale | Humble Boy | Felix Humble |
| 2003 |
| 2003 | Samuel West | Hamlet | Prince Hamlet |
| 2003 | Daniel Craig | A Number | B1 / B2 / Michael Black |
| 2003 | Mark Rylance | Twelfth Night | Olivia |
| 2003 | Simon Russell Beale | Uncle Vanya / Twelfth Night | Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky / Malvolio |
| 2003 | Tom Georgeson | Frozen | Ralph Wantage |
| 2003 | Woody Harrelson | On an Average Day | Bob |
| 2004 | Kenneth Branagh | Edmond | Edmond Burke |
| 2004 | Conleth Hill | Democracy | Gunter Guillaume |
| 2004 | Matthew Kelly | Of Mice and Men | Lennie |
| 2004 | Michael Sheen | Caligula | Caligula |
| 2004 | Ralph Fiennes | Brand | Brand |
| 2004 | Tom Hollander | The Hotel in Amsterdam | Laurie |
| 2005 |
| 2005 | Christian Slater | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | Randle McMurphy |
| 2005 | Ben Whishaw | Hamlet | Prince Hamlet |
| 2005 | Jonathan Pryce | The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? | |
| 2005 | Michael Gambon | Endgame | Martin Gray |
| 2005 | Richard Griffiths | The History Boys | Douglas Hector |
| 2005 | Stanley Townsend | Shining City | John |
| 2006 | Kevin Spacey | Richard II | Richard II |
| 2006 | Brian Dennehy | Death of a Salesman | Willy Loman |
| 2006 | Con O'Neill | Telstar | Joe Meek |
| 2006 | Derek Jacobi | Don Carlos | Philip II |
| 2006 | Rob Lowe | A Few Good Men | Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee |
| 2006 | Simon Russell Beale | The Philanthropist | Philip |
| 2007 | Kevin Spacey | A Moon for the Misbegotten | Jim Tyrone |
| 2007 | Alan Cumming | Bent | Max |
| 2007 | David Haig | Donkeys' Years | Christopher Headingley |
| 2007 | Iain Glen | The Crucible | John Proctor |
| 2007 | Michael Sheen | Frost/Nixon | David Frost |
| 2007 | Frank Langella | Frost/Nixon | Richard Nixon |
| 2007 | Rufus Sewell | Rock 'n' Roll | Jan |
| 2008 | Ian McKellen | King Lear | King Lear |
| 2008 | Charles Dance | Shadowlands | C. S. Lewis |
| 2008 | John Simm | Elling | Elling |
| 2008 | Paterson Joseph | The Emperor Jones | Brutus Jones |
| 2008 | Patrick Stewart | Macbeth | Macbeth |
| 2008 | Robert Lindsay | The Entertainer | Archie Rice |
| 2009 | Kenneth Branagh | Ivanov | Nikolai Ivanov |
| 2009 | Adam Godley | Rain Man | Raymond Babbit |
| 2009 | Chiwetel Ejiofor | Othello | Othello |
| 2009 | Eddie Redmayne | Now or Later | John Jr. |
| 2009 | Ian McDiarmid | Six Characters in Search of an Author | Father |
| 2009 | Kevin Spacey | Speed-the-Plow | Charlie Fox |
| 2009 | Jeff Goldblum | Speed-the-Plow | Bobby Gould |

### 2010s

| Year | Performer | Play | Male Identifying Character |
| 2010 | Jude Law | Hamlet | Prince Hamlet |
| 2010 | David Harewood | The Mountaintop | Martin Luther King Jr. |
| 2010 | Dominic West | Life Is a Dream | Segismundo |
| 2010 | Ken Stott | A View from the Bridge | Eddie Carbone |
| 2010 | Mark Rylance | Jerusalem | Johnny "Rooster" Byron |
| 2010 | Samuel West | Enron | Jeffrey Skilling |
| 2011 | David Suchet | All My Sons | Joe Keller |
| 2011 | Benedict Cumberbatch | After the Dance | David Scott-Fowler |
| 2011 | Matthew Macfadyen | Private Lives | Elyot Chase |
| 2011 | Rory Kinnear | Hamlet | Prince Hamlet |
| 2011 | Simon Russell Beale | Deathtrap | Sidney Bruhl |
| 2011 | Toby Stephens | The Real Thing | Henry |
| 2012 | James Corden | One Man, Two Guvnors | Francis Henshall |
| 2012 | Benedict Cumberbatch | Frankenstein | Victor Frankenstein |
| 2012 | Jude Law | Anna Christie | Mat Burke |
| 2012 | Kevin Spacey | Richard III | Richard III |
| 2012 | David Tennant | Much Ado About Nothing | Benedick |
| 2012 | James Earl Jones | Driving Miss Daisy | Hoke Colburn |
| 2013 | Rupert Everett | The Judas Kiss | Oscar Wilde |
| 2013 | David Haig | The Madness of George III | George III |
| 2013 | Adrian Lester | Red Velvet | Ira Aldridge |
| 2013 | David Suchet | Long Day's Journey into Night | James Tyrone |
| 2013 | Luke Treadaway | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | Christopher Boone |
| 2013 | Mark Rylance | Twelfth Night / Richard III | Olivia / Richard III |
| 2014 | Daniel Radcliffe | The Cripple of Inishmaan | |
| 2014 | Lenny Henry | Fences | Troy Maxson |
| 2014 | Rory Kinnear | Othello | Othello |
| 2014 | James McAvoy | Macbeth | Macbeth |
| 2014 | Ben Whishaw | Peter and Alice | Peter Llewelyn Davies |
| 2015 | David Tennant | Richard III | Richard III |
| 2015 | Richard Armitage | The Crucible | John Proctor |
| 2015 | Tom Bateman | Shakespeare in Love | William Shakespeare |
| 2015 | Tom Hiddleston | Coriolanus | Coriolanus |
| 2015 | Mark Strong | A View from the Bridge | Eddie Carbone |
| 2016 | Benedict Cumberbatch | Hamlet | Prince Hamlet |
| 2016 | Bradley Cooper | The Elephant Man | Joseph Merrick |
| 2016 | Alex Hassell | Henry V | Henry V |
| 2016 | James McAvoy | The Ruling Class | Jack Gurney |
| 2016 | Mark Rylance | Farinelli and the King | Philip V |
| 2017 | Jamie Parker | Harry Potter and the Cursed Child | Harry Potter |
| 2017 | Kenneth Branagh | The Entertainer | Archie Rice |
| 2017 | Ralph Fiennes | Richard III | Richard III |
| 2017 | Ian Hallard | The Boys in the Band | Michael |
| 2017 | Ian McKellen | No Man's Land | Spooner |
| 2018 | David Tennant | Don Juan in Soho | Don Juan |
| 2018 | Bryan Cranston | Network | Howard Beale |
| 2018 | Martin Freeman | Labour of Love | MP David Lyons |
| 2018 | Andrew Garfield | Angels in America | Prior Walter |
| 2018 | Andrew Scott | Hamlet | Prince Hamlet |
| 2019 | Aidan Turner | The Lieutenant of Inishmore | Padraic |
| 2019 | Mark Gatiss | The Madness of George III | George III |
| 2019 | Arinzé Kene | Misty | Performer |
| 2019 | Colin Morgan | Translations | Owen |
| 2019 | Kyle Soller | The Inheritance | Eric Glass |

### 2020s

| Year | Performer | Play | Male Identifying Character |
| 2020 | Andrew Scott | Present Laughter | |
| 2020 | Tom Hiddleston | Betrayal | Robert |
| 2020 | Laurie Kynaston | The Son | Nicolas |
| 2020 | Wendell Pierce | Death of a Salesman | Willy Loman |
| 2020 | Matt Smith | Lungs | M |
| 2021 | Not presented due to impact on theatres of COVID-19 pandemic | Not presented due to impact on theatres of COVID-19 pandemic | Not presented due to impact on theatres of COVID-19 pandemic |
| 2022 |
| 2022 | James McAvoy | Cyrano de Bergerac | Cyrano de Bergerac |
| 2022 | Richard Armitage | Uncle Vanya | dr Astrov (Mikhail Lvovich Astrov) |
| 2022 | Ben Daniels | The Normal Heart | Ned Weeks |
| 2022 | Omari Douglas | Constellations | Manuel |
| 2022 | Hadley Fraser | 2:22 A Ghost Story | Sam |
| 2022 | Henry Lewis | Magic Goes Wrong | Mind Mangler |

## Multiple wins and nominations
### Wins
#### 2 wins

* Kenneth Branagh
* Kevin Spacey
* David Tennant

### Nominations
#### 4 nominations

* Simon Russell Beale
* Mark Rylance
* Kevin Spacey

#### 3 nominations

* Kenneth Branagh
* Benedict Cumberbatch
* James McAvoy
* David Tennant

#### 2 nominations

* Richard Armitage
* Ben Daniels
* Ralph Fiennes
* David Haig
* Tom Hiddleston
* Conleth Hill
* Rory Kinnear
* Ian McKellen
* Andrew Scott
* Michael Sheen
* Samuel West
* Ben Whishaw