TV Actors/Hosts Who Made TIME's 100 Most Influential People of 2013

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Ted Sarandos
by Jeffrey Tambor






When I heard that Netflix was interested in "Arrested Development", I was so excited. Not that anybody cared what I thought, but I always felt that this would be a good fit. The way our show is — original, a bit offbeat in its presentation — matches Netflix, which offers great latitude in how you view or appreciate a show.

Ted is helping create the future of entertainment. I don’t know what it will look like, but I know it’s going to be huge, and it will influence young artists who want to get their work out there because they have something to say. This is only the beginning.



When I used to play baseball as a kid, I would look at my family in the stands and they would always give me this closed fist, a sort of “You can do it!” They were my superfans. And Ted is that — a fan. You always want to have a fan in your corner.

For "Arrested Development", we were the little engine that could, and we needed a hero. Our hero came along.









Shonda Rhimes
by Oprah Winfrey






I grew up at a time when it was an anomaly to see people who looked like me on TV.

When you don’t feel seen or heard, you don’t feel validated or valued. That was the ultimate lesson and prevailing thread of truth from 25 years of Oprah shows.

Shonda Rhimes, creator of the must-see TV thriller "Scandal", validates our story — the human story of faults and fears, loneliness and loss, triumphs and often short-lived joys. She gets us — all of us!



Shonda is a storyteller for our times. Courageous in her approach to the work, she’s never played by other people’s rules. Eight years ago, she introduced us to "Grey’s Anatomy" with an African-American chief of surgery and an Asian character with leading plotlines. Gay, straight, single, divorced, lost, searching — everybody gets a seat at Shonda’s table.

She creates an assemblage of worldly foibles and aspirations. She understands that every dream is valuable and every identity deserves inspection through the looking glass of television.

“She knows the power of reflection and wields that power with grace and generosity,” "Scandal" star Kerry Washington told me. “Shonda allows for more people than ever before to see themselves and feel as though the world sees them too.”









Mindy Kaling
by Ed Helms






Mindy Kaling embodies the trifecta of being brilliant, wonderful and hilarious. Because that is statistically impossible, it can mean only one thing: she was created by an evil scientist to lull us into a giddy stupor in order to control our minds. How else can you explain someone who simultaneously commands respect and affection? Someone so acutely adept at creating her own opportunities?

Moreover, Mindy has a bright and generous laugh that’s good for the soul, and yet she doesn’t suffer fools. No matter the issue, she can be relied on to weigh in with conviction and good humor.

To be made fun of by Mindy is to feel special. I’ve learned so much from working alongside her, and I’m proud to call her a friend. I just wish she hadn’t been created by an evil scientist.









Bryan Cranston
by Jon Hamm






The first time I met Bryan Cranston, he was standing in his underwear. We were doing a photo shoot for a little-known network called AMC, and he was in a rubber chemistry apron, tighty whities and desert boots, while I was in an impeccably tailored 1960s suit, with slicked-back hair and a cigarette dangling from my mouth.

Our shows hadn’t premiered yet. We were simply two actors, in costume and out of context. He was friendly, funny, gregarious, humble and lovely.



Over the past five seasons, I’ve marveled at Bryan’s ability to turn "Breaking Bad’s" Walter White from a feckless, terrified father and husband to a ruthless, terrifying father, husband and crime lord. The transformation is mesmerizing. The performance is fearless. Bryan is that good.

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him since that photo shoot, as he has collected accolade after accolade, as his film career has flourished, as more and more people realize just how good he is. Through it all, he has remained friendly, funny, gregarious, humble and lovely.



I know I’m not alone in my ravenous anticipation for the final episodes of "Breaking Bad". I also know I’m not alone in waiting with bated breath to see what Bryan does next.









Jimmy Kimmel
by Ben Stein






In about 1995, we started to audition people to be my co-host on what became Comedy Central’s "Win Ben Stein’s Money". The first candidate was Jimmy Kimmel, a comedy DJ for a local rock station. He was it: immensely quick-witted and funny, acerbic, down to earth (in contrast to my supposed brainy snobbishness), young and hip.

After two weeks on the air, I told him he would have Letterman’s job someday. “That’s what I always wanted, to be a late-night host,” he said. I was privileged to tell Michael Eisner — then the head of Disney, owner of ABC — some 10 years or so ago that Jimmy was their only choice when they were looking for a late-night host who would get the young.



He has not disappointed. He can interview a major star and be impressed and still cut the star down to human size with the deftness of a brain surgeon. He is the stand-up guy that young male viewers want as their pal late at night. He projects it because he is it.

Whenever I have been in scrapes and have told Jimmy about it, he always says the same thing, “I’ve got your back.” For Americans in front of the tube past their bedtime, Jimmy Kimmel — laughing, mocking but, above all, their friend — has their back.









Jimmy Fallon
by Justin Timberlake






Jimmy Fallon just can’t help himself.

He’s a brilliant comedian. A talented musician. A spot-on impersonator. Jimmy has redefined and recharged late-night television with a genuine excitement and energy that gets under your skin.

That’s probably because watching you laugh might be the thing that makes Jimmy most happy. This explains this man’s unwavering mission to get me to break every time we do our send-up sketch of the Gibb brothers on SNL. Or why we jump all over each other’s sentences during any segment I’ve ever been a part of on his show. Jimmy’s lightning wit — mixed with a kindness you don’t normally find in comedy — is what makes you feel so comfortable having him in your home every night. And no matter where the joke goes, the audience feels like they are in on it too. That’s because Jimmy loves to share the moment.





Jimmy’s brain doesn’t stop either. He is constantly punching up jokes out loud or improvising when we are in the same room — no matter who else is around.

Picture this: I’m in the heart of an impromptu speech at my wedding reception in front of 150 guests, pouring it out to my lovely new bride. You could hear a pin drop. I paused for just a moment in between thoughts. And then there was Jimmy, shouting a joke from his seat, sparking an improv between the two of us that went on for a good five or 10 minutes and had all our guests roaring with laughter.

Interrupting the groom’s speech at the wedding reception? Cracking jokes when your buddy is looking desperately for the words to say that he hopes his wife will remember forever? It turned into a moment that everyone there will remember forever. Anyone else would have bombed on that stage. And then I would have kicked their ass.



But this was Jimmy Fallon.

He just can’t help himself. And neither can we.









Lena Dunham
by Claire Danes






The title of Lena Dunham’s HBO show blasts out in bold letters — GIRLS — filling the screen to its edges. Like Lena herself, there’s nothing coy about it. She reclaims the often pejorative “girls” as she does countless other ideas.

Her character, Hannah, says she has covered herself in tattoos to gain authority, or authorship, over her body. Lena bares that tattooed body throughout the series, making it clear that it is hers to share.



Lena’s power lies largely in her self-awareness and wit. Like all great comics, she has a joke ready to deflect any jeer. Hannah’s pathetic declaration that she could at least be “a voice of a generation” invites and thwarts many a poisoned arrow.

Lena’s true power, though, lies in her transparency. She is unflinchingly, unnervingly honest. She exposes, beneath all that bare skin, a multitude of shortcomings: acute self-involvement, obsessive-compulsive behavior, overeating, oversharing. Hannah is as vivid and raw a portrait as we have seen — nails bitten to the nub — and despite her glaring faults, we ravenously embrace her.



Lena’s unique lack of vanity or shame allows us to consider that we may also be able to accept and express ourselves fully. This is not only impressive, it’s important.

Because it turns out that girls don’t just want to have fun. They also want to be known for who they really are.

http://time100.time.com/2013/04/18/time-100/slide/all/