Dominic Sessa Movies and TV Shows: How a Breakout Role Became a Fast-Rising Film Career

Dominic Sessa’s screen career is still young, but it has already taken a striking shape: one acclaimed debut, a quick move into studio and streaming-era projects, and now a major lead role as Anthony Bourdain in A24’s Tony. For viewers searching for Dominic Sessa movies and TV shows, the answer is unusually compact — Sessa is not yet a long-filmography actor with decades of credits. Instead, he is a fast-emerging performer whose early choices suggest a career being built around distinctive characters, prestige filmmakers, and emotionally specific coming-of-age stories.

His breakthrough came with The Holdovers, the Alexander Payne film that introduced him to a wide audience and positioned him as one of the most closely watched young actors of his generation. Since then, his credits and upcoming roles have expanded to include Tow, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, Oh. What. Fun., and Tony, the Anthony Bourdain biographical drama from A24.

The Role That Changed Everything: The Holdovers

Dominic Sessa’s rise began with The Holdovers, the 2023 Christmas comedy-drama in which he played Angus Tully, a sharp, troubled student left behind at a New England boarding school during the holidays. It was his film debut, but it did not feel like a tentative first appearance. The performance gave him the rare kind of introduction that immediately defined his screen persona: intelligent, guarded, emotionally wounded, and capable of both comic timing and dramatic vulnerability.

The role became the foundation of his public identity as an actor. In industry terms, The Holdovers did more than give Sessa exposure — it gave him credibility. He emerged from the film as a “breakout” performer, a label repeated in coverage of his later casting, including A24’s Tony.

Sessa’s early recognition from The Holdovers also helped separate him from the usual path of young actors moving through small supporting roles before landing a defining part. He arrived almost fully formed in the public imagination: not as a franchise discovery first, but as a character actor with leading-man potential.

Dominic Sessa’s Movie List So Far

For readers looking for a straightforward filmography, Dominic Sessa’s known screen credits include:

This is a movie-focused résumé. Based on the available information, Sessa does not yet have a major television-show career comparable to his film work. Searches for “Dominic Sessa TV shows” often bring up projects connected to Anthony Bourdain’s legacy, such as Kitchen Confidential, No Reservations, and Parts Unknown, but those are Bourdain-related works rather than Sessa television credits.

Why Tony Is His Biggest Test Yet

The most important upcoming title in Dominic Sessa’s filmography is Tony, A24’s authorized biopic about Anthony Bourdain. Sessa stars as Bourdain, with Emilia Jones, Leo Woodall, Antonio Banderas, Dagmara Dominczyk, Rich Sommers, and Stavros Halkias among the supporting cast.

Rather than attempting to cover Bourdain’s entire life, Tony focuses on one formative period: Bourdain at 19, working his first kitchen job in Provincetown, Massachusetts. That choice matters. Many biopics follow a cradle-to-grave structure, but Tony appears designed as a coming-of-age story about the summer that helped shape the future chef, writer, and travel host.

In the trailer, Sessa’s Bourdain frames the story with the line: “Okay, so I’m just going to walk you through the basic vision. It’s a coming-of-age story.” That wording captures the film’s apparent strategy. It is not simply asking viewers to watch an actor imitate a famous figure; it is inviting them into a moment before fame, before certainty, before Bourdain became the global cultural voice audiences remember.

Anthony Bourdain Before the Legend

The supplied material makes clear that Tony is set before Bourdain became known for his books, food television, and international storytelling. The film begins with a young man whose writing ambitions have hit a setback. After being rejected from a writing fellowship, he heads to Provincetown and finds work in a seafood restaurant.

That setup gives Sessa a compelling dramatic challenge. He is not playing the fully formed Anthony Bourdain — the sardonic, worldly, charismatic public figure later known from No Reservations and Parts Unknown. He is playing a younger version still searching for identity. In the trailer, Bourdain insists, “A lot has changed since high school. I’m a writer now. The truth is, I’m about to get this huge writing fellowship.” Later, after the kitchen world begins to take hold, he says: “If anybody asks, I’m not a writer. I work in a kitchen.”

That shift — from aspiring writer to kitchen worker — gives the movie its emotional hinge. It also makes Tony an unusually meaningful project for Sessa, whose own career is being shaped around transitional characters: young men standing at the edge of adulthood, trying to decide who they are before the world decides for them.

Antonio Banderas, Leo Woodall, and the Kitchen as a Classroom

One of the most vivid parts of the Tony material is the relationship between Sessa’s Bourdain and Antonio Banderas’ head chef. The trailer presents Banderas’ character as a demanding mentor who teaches Bourdain how to shuck an oyster, criticizes his mistakes, and introduces him to a kitchen culture that is chaotic, physical, and transformative.

Leo Woodall appears as another kitchen worker who forms a fast friendship with Bourdain, while Stavros Halkias plays a fellow line cook. Emilia Jones appears as a high school friend — or possible romantic connection — whom Bourdain meets again in a bar. The supporting cast suggests that Tony is not only about one young man’s professional awakening but also about the social world that surrounds a kitchen: rivalries, mentorship, embarrassment, bravado, and belonging.

That ensemble structure may help the film avoid the stiffness that sometimes burdens biopics. Instead of building a museum display around Bourdain, Tony appears to place him inside a living environment where identity is formed through work, humiliation, appetite, and discovery.

Why the Bourdain Estate Supported Tony

The involvement of the Anthony Bourdain Estate is central to the film’s legitimacy. In a statement included with the trailer announcement, the estate explained why it supported the project:

“Anthony Bourdain’s legacy is meaningful to millions of people. He was a man who valued authenticity above all else and would have been both moved and baffled by the world’s curiosity about his life.”

The estate continued:

“We chose to support Tony because it is not a standard biopic and doesn’t attempt to summarize a life. Guided by the vision of director Matt Johnson, the film depicts one transformative summer in 1975 in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It is an interpretation as that part of Tony’s life will always remain somewhat unknown.”

The statement concluded:

“We appreciate the portrayal of Tony’s complexity, his intellectual appetite and his conviction — qualities that eventually took him around the globe and endeared him to so many. We hope this film serves as a reminder that every journey has a start, and that audiences see the beginnings of the man who taught us how to be better explorers on our own paths.”

Those words are important because Bourdain remains a deeply personal figure for many viewers. He was not only a chef or television host; he represented curiosity, honesty, travel, food, and cultural openness. Any dramatization of his life carries emotional risk. By focusing on one early chapter rather than attempting to “explain” the entire man, Tony may find a more respectful and cinematically focused path.

The Director Behind Tony

Tony is directed by Matt Johnson, the Canadian filmmaker associated with BlackBerry, Matt and Mara, and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. The film was written by Johnson, Lou Howe, Todd Bartels, and Matthew Miller.

Johnson’s involvement is notable because the material emphasizes a less conventional biopic approach. Rather than dramatizing Bourdain’s fame, television years, or the publication of Kitchen Confidential, the film concentrates on youth, rejection, and the beginning of a culinary life. That choice places more pressure on atmosphere and character than on familiar milestones.

For Sessa, that may be an advantage. His best-known performance in The Holdovers worked because of emotional texture rather than spectacle. Tony seems to require something similar: a performance that suggests the future legend without overplaying it.

Are There Dominic Sessa TV Shows?

At this stage, Dominic Sessa is best described as a film actor rather than a television actor. The available information does not identify a major TV series starring Sessa. That matters for searchers because the phrase “Dominic Sessa movies and TV shows” may lead to confusion with Anthony Bourdain’s television legacy.

Bourdain’s life and work influenced or connected to multiple screen projects, including the 2006 TV series Kitchen Confidential, the 2015 drama Bone in the Throat, and the 2021 documentary Roadrunner. He was also widely known for documentary-style food and travel series such as No Reservations and Parts Unknown. But these are not Dominic Sessa acting credits.

So, the clearest answer is this: Sessa’s current screen profile is built around movies, with no major television role established in the provided material.

What Makes Sessa’s Career Unusual

Dominic Sessa’s career is unusual because it has developed quickly but selectively. He did not emerge through a long list of small roles. Instead, he moved from a highly visible debut into a set of projects that each serve a different purpose.

The Holdovers gave him prestige.
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t connects him to a recognizable studio franchise.
Oh. What. Fun. places him in a holiday comedy context.
Tow expands his post-breakout dramatic résumé.
Tony gives him a demanding lead role tied to a beloved real-life figure.

That range suggests a deliberate early strategy: avoid being trapped as only the sensitive boarding-school teenager from The Holdovers, while still choosing roles that rely on character rather than simple celebrity casting.

Why Tony Could Define His Next Chapter

Playing Anthony Bourdain is a major step for any actor, especially one still early in his career. Bourdain’s public image is vivid: his voice, posture, humor, restlessness, intelligence, and contradictions are still fresh in cultural memory. A poor imitation would be easy to reject. A sensitive interpretation, however, could deepen Sessa’s reputation significantly.

The film’s limited scope may help him. Because Tony focuses on Bourdain before worldwide fame, Sessa does not have to recreate every recognizable aspect of the public Bourdain persona. Instead, he can explore the roots of that identity — ambition, frustration, curiosity, insecurity, and the first shock of belonging to a professional kitchen.

That is exactly the kind of role that can move an actor from “breakout newcomer” to serious leading performer.

Conclusion: A Short Filmography With Real Momentum

Dominic Sessa’s list of movies and TV shows may still be brief, but it is already meaningful. The Holdovers made him visible. His following projects show expansion. Tony could become the defining test of his early career, placing him at the center of an A24 biographical drama about one of the most influential food and travel figures of the modern era.

For now, anyone searching for Dominic Sessa’s movies and TV shows should understand that his career is still in its opening act. But that opening act has been unusually strong — and with Tony, it may soon become much larger.