When you take a look at some of the biggest, most talked about and most award-nominated TV shows of the last year or so, you'll be hard-pressed to find one without an Australian actor in the cast.

The recent season five returns of two hugely popular programs - The Crown (Netflix) and Yellowstone (Stan) - prove just that.

Victoria's Elizabeth Debicki plays Princess Diana in the former, a casting coup of the highest order. She is the breakout performer of the fifth season, bringing the People's Princess to life with complexity and depth.

Debicki has been in big productions before, from Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby to Cristopher Nolan's Tenet and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. But she's never played a character with such popular appeal to such a broad audience - proving once again that Australian actors are the special sauce in TV productions across the globe.

Sydney's Jacki Weaver goes toe-to-toe with Kevin Costner in Yellowstone. She may only be pint-sized but the Oscar-nominated actress brings gravity and heft to every role.

Looking beyond the releases of the last week, we see Australians in all the biggest shows of 2022.

House of the Dragon (Binge), a series with a built-in fanbase and an eye-watering budget, cast young Aussie Milly Alcock in arguably the central role.

The Sydneysider played Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen in the first five episodes of the time-jumping series. She and her silver-blonde mane were a huge part of the promotion of the series, and she led the way for Emma D'Arcy to pick up the character in the second half of the season.

But Alcock wasn't the lone Australian to take up residence in Westeros - Melbourne's Ryan Corr played the hugely important role of Ser Harwin Strong.

Corr may have only had a few episodes to show off his stuff, but the Strong character was remembered long after his screen time ended.

Hit Emmy Award nominees Succession (Binge) and The White Lotus (Binge) also boast Australian talent.

South Australian actress Sarah Snook is a fan favourite character as Shiv Roy in Succession. She's earned herself two Emmy nominations for the role over the show's three seasons so far, and also bagged a Golden Globe this year (despite the ceremony not actually taking place). The entire cast earned a Screen Actor's Guild award in 2022.

The White Lotus blew everyone away at this year's Emmy's and our very own Murray Bartlett - and his glorious moustache - picked up a trophy for the role of manager Armond. Even better, the Sydney product got to keep his Australian accent for the popular role.

Sticking with HBO, more Aussies can be found in Euphoria (Binge) and The Staircase (Binge).

Jacob Elordi, from Brisbane, plays the rather evil and sociopathic Nate Jacobs on the hit high school show. Few shows blew up on social media like Euphoria, and it was near impossible to exist on Instagram earlier this year without seeing Elordi's face somewhere.

Sydney's Toni Collette was a knockout as murder victim Kathleen Peterson opposite Colin Firth in The Staircase, showing again she's one of Australia's best exports.

Other buzzy progams to feature Aussies this year included Stranger Things (Dacre Montgomery briefly reprising his role as Billy), The Watcher (Naomi Watts) and Under the Banner of Heaven (Sam Worthington and Adelaide Clemons) - that's not to mention our very own Heartbreak High, which is making its way into hearts around the world.