Instead, their strength is defined by how much they’re willing to risk, whether they drive their stories forward, and how easily they steal every scene they appear in, leaving a mark that lasts long after an episode — or even the entire show — ends. These female TV characters aren’t perfect heroes; they’re something even better, powerfully complicated and impossible to ignore.
13
Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
An iconic TV heroine since the 1990s, Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer redefined what a female action lead could be. She wasn’t just physically strong, gifted with superhuman strength and prophetic dreams — she carried the emotional weight of love, grief, and leadership on her shoulders, often at a great personal cost and with little to no gratitude from the people and world she saved again and again.
From high school to adulthood, Buffy had to balance fighting against the darkness with a normal life, forced into a role she never imagined for herself. Slowly, she learned to contend with the violence that came with her calling, becoming a resilient and emotionally intelligent leader throughout the show’s seven seasons, despite being confronted with unending loss and impossible choices. This makes her one of the earliest examples of a layered, empowered female protagonist in genre television.
It’s a shame that Hulu canceled the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, which would have seen Sarah Michelle Gellar reprise her role as a mentor to a new generation of slayers. Few characters have had as much of an impact on women’s storytelling.
12
Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington)
Scandal
Crisis manager Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington in Shonda Rhimes’ hit political drama, Scandal, operates at a level of power that few TV characters can match. She doesn’t just fix problems. She controls outcomes, manipulates narratives, and influences the highest levels of the political world. What sets her apart, however, is how she commands every room she enters, outmaneuvering far more powerful men with intelligence and cut-throat precision.
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More importantly, Olivia’s story isn’t just about power. Her character’s journey is also about the need for control and her inner emotional conflict. Her personal life often collides with her professional dominance, adding layers of vulnerability beneath her composed exterior. Olivia Pope confronted the portrayal of Black female leads on network TV, presenting a character who is unapologetically commanding, taking center stage in the story rather than standing on the sidelines.
11
Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge)
Fleabag
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag is one of the most unfiltered and modern portrayals of a female character on television. Waller-Bridge’s character, Fleabag (whose true name is never revealed), breaks convention by addressing the audience directly and by refusing to conform to society’s expectations of femininity, behavior, or emotional restraint.
Messy, self-destructive, and deeply flawed, Fleabag is also self-aware, making her journey brutally honest. The show uses humor as a tool to explore grief, guilt, and identity. This allows Fleabag to exist in a space that feels both chaotic and profoundly human, making female viewers feel seen like never before, the same way she finally feels seen when Hot Priest (Andrew Scott) notices her breaking the fourth wall. Fleabag’s strength lies in her honesty, even when it’s uncomfortable, challenging the idea that female characters must be likable or polished to be compelling.
10
June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss)
The Handmaid’s Tale
Gilead’s number one enemy in The Handmaid’s Tale, June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss), oozes strength from start to finish as her power is defined by survival in a system designed to strip her of her autonomy. Trapped in a dystopian world where women are controlled and oppressed, June quickly becomes a symbol of rebellion through persistence alone.
June’s strength isn’t always ethically simple, however. In The Handmaid’s Tale, she makes difficult, questionable choices — which even include murder — yet these decisions reflect the complexity of her environment. June is never presented as a perfect, morally sound hero, but the show focuses on the cost of survival and rebellion. June’s journey is about reclaiming power, no matter the consequences.
9
Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke)
Game of Thrones
At the core of one of television’s most debated story arcs, Game of Thrones’ Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) has had an undeniable impact on the small screen and beyond. Starting off her journey in Essos as a vulnerable exile, she evolves into a powerful leader who commands armies, frees slaves, and inspires both loyalty and fear.
In Game of Thrones, Daenerys’ rise is built on justice, generational power, and a belief in breaking cycles of oppression, while also exploring how untapped potential can completely reshape one’s identity. As she gains influence on both sides of the Narrow Sea, Daenerys’ decisions become more extreme, raising questions about the true cost of her vision.
Whether viewed as a hero or a cautionary tale, Daenerys Targaryen represents complexity in its truest form as her journey forces audiences to confront how strength can evolve when one’s worst impulses go unchecked — and how it can all come crashing down.
8
Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey)
Game of Thrones
Cersei Lannister is another one of Game of Thrones’ and TV’s most ruthless figures. Operating in a male-dominated world and haunted by prophecy, Lena Headey’s Cersei refuses to accept the limitations placed on her gender and uses her intelligence and knack for strategy to her political advantage instead.
Unlike traditional TV heroes, Cersei embraces control at any cost, making choices that are both destructive and calculated with the sole goal of protecting herself and her beloved children. She may be cunning, but Cersei’s true strength lies in her willingness to go further than anyone else to secure her power. Cersei is a formidable villain, but her mentality is also a response to a patriarchal system that leaves her with limited options.
7
Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler)
Parks and Recreation
Amy Poehler’s beloved Parks and Recreation alter ego represents a different kind of strength, built on optimism, dedication, and unwavering belief in progress. As the Deputy Director of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department, Leslie Knope is ambitious without being cynical and is driven by a genuine desire to improve her community.
Unlike many of TV’s more morally ambiguous, “powerful” characters, Leslie doesn’t rely on manipulation. Her strength relies solely on hard work and sheer enthusiasm, consistently proving that leadership can be both kind and effective. Challenging stereotypes around ambition and femininity, Leslie also shows that passion and warmth can coexist with authority and competence.
6
Annalise Keating (Viola Davis)
How To Get Away With Murder
As a renowned law professor and a criminal defense attorney, Viola Davis’ Annalise Keating holds enough power to break the rules whenever she pleases. As one of TV’s most commanding and layered characters, How To Get Away With Murder‘s Annalise is defined by both her authority and vulnerability.
In the courtroom, Annalise is in complete control of every case she handles. She doesn’t just argue cases; she also presides over the outcomes. Things are different in her personal life, however, as her professional strength directly contrasts with her unseen struggles, laid bare in How To Get Away With Murder’s most vulnerable scenes.
Throughout the show’s six seasons, Annalise’s story peels back layers of her life, revealing how her power is both a shield and a curse. As she grows more entangled in a real-life murder plot involving her students, she’s neither depicted as a hero nor a villain. She exists in the space in between, making decisions that are easy to judge yet also painfully understandable.
5
Villanelle/Oksana Astankova (Jodie Comer)
Killing Eve
Whether a true psychopath or not, Killing Eve’s Villanelle is one of the most unpredictable and captivating characters ever to appear on the small screen. The assassin played by Jodie Comer gleefully rejects conventional expectations of female behavior, operating outside any moral framework, even after meeting her new obsession, MI5 Security Officer Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh).
Volatile and disturbingly playful, Villanelle blends elegance with violence, making her an endlessly fascinating and wildly unsettling character. Her lack of restraint keeps viewers on their toes as she acts on impulse, emotion, and curiosity without an ounce of hesitation. Still, beneath that toughened surface is a character that is constantly shifting and searching for connection while stubbornly remaining detached. Villanelle stands out as a complete subversion of the traditional anti-hero, and the TV landscape is all the better for it.
4
Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter)
Jessica Jones
Krysten Ritter’s Jessica feels like the complete opposite of a stereotypical superhero in Jessica Jones, and that’s exactly why she’s earned a spot on this list. Uninterested in saving the world or being seen as a hero, the super-powered PI would rather be left alone most of the time, driven by a desperate need for control following her out-of-body experience with David Tennant’s terrifying, mind-controlling villain, Killgrave.
As she tries to regain agency over her life, Jessica doesn’t glamorize her trauma — she sits with it and lets it influence how she moves through the world. Her version of strength is quieter, grounded in reality, as she tries to cope with the aftermath of her prolonged abuse. Even with super strength, she never feels invincible. Her true strength comes from admitting that she needs the help of her friends and allies, and that she can’t do everything alone.