Tramell Tillman

Tramell Tillman is an American actor best known for playing the turtleneck-wearing, exceedingly loquacious supervisor Seth Milchick on the award-winning Apple TV (formerly Apple TV+) dystopian sci-fi thriller Severance (2022– ). In 2025 he became the first Black actor and the first openly gay actor to win an Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series.

Early life and education

Tillman is the youngest of five children born to a father who worked for Amtrak and a mother who was employed by the federal government. He was raised in the Baptist faith in Largo, Maryland, where he participated in sports and regularly attended church. His parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles often asked him and the other children in the family to put on talent shows. At age 10 Tillman made his public acting debut in his church’s Christmas production. Although initially reluctant, he later recalled, “I looked out into that audience and felt the energy of the people watching, and said, ‘I want more of this.’ ”

Tillman later signed with an agent, and he got bit parts on television, including one on the crime drama The Wire (2002–08) as an extra. But acting was never really considered a viable career in his family. His father warned him that he would never make it and would be a waiter for the rest of his life, Tillman said in a 2025 Variety interview. So Tillman decided he would become an orthopedic surgeon, enrolling in the pre-med biology program at Xavier University in New Orleans after graduating from Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 2003.

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Tillman soon realized that medicine was not for him, so he transferred to Jackson State University in Mississippi to major in mass communication. He graduated summa cum laude in 2008. While at Jackson State he became involved with the nonprofit Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools, which provide summer and after-school enrichment programs to K–12 students and their families in underprivileged communities.

After graduating Tillman began working full-time for the CDF. Over the coming years he worked in a number of office jobs that would inform his role as Seth Milchick. “I definitely had the corporate office job experience, and I draw from that a lot,” he told The New York Times in 2025. He also became involved with a regional theater in Jackson and was mentored by Mark G. Henderson, chair of Jackson State University’s Department of Speech Communication and Theatre. Henderson encouraged Tillman to attend graduate school to study fine arts and do what made him happy. Following that advice, Tillman enrolled in the MFA program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2011, graduating at the top of his class in 2014.

While he was in his 20s, Tillman shared with his deeply religious mother that he was gay. She initially expressed concern that being a gay Black man would limit him in his acting career, but she also told him, “Anyone you bring home, I will embrace him as my son.” When he won his Emmy Award in 2025, he dedicated it to his mother, who was in the audience, saying, “My first acting coach was tough, y’all. But all great mothers are.”

Early career

In 2015 Tillman made his professional acting debut playing Grimaldi in John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore at the Red Bull Theater in New York City. That same year he originated the role of Chris in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He then reprised the role in a 2016 production of Sweat at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Tillman made his Broadway debut playing multiple roles in the Lincoln Center Theater production of The Great Society. He has acted in other stage productions, including All the Roads Home (2017), Carmen Jones (2018), and Good Night, Oscar (2022).

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Also in 2015 he landed a minor role in an episode of the television sitcom Difficult People (2015–17). In 2018 he played the gay best friend of the main character in the critically acclaimed but short-lived AMC fashion comedy series Dietland. He appeared in six episodes of the Forest Whitaker crime drama Godfather of Harlem (2019–26) in 2019 and in two episodes of the Al Pacino psychological drama Hunters (2020–23) in 2020.

Severance and stardom

Tillman’s breakout role came in 2022 with Severance. The series focuses on Lumon, a biotechnology company that has created a proprietary surgical procedure that divides (i.e., severs) its workers’ memories between their work and personal lives. Tillman plays one of the non-severed employees whose job is to make sure that the severed employees toe the line and are content in their lives. His performance has been widely praised for its creepy complexity, with L’Officiel magazine noting “his ability to command a scene with a simple stare or a chillingly polite smile.”

In the final episode of season 2, Milchick holds a celebration for one of the severed workers, Mark (played by Adam Scott), after Mark completes a key task at Lumon. When Tillman, who attended two historically Black colleges, heard that a band was to be part of the celebration, he suggested evoking the vibe of HBCU marching bands, telling Variety in 2025:

It was very important for me that this character did not shy away from his Blackness. I asked if we could infuse HBCU energy—that’s how we got that style. That celebration was for him. That was him reclaiming joy. I knew it would feel authentic.

In 2024 Tillman made his feature film debut, appearing first in the big-screen crime thriller Barron’s Cove and then in the HBO Max holiday comedy Sweethearts. His first role in a blockbuster franchise film came in 2025’s Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. In the film, which earned more than $598 million worldwide, Tillman portrays Captain Bledsoe, a submarine operator who assists Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise) in his mission to defeat an artificial intelligence villain. Although his role in the film was minor, Tillman’s performance was described as a scene-stealer and noted for being one of the movie’s most memorable supporting roles.