ABC's The Good Doctor is quantifiably the most-watched network show on television, and its achievement is due in no small part to the performance and charisma of its lead Freddie Highmore in the role of Dr. Shaun Murphy. Longtime Highmore fans won't be surprised at the 25-year-old actor's ability to carry the series, but it's high time the rest of the world caught up to what many already knew: Freddie Highmore is the bomb dot com. He deserves the world's attention, and The Good Doctor is going to finally garner him just that.

Freddie is one of the rare actors who seamlessly transitioned from high-profile child roles like Peter in Finding Neverland and Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to complex adult characters like Norman Bates in Bates Motel. He's picked up a number of interesting credits on the way and worked with some of Hollywood's dearest names (he held his own next to Robin Williams in August Rush), all the while staying slightly under the radar of superstardom, a position that allowed him to take more daring work than a straight highway to the A-list would have allowed. Along the way, he's touched upon a few fizzled-out franchises like the failed The Golden Compass (where he voiced a shape-shifting daemon) and The Spiderwick Chronicles (which semi-crammed five books into a movie, damning its sequel chances), but Highmore is at his best when he steps away from the grandeur of fantasy and embraces his considerable range for darker, more interesting characters.

Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates in Bates Motel. Getty Images

It would be impossible to discuss Freddie Highmore's slow emergence into the spotlight without discussing his performance in A&E's Bates Motel. While the initial idea of framing an entire television series as a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho seemed a little, well, psycho before the pilot aired, it was clear from the opening scenes that Highmore wasn't messing around with his character. Over the course of five seasons he re-formed one of cinema's most iconic villains into a charming, horrifying lovable protagonist who, even as he murdered his way through a small town and gave in to complete insanity, maintained the audience's sympathy. There aren't many situations where a wide-eyed motel clerk with a truckload of sexual hangups could easily share the screen with a furious Rihanna, but Freddie as Norman made it work. His 2016 People's Choice Award is proof enough of that.

Bates Motel also allowed Highmore to explore writing and directing; he wrote two episodes of the show and directed one of its season five standouts. Kerry Ehrin, the Bates Motel showrunner, even wrote a comedy pilot with him that was picked up (and subsequently dropped) by NBC. These forays into the other side of Hollywood are what allowed him to co-produce The Good Doctor as well as star in it, and his dual role in the production of the ABC hit will further prepare him for his next project, historical biopic series Baby Face, where he will executive produce and star as the titular character Baby Face Nelson.

Highmore in The Good Doctor. Getty Images

At this point the question is not "what will Freddie Highmore do now that he's at the center of one very popular show," it's "what won't Freddie Highmore get to do now that he's proven to be one of Hollywood's most illustrious young voices?" Keep your eyes locked on Highmore as the first season of The Good Doctor continues to slay, and don't be surprised when Freddie Highmore starts showing up everywhere else. He's been perfecting his game for years and shows no signs of slowing down on his journey to the very top.

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