He is best known for portraying Walter White in the AMC crime drama series Breaking Bad (2008–2013) and Hal in the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006).

Cranston's performance on Breaking Bad earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times (2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014) and a Golden Globe in 2014.

Other notable films include Saving Private Ryan (1998), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Drive (2011), Contagion (2011), Argo (2012), Godzilla (2014), The Infiltrator (2016), The Upside (2017), and Asteroid City (2023).

[16] Cranston has claimed that he based his portrayal of Walter White on his own father, who had a slumped posture "like the weight of the world was on his shoulders".

Cranston's voice acting includes English dubbing of Japanese anime (for which he primarily used the non-union pseudonym Lee Stone),[29] including Macross Plus and Armitage III: Poly-Matrix, and most notably, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie as Fei-Long, and the children's series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

In 1997, he played a supporting role in the Michael Dudikoff action film Strategic Command, alongside Richard Norton, Paul Winfield, and Stephen Quadros.

[34] That same year he made his second appearance for a recurring role on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens, playing Doug Heffernan's neighbor, Tim Sacksky.

His theatrical credits include starring roles in The God of Hell, Chapter Two, The Taming of the Shrew, A Doll's House, Barefoot in the Park, Eastern Standard, Wrestlers and The Steven Weed Show, for which he won a Drama-Logue Award.

[37] He has had guest roles in many television series, including a white-collar criminal searching for his estranged wife and daughter on The Flash, and a lawyer attempting to free the title character from a contract in Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

He also had a guest role in late 2006 on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, playing Ted Mosby's obnoxious co-worker and former boss Hammond Druthers.

He played Lucifer in the ABC Family miniseries Fallen and appeared as Nick Wrigley, an irresponsible uncle who accidentally brings Christmas close to destruction when he steals Santa's sleigh to have a crazy ride, in the 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie 'Twas the Night.

[38] From 2008 to 2013, Cranston starred in the AMC series Breaking Bad, created by Vince Gilligan, in which he played the show's protagonist, Walter White, a high-school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

[40] In 2012, he starred in the remake of the 1990 film Total Recall, as Chancellor Vilos Cohaagen, the corrupted president of a fictional war-ravaged United Federation of Britain.

In the same year, he made a guest appearance as Kenneth Parcell's step-father, Ron, on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

[41] From September 2013 to June 2014, Cranston played U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson in the American Repertory Theater and Broadway productions of All the Way.

[47] Cranston has produced an instructional DVD called KidSmartz, which is designed to teach families how to stay safe from child abductors and Internet predators.

Also, following the success of Breaking Bad, the year 2014 saw reports of Cranston developing new TV projects in collaboration with Sony Pictures Television.

Cranston's memoir, A Life in Parts, was published on October 11, 2016, became a New York Times bestseller, and received positive reviews.

[60] Cranston portrayed the news anchor Howard Beale in the play Network, an adaptation of the 1976 film of the same name, in November 2017.

[68] Cranston appeared in the ninth season of the HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm, playing Larry David's therapist.

In 2022, Cranston reprised the role of Walter White during the final season of the Breaking Bad prequel series Better Call Saul.

[71] In 2023, Cranston had another appearance as Walter White, alongside Aaron Paul's Jesse, and Raymond Cruz as Tuco Salamanca in a Super Bowl LVII commercial for PopCorners.

[74] Cranston has stated, "Dick Van Dyke influenced me a lot... you know, his physical comedy and his ability to be loose in his body.

[84] When he accepted his third Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Cranston thanked his wife and daughter and told them he loves them "more than baseball".

[89] Cranston and Breaking Bad co-star Aaron Paul announced the release of their signature mezcal, Dos Hombres, in July 2019.

[93] Cranston supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election and opposed the candidacy of Donald Trump.

"[94] However, he openly criticized Trump in a 2023 interview on CNN, where he stated "The ‘Make America Great Again’ – my comment is: Do you accept that that could possibly be construed as a racist remark?