Twenty-eight actors and reality hosts from diverse backgrounds were recognized by the Television Academy with Emmy nominations today, not only an 18% drop from last year’s 34 but a near low since 2019 when there were 26 non-Caucasian actors and hosts.
At its highest, the most diverse year for actors and reality competition/talk show hosts was 2021 per Deadline stats with a massive 49 nominees.
While there were only two categories last year devoid of nominees from diverse backgrounds (Guest Actor Comedy Series and Lead Actor in Limited Series, Anthology or Movie), this year there were three, including Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Guest Actress in a Drama Series and Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
The most diverse acting categories were Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series with Jessica Williams (Apple TV+’s Shrinking), Sheryl Lee Ralph (ABC’s Abbott Elementary), Janelle James (Abbott Elementary), and Liza Colon-Zayas (The Bear) who made Emmy history last year as the first Latina to win the category. This is Colon-Zayas’ second nomination.
Another Emmy acting slot representing the most thespians of color was Lead Actress in A Comedy Series with Uzo Aduba (Her sixth Emmy nom for Netflix’s The Residence, in a three-time Emmy winning career), Ayo Edebiri with The Bear (who scored two Emmy noms this year in this category and comedy directing her Bear episode “Napkins”), and Quinta Brunson for Abbott Elementary.
Had Diego Luna received a Best Actor in Drama Series for Andor, it would have repped the first time two Latino actors shared the slot, the sole nominee this year in the category being Pedro Pascal for HBO’s The Last of Us, his fourth career nom. Pascal is the second Latino nominee in the slot to be nominated more than once after NYPD Blue‘s Jimmy Smits’ five Emmy nom streak from 1995 to 1999.
Edebiri is the first Black woman to be nominated for acting and directing categories in a single year. She is also the youngest Black woman, at 29, to reach three Emmy acting noms in her career. She won best supporting actress comedy series in 2023 for her turn as Sydney Adamu on The Bear. She was nominated for a DGA Comedy Series directing award earlier this year for “Napkins”.
Abbott Elementary creator, EP and star Brunson counts 11 Primetime Emmy noms now in her career, having already won two for Outstanding Comedy Series Writing in 2022 and Lead Actress Comedy Series in 2023. She also nominated in the comedy series writing category for a third time this year, the first time a Black woman has achieved that benchmark with a single series. Brunson is tied with Stefani Robinson (Atlanta and What We Do in the Shadows) with the most writing Emmy noms by a Black woman. Brunson is also the first Black Woman to win for comedy writing.
With his lead actor drama series nom for Hulu’s Paradise, Sterling K. Brown ties with Don Cheadle and Andre Braugher with an overall 11 Emmy career noms across various categories. This is Brown’s fifth Lead Actor Drama Series nomination. Brown is a 3x Emmy winner in 2016 for Limited Series Supporting Actor for FX’s American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, 2017 for Lead Actor Drama in This Is Us, and Outstanding Narrator in 2021 for Lincoln: Divided We Stand.
Saturday Night Live‘s Bowen Yang is the only AAPI standout this year among noms, the sketch player landing a supporting comedy actor nom in comedy series. Yang is now the most nominated Asian American actor in the Emmy books with four noms. Kristen Kish receives her second Emmy nom in Outstanding Host for Reality or Reality Competition for Top Chef. The TV Academy overlooked key performances from Asian actors and actresses in The White Lotus, The Studio and Squid Game.
Other shoutouts:
First time nominees include Zach Cherry and Travel Tillman both in Supporting Actor for AppleTV+’s Severance, Anthony Mackie for playing himself in the streamer’s The Studio in the Best Actor Comedy slot, also Zoe Kravitz for Guest Comedy Actress on The Studio, Javier Bardem as the twisted father in Netflix’s Monsters in Supporting Actor Limited Anthology, Ashley Walters in Limited Series Anthology for Netflix’s Adolescence. There’s also Ruth Negga, who is already a 2017 Best Actress Oscar nominee for Loving, who lands her first Emmy nom for Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent in the Limited Anthology Series Supporting Actress category.
Rashida Jones gets her second career Emmy nom, yet her first above-the-line acting nom in the Lead Actress Limited Series Anthology category for Black Mirror. She was previously recognized in the 2015 documentary filmmaking category for her non-fiction feature Hot Girls Wanted.
Other actors from diverse backgrounds recognized at the 77th Primetime Emmy noms include Bryan Tyree Henry in Limited Actor Anthology Series for AppleTV+’s Dope Thief, Natasha Rothwell in Supporting Actress for HBO’s The White Lotus, Colman Domingo for Supporting Actor Comedy Series for Netflix’s The Four Seasons, Cynthia Erivo for Peacock’s Poker Face in Guest Actress Comedy Series, Giancarlo Esposito for Prime Video’s The Boys in Guest Actor Drama Series, Forest Whitaker for Disney+’s Andor in Guest Actor Drama Series, Jeffrey Wright for HBO’s The Last of Us in Guest Actor Drama Series, RuPaul for RuPaul’s Drag Race in Reality or Reality Competition Host and Daymond John in Reality or Reality Competition Host for ABC’s Shark Tank.
