This year’s Emmy nominations are in, and while diversity in the main acting categories has slipped compared to previous years, there have been notable strides in representation across age, gender, and identity.
Bella Ramsey, star of HBO’s The Last of Us, became the first openly non-binary performer to earn two nominations. They were first nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category in 2023 for their role as Ellie in the show’s opening season.
Ramsey, 20, is now the fourth-youngest lead drama actress nominee in Emmy history and the youngest to receive two nominations in the acting category.
In May, the actor told Louis Theroux in an interview that they didn’t mind being included in the Actress category, but that they “have a guttural, ‘That’s not quite right,’ instinct [to it].”
“But I just don’t take it too seriously… it doesn’t feel like an attack on my identity,” the actor explained.
At 77, Kathy Bates, became the oldest woman to be nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for their role in CBS’ Matlock, where she plays a lawyer seeking justice after the death of her daughter.
For the first time in Emmys history, at least one female writer appears in each of the Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series nominees. They include Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky for Hacks, Carrie Kemper for The Rehearsal, Bridget Everett and Hannah Bos for Somebody Somewhere, Frida Perez for The Studio, Sarah Naftalis for What We Do In The Shadows and Quinta Brunson for Abbott Elementary.
The creator, executive producer and actor of the ABC mockumentary continues her historic Emmy run, having now secured the most writing nominations by a Black woman (three in total) and becoming the third most-nominated Black woman in lead comedy actress.
On Instagram, the 35-year old celebrated the show’s achievements, adding a caption to a post announcing the multiple nominations earned by the show that read: “Honoured and proud.”
Women of colour dominate the award for Outstanding Lead Comedy Actress, including Brunson, Uzo Aduba of “The Residence,” and Ayo Edebiri of “The Bear.”
Last year, Edebiri, 29, won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Sydney Adamu, and now holds the record as the youngest Black woman to receive three Emmy acting nominations.
This year, she has also been nominated for directing the episode “Napkins,” making her the first woman to be nominated for acting and directing in the comedy categories in the same year.
Four women are nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series/TV, including DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter for Zero Day, Helen Shaver and Jennifer Getzinger for episodes of The Penguin, and Shannon Murphy for Dying for Sex.
In the main acting categories, only 24 actors out of a total of 94 are performers of colour. It’s a decline from 2024, when 30 were performers of colour, and 2022, when 42 of 108 nominees were people of colour — the highest in Emmys history.
Selena Gomez was nominated for a fourth consecutive year as executive producer of Only Murders in the Building, stretching her record as the most-nominated Latina producer in history.
The 77th Emmy Awards will be held on Sunday, September 14 at the Peacock Theater in Downtown Los Angeles.
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