Actors of color shut out again at 78th Emmy Awards

No actor of color won any of the 12 lead or supporting acting prizes handed out at the 78th Emmy Awards this year — a repeat of last year’s near-shutout that has again drawn the “Emmys So White” label from industry observers.

Monday’s NBC telecast saw all eight lead and supporting drama and comedy honors, plus lead actor and actress in a limited series, go to performers outside underrepresented groups. Two more categories — supporting actor and actress in a limited series — were decided a week earlier at the Creative Arts ceremonies after the Television Academy moved five categories off the main broadcast this year, a decision the Directors Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America jointly criticized as devaluing nominees’ work. The shift changed the broadcast, not the outcome.

The only performers of color to win an on-camera or voice Emmy this cycle did so at those Creative Arts ceremonies: Ernest Harden Jr. for guest actor in a drama for HBO Max’s “The Pitt,” and Octavia Spencer for narrating the documentary series “Lost Women of Alaska”, both first-time Emmy wins.

Behind the camera, the night produced a genuine milestone. Hiro Murai became the first Asian director to win outstanding directing for a comedy series, for Apple TV’s “Widow’s Bay,” and only the third Asian director to win an Emmy directing category, following Lee Sung Jin for “Beef” and Hwang Dong-hyuk for “Squid Game.”

Matthew Rhys made history of his own, becoming the first performer to win two lead acting Emmys in a single night — lead actor in a limited series for Netflix’s “The Beast in Me” and lead comedy actor for “Widow’s Bay.” That limited-series win came at the expense of Oscar Isaac, nominated for “Beef,” who would have become just the third Latino performer to win the category. The only two before him were Jharrel Jerome, whose 2019 win for “When They See Us” made him the first Afro-Latino and first Dominican performer to win an acting Emmy, and Raul Julia, who won posthumously in 1995.

The evening’s other headline was Jean Smart, who won lead comedy actress for “Hacks” for the fifth consecutive time — taking the trophy for all five seasons of the show — and Allison Janney, honored for “The Diplomat.” Both are now tied with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman for the most acting Emmys ever won by a performer, at eight apiece.

One quieter moment stood out. Accepting lead drama actress for “Pluribus,” Rhea Seehorn told the crowd that fellow nominee Keri Russell had sent the group a card quoting Gloria Steinem, who died Sept. 2: “We are linked, not ranked,” Ms. Seehorn said, passing along the line to her fellow nominees.

Variety, in its own analysis of the night, counted 17 performers of color among this year’s lead and supporting acting nominees, down from 28 a year ago — a 39% decline — with the pool of nominees of color last peaking at 49 in 2021.