A landmark victory in the representation arena occured this week when 49 BIPOC nominees were included in the Primetime Emmy Nomination announcements. This is the largest number to date, topping the 42-nominee record from 2020.
Of those 49 nominees, 43 were actors in the drama series, comedy, limited, supporting and guest categories, while 6 were in the reality/competition hosting category. These nominations come from some of the year's most beloved shows, including the Hamiltonfeature on Disney+ (Renée Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Leslie Odom Jr.), Saturday Night Live (Dave Chappelle, Bowen Yang, Maya Rudolph, Kenan Thompson, and Daniel Kaluuya), and HBO's recently-cancelled Lovecraft County (Jurnee Smollett, Jonathan Majors, Aunjanue Ellis, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Courtney B. Vance).
Mj Rodriguez also scored a huge win for the transgender community by becoming their first nominee in the Lead Actress in a Drama Series category. This nomination recognized her performance as Bianca in FX's Pose, which explored New York City's drag ball culture scene in the late 20th century. Pose's Billy Porter also received a nomination for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role as zesty emcee Pray Tell.
Other noteworthy nominees include Morgan Freeman's Guest Actor in a Comedy nod for The Kominsky Method and Sterling K. Brown's fifth Lead Actor in a Drama Series nomination for This is Us. Hilariously, Don Cheadle received a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his three minutes of screen time in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
The 73rd Emmy Awards will air on CBS and Paramount+ at 8 PM EST on September 19th, 2021.
