It’s official! This year’s Emmy ceremony will feature more Black nominees than ever before. Of the 102 acting nominees, 35 were Black. Most notably, stars like Zendaya, Sterling K. Brown, Kerry Washington, Regina King, Jeremy Pope, Octavia Spencer, Tracee Ellis Ross and Issa Rae earned nominations.
Black stars at HBO scored especially big. Issa Rae’s Insecure scored eight nominations. Most notably, the show scored its first-ever Best Comedy Series nomination. Yvonne Orji also scored an Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy series nomination. Alongside HBO’s Insecure, the premium cable network’s Watchmen scored big. The Regina King and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II scored eight nominations. In all, the network scored eighteen nominations with 83% of them coming from shows with Black leads.
This is a notable increase from 2019 when only 19.8% of nominations were Black. Looking forward to next year, shows like Lovecraft County, I May Destroy You and P-Valley could very well improve upon this year’s numbers. For a full list of nominations, visit the Emmy’s website.
