Emmys history: Comedy Actress lineup boasts record number of Black nominees
Just six months after becoming only the second Black winner in the history of the Best Comedy Actress Emmy category, Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”) is officially back in the running to defend her crown. Although she was the sole Black contender in last year’s lineup, that isn’t the case this time, as Black women handily claimed 50% of this category’s nomination slots for the first time ever.
In the battle for this year’s lead trophy, Brunson faces 2023 supporting champ Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”), with whom she set the precedent for Black women conquering the two regular comedy actress categories at once. Their new record is shared with Maya Rudolph (“Loot”), whose lead breakthrough coincides with new bids for two awards she has won before: Best Comedy Guest Actress (“Saturday Night Live”) and Best Character Voice-Over Performance (“Big Mouth”).
A total of nine Black actresses have now been nominated for Best Comedy Actress in the nearly eight-decade existence of the category. Aside from trailblazing winner Isabel Sanford, who triumphed in 1981 on her third of seven consecutive bids for “The Jeffersons,” those who preceded Brunson were Diahann Carroll (“Julia”), Nell Carter (“Gimme a Break!”), Phylicia Rashad (“The Cosby Show”), Tracee Ellis Ross (“Black-ish”), and Issa Rae (“Insecure”).
Prior to this year, there were six cases of two Black actresses appearing in the same comedy lead lineup. Sanford was involved in the first three showdowns against Carter (1982-1983) and Rashad (1985), while the most recent ones concerned Ross and Rae (2018; 2020) and Rae and Brunson (2022).
Outside of both comedy lead categories, there have been 12 instances of at least three Black continuing series regulars vying for the same Emmy award. The first case involved CCH Pounder (“ER”), Della Reese (“Touched by an Angel”), and Gloria Reuben (“ER”), who all lost the 1997 drama supporting actress contest to Kim Delaney (“NYPD Blue”). The only winners who emerged from these dozen trios or larger groups are comedic supporting actresses Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Abbott Elementary,” 2022) and Edebiri (2023), the latter of whom defeated Ralph as well as Black nominees Janelle James (“Abbott Elementary”) and Jessica Williams (“Shrinking”).
Last year’s comedy supporting actress lineup was the sixth in all of Emmys history to include four or more Black nominees. This precedent was established in 1977 by a quartet of “Roots” costars in the defunct Best Single Appearance by an Actor category. Subsequent cases occurred in 2018 (drama guest actress), 2020 (comedy supporting actor and movie/limited supporting actor), and 2021 (drama actor). The overall record of five such concurrent nominations belongs to 2020 featured funnymen Mahershala Ali (“Ramy”), Andre Braugher (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), Sterling K. Brown (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), William Jackson Harper (“The Good Place”), and Kenan Thompson (“Saturday Night Live”), all of whom were bested by Dan Levy (“Schitt’s Creek”).
Brunson, Edebiri, and Rudolph are among the 21 Black performers included on this year’s final Emmy ballot. Of the 11 categories these nominees cover, the only other one in which more than two of them are facing off is Best Narrator, where veteran contenders Angela Bassett (“Queens”) and Morgan Freeman (“Life on Our Planet”) are being challenged by first-timer Octavia Spencer (“Lost Women of Highway 20”).
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