Jean Smart added to her haul with a seventh acting win at the 77th Emmy Awards on Sunday night. But outside of the win for the “Hacks” star, it was first-time winners who dominated the acting categories.
Here’s what to know about the 11 winners who received their first Emmys.
Best Supporting Actor in a limited series or TV movie
Owen Cooper, ‘Adolescence’
Cooper was mostly unknown by Hollywood when he stepped into the role of a 13-year-old boy accused of killing a classmate in the psychological drama “Adolescence.” The Netflix show was one of the night’s big winners, dominating the limited series categories. Cooper won the Emmy for best supporting actor and received a standing ovation from a room filled with Hollywood heavyweights. At 15, he is the youngest male ever to win an Emmy.
Although he told The New York Times that he was not initially comfortable with the script, in his acceptance speech he emphasized the importance of stepping out of one’s comfort zone: “Who cares if you get embarrassed?”
Best supporting actress in a drama
Hannah Einbinder, ‘Hacks’
Einbinder’s acting credits are limited, and until recently, her biggest role was voice acting in the animation series “Strange Planet.” Her career reached new heights when she began playing Ava Daniels in “Hacks” opposite Smart, earning four Emmy nominations in the supporting actress in a comedy series category since 2021. After finally breaking through on Sunday night, Einbinder punctuated her speech with “Free Palestine.”
Best Actor in a Comedy
Seth Rogen, ‘The Studio’
First appearing on TV screens as a teenager, Rogen is a Hollywood veteran with more than 100 acting credits to his name. He broke out as Ken Miller in the comedy series “Freaks and Geeks,” which ran for one, critically acclaimed season on NBC. Rogen earned his first Emmy nomination in 2005 for writing, and he did not receive his first acting nomination until 2022, for “Pam & Tommy.” He broke his losing streak in a big way on Sunday, wining for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series for playing a movie executive in “The Studio.” The show, which he also helped create, was one of the night’s big winners, taking home the best comedy award.
“I’ve never won anything in my life,” he said. “When I was a kid, I bought a used bowling trophy at an estate sale, and my parents were like, ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea. You should probably buy that.’”
Best Actor in a Drama
Noah Wyle, ‘The Pitt’
Wyle starred as the fresh-faced doctor John Carter in more than 250 episodes of “ER,” the hit NBC medical drama about a hospital in Chicago. That role earned Wyle five nominations between 1995 and 1999. After returning to TV medicine this year, as a battle-scarred emergency room doctor in the acclaimed series “The Pitt,” Wyle finally won his first Emmy.
“What a dream this has been,” he said in his acceptance speech. He also thanked those at HBO Max and Warner Brothers for “allowing the conditions to exist for lightning to strike in my life twice.”
Best Actress in a Drama
Britt Lower, ‘Severance’
Lower has been a steady presence on TV and film, focusing on fare far from awards territory. (She’s a lover of the circus and wrote, directed and starred in a short film called “Circus Person,” about a woman who rediscovers a sense of adventure and surprise after a breakup.) She did not earn a major accolade until she took on the Apple TV+ workplace thriller “Severance.” On Sunday, she won the Emmy for best lead actress in a drama for her work in the show’s second season. In her speech, Lower thanked her character Helly R., a defiant member of Lumon Industries’ Macrodata Refinement department.
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama
Tramell Tillman, ‘Severance’
Tillman is having a breakthrough moment in Hollywood. He had a memorable role in “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” this year, and on Sunday, he earned his first Emmy for his work in “Severance.” In a rousing speech, Tillman thanked his mother for being his first acting coach and for otherwise supporting his career.
His “Severance” character, Seth Milchick, manages the “severed” floor and is known for being a coldhearted enforcer. He’d received only “extremely vague” information about his character, he told The Times. “So that can either give me intense anxiety or give me the thrill of my life,” he said. “Fortunately, it gave me both.”
Best Supporting Actor in a limited series or TV movie
Erin Doherty, ‘Adolescence’
Before taking the role as a child psychologist in the Netflix limited series “Adolescence,” Doherty was best known for her role as Princess Anne in “The Crown,” another Netflix series. On Sunday, she won the Emmy for best supporting actress in a limited series. In an interview, Doherty said the actors had spent two weeks rehearsing the series’ third episode, where she appears. Each part of “Adolescence” is a single shot lasting about an hour. They recorded 11 takes, she said, and the director chose the last one.
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama
Katherine LaNasa, ‘The Pitt’
LaNasa was a journeyman actor with a 30-plus-year career and acting credits that included “Imposters,” “Satisfaction” and “Three Sisters.” Her star turn as the seasoned emergency room nurse Dana Evans in the low-budget HBO Max medical series “The Pitt” catapulted her to new fame. The role came into her life at a particularly fallow time, not long after she’d finished treatment for breast cancer. “It’s nice when something like this happens, when you’re an older person,” LaNasa told The Times.
Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie
Stephen Graham, ‘Adolescence’
The 52-year-old Graham has been acting since he was a teenager, collecting a long list of film and TV credits. But his most recent project, “Adolescence,” in which he plays the father of a troubled teenage boy, has further pushed his career into the spotlight. (He was also the show’s co-creator and co-writer.) He picked up three Emmys on Sunday, including for lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie. He told The Times that recent stabbings involving young people had prompted him to make the show.
Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy
Jeff Hiller, ‘Somebody Somewhere’
Jeff Hiller had pieced together limited success in Hollywood that included appearances on episodes of “American Horror Story” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” The role of Joel on the HBO dramatic comedy “Somebody Somewhere” gave him something much bigger. “It’s not the same when you actually get to dig into a character and really explore,” the 49-year-old actor recently told The Times. “So this is the first time for that.”
On Sunday, he was a surprise winner, beating out the Hollywood legend Harrison Ford and previous Emmy winners such as Colman Domingo and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie
Cristin Milioti, ‘The Penguin’
Milioti lit up the stage with an energetic and impassioned acceptance speech in which she professed, “I love acting so much!” Her performance was a bright light in the comics-based mob series “The Penguin.” Before landing the role of Sofia Falcone, she appeared in the TV series “Made for Love,” “The Mindy Project” and “How I Met Your Mother.”
Derrick Bryson Taylor is a Times reporter covering breaking news in culture and the arts.
The post Here Are the 11 First-Time Acting Winners From the Emmys appeared first on New York Times.
