As awards bodies continue to diversify their selections and there are fewer first-time breakthroughs to achieve, it becomes increasingly instructive to look at racial and ethnic diversity by percentage – not to mention more efficient, as nominees of color in each awards class nowadays routinely number in the double-digits.
Overall, performers of color comprise 44 percent of the acting nominations for the 73rd Emmy Awards (leaving white actors with the remaining 56 percent, or 54 of the 96 total acting nods). Black actors (36), including Afro-Latinas Mj Rodriguez (Pose) and Rosie Perez (The Flight Attendant), represent 37.5 percent, up from 35 nods (34.3 percent) in 2020 as part of a gradual but steady increase over the last few years. Rodriguez and Perez join Hamilton duo Lin-Manuel Miranda and Anthony Ramos as the four Latino actors nominated for Emmys this year, matching the number of nominees of Asian descent (Ted Lasso‘s Nick Mohammed, Saturday Night Live‘s Bowen Yang, The Handmaid’s Tale‘s Max Minghella and Hamilton‘s Phillipa Soo). Last year saw four actors nominated who were neither white nor Black.
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Performers of color comprise at least half of the spots in the lead drama actor and actress races for the first time in Emmys history. Past winners Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) and Billy Porter (Pose) join Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country) and Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton) to compose a majority-Black category, while Rodriguez (the first trans performer to earn a primetime lead acting nomination), Uzo Aduba (In Treatment) and Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country) represent half of their field.
Exactly half of the nominees in the three supporting actor categories are people of color. In the eight-man comedy race, Mohammed and Yang are joined by Hacks‘ Carl Clemons-Hopkins and SNL‘s Kenan Thompson (the latter also has earned his first lead nomination for his eponymous sitcom); Minghella shares the drama field with his castmate O-T Fagbenle, The Mandalorian‘s Giancarlo Esposito and Lovecraft‘s Michael K. Williams; and the limited series or movie category sees Hamilton‘s Ramos and Daveed Diggs face off with I May Destroy You‘s Paapa Essiedu.
Black actors represented three of five nominees in both of their guest categories. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s Don Cheadle, Lovecraft‘s Courtney B. Vance and The Mandalorian‘s Carl Weathers will compete in drama; while SNL hosts Dave Chappelle and Daniel Kaluuya share the comedy field with Morgan Freeman from The Kominsky Method. Women of color are half the field in two acting categories: supporting, limited series or movie (Soo, her Hamilton sister Renée Elise Goldsberry and The Queen’s Gambit‘s Moses Ingram) and guest, comedy (Yvette Nicole Brown and Issa Rae were singled out from the uniformly stellar A Black Lady Sketch Show alongside SNL‘s Maya Rudolph).
The other actors of color who have received Emmy nominations are Black-ish comedy leads Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross; Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) for lead actor, limited series or movie; Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You) and Cynthia Erivo (Genius: Aretha) for lead actress, limited series or movie; Aunjanue Ellis (Lovecraft) and Samira Wiley (Handmaid’s) for supporting actress, drama; and Sophie Okonedo (Ratched) and Phylicia Rashad (This Is Us) for guest actress, drama.
Although not included in the acting tally, it should be noted that all five nominees for reality/competition series host include people of color: Queer Eye‘s Karamo Brown and Tan France, Nailed It‘s Nicole Byer, Shark Tank‘s Daymond John, Top Chef‘s Padma Lakshmi and RuPaul’s Drag Race‘s RuPaul.
Cedric the Entertainer will host the 73rd Emmy Awards, which will air live on Sunday, Sept. 19 at 5 p.m. PT on CBS and Paramount+.
