LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) This year’s Emmy nominations has reportedly shown a tremendous growth minority honorees.
More than a third of the 101 acting nominations for the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards are for minorities, up from a quarter of the field last year, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.
Sterling K. Brown and Donald Glove (aka Childish Gambino) are again nominated for top acting awards for “This Is Us” and “Atlanta,” respectively. Both were big winners last year.
Also nominated are Ricky Martin and Penelope Cruz for “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” John Legend for “Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert” and Tiffany Haddish for her hosting duties at “Saturday Night Live.” Haddish was the first African-American female comedian to host the show.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and RuPaul also have nominations. Sandra Oh, for her role on “Killing Eve,” is the first nominee of Asian descent in the leading drama actress category. She has been nominated five times as supporting actress for “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Only one of this year’s categories, supporting actor in a drama, did not have a nominee for a person of color, the AP noted. Meanwhile, there are three categories where minorities constitute more than half of the nominations.
Some include Tituss Burguss for his role on “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” Kenan Thompson for “Saturday Night Live,” Tony Shalhoub for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and Brian Tyree Henry for “Atlanta.”
Leonorad James III, chair of the NAACP Image Awards committee, credited the diversity to a long fight for civil rights.
“We’ve been engaged with the Hollywood community for 100 years,” James told the AP. “The Birth of a Nation” in 1915, just six years after the organization was founded. “I think you’re beginning to see some of that work get very positive results.”
