The Television Academy nominated a record number of Black actors for the Emmys on Tuesday morning, with 34.3% of the acting nominees being Black.
There were 102 acting nominees this year in all major, support, and guest categories for drama, comedy, and limited series / TV movies. Thirty-five of those spaces were for black actors (in particular, Maya Rudolph actually represents two of those spaces, being nominated against herself in the Guest Comedy Actress category for her work on “The Good Place” and “Saturday Night Live “).
Other nominees in major acting categories include Billy Porter, Sterling K. Brown, Zendaya, Anthony Anderson, Don Cheadle, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, Regina King, Jeremy Pope, Octavia Spencer, and Kerry Washington.
This is a notable increase from last year, when black actors represented 19.8% of the nominee pool, as well as an increase from 2018, when there were 27.7% of black actors nominated, the previous highest percentage in the Academy history.
“2020 is not just about the global health crisis. This year we are also witnessing one of the greatest struggles for social justice in history, and it is our duty to use this medium for change. That is the power and responsibility of television, not only to provide a multitude of services or a little escapism, but also to amplify the voices that must be heard and tell the stories that must be told. Because television, by its very nature, connects us all, “said Frank Scherma, President and CEO of Television Academy, at the beginning of the nomination announcement.
But the fight for inclusion is far from over, as these numbers have increased but are still far from parity. And although acting categories are still divided by gender, forcing parity, writing and directing categories are not.
Writing categories fared better than directing, but only marginally when it came to parity. Not including the variety series writing category that lists all staff on the ballots, the selected writers who rate noms in drama, comedy, limited series / TV movie / dramatic special, variety special, and documentary or Non-fiction consisted of 40 people, 13 of whom were women. This is 32.5% of nominated women (67.5% of men). The special limited series / TV movie / drama category is what really made the difference, with six of the nine nominated here being women, including Anna Winger from “Unrthodox” and Sally Rooney and Alice Birch from “Normal People”.
Of the seven leadership categories, there were 47 nominees, 15 of whom were women, with a percentage of 31.9. Once again, the limited series / TV movie / drama special category was the only one to reach parity here, with four out of six nominated as women, including Lynn Shelton, who received a posthumous nod for “Little Fires Everywhere.”
