Olivia Colman has won the coveted award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the 2021 Emmy Awards for her role in The Crown.
The esteemed category was made up of Uzo Aduba for In Treatment, Olivia Colman for The Crown, Emma Corrin for The Crown, Elisabeth Moss for The Handmaid’s Tale, Mj Rodriguez for Pose and Jurnee Smollet for Lovecraft Country.
The 73rd Primetime Emmys saw Netflix’s The Crown and Disney+’s The Mandalorian score 24 nominations each, followed by Marvel and Disney+ hit WandaVision with 23.
Dystopian drama The Handmaid’s Tale scored 21 noms, while the long-running sketch series Saturday Night Live took home 21.
Pose star Mj Rodriguez‘s nomination for her role as Blanca Evangelista was a history-making moment, as it represents the first time a trans woman has ever been nominated in the leading actress category. Rodriguez’s co-star Billy Porter also received a nomination in the lead drama actor category, having previously won the Emmy in 2019.
In an interview with Deadline, Rodriguez said that she had never felt more liberated in her life while expressing her desire to inspire others.
“I think it just really opens the gamut,” she told the publication.
“I think it broadens the scope a little bit more and it shows that not only are we human, but we take our class seriously. And we’re not just stereotypical characters, but we have multi-dimensional characters, multi-dimensional lives aside from what has been created around us.”
Moss’ nomination for her role as June in The Handmaid’s Tale marks the third time the actress has been nominated for the dystopian drama, winning in 2017. She was also nominated in 2009 for Mad Men.
Colman and Corrin’s nominations in the category made up two of The Crown‘s 24 overall nominations at the 2021 ceremony.
Disney was a frontrunner at the 2021 ceremony, having racked up 146 nominations across all of the categories while streaming giant Netflix earned a total of 129 nominations. WarnerMedia — which owns HBO and HBO Max — garnered 138 total nominations thanks to the two platforms.
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