Black women Emmy nominees are having a record year behind the camera, with five directing nominations spread across three categories, the most the Television Academy has ever recognized in a single cycle. The nominations belong to four women, because one of them got two.
Salli Richardson-Whitfield is the one with two. She has been nominated twice for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, once for the HBO Max period drama “The Gilded Age” and once for “Task,” the HBO Max crime series starring Mark Ruffalo. That makes her the first Black woman ever to land two directing nominations in the same category in the same year, and these are her third and fourth Emmy directing nominations overall. She already holds a first: in 2024 she became the first Black woman nominated for directing a drama series, for “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.”She is competing in that same drama category against Hanelle M. Culpepper, nominated for the Hulu series “Paradise.” It is Culpepper’s first Emmy nomination. The other two nominations sit outside drama. Rikki Hughes is nominated for directing the variety special “Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable,” and Alexandria Stapleton is nominated for the documentary series “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” both on Netflix. Stapleton actually picked up two nominations, one for directing and one for the series itself in the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series category, where she shares the nod with producer 50 Cent.
To understand why five is a number worth stopping on, you have to count backward. Debbie Allen became the first Black woman nominated for an Emmy in directing in any genre back in 1989, for “The Debbie Allen Special.” Twenty years passed before another one followed. That was Millicent Shelton in 2009 for the “30 Rock” episode “Kidney Now!” What came after that was a trickle rather than a wave: Laurie Ann Gibson in 2011 for a Lady Gaga concert special, Dee Rees in 2015 for the HBO movie “Bessie,” Beyoncé in 2016 for “Lemonade” and again in 2019 for “Homecoming,” Ava DuVernay in 2017 for 13th and 2019 for “When They See Us,” Nadia Hallgren in 2020 for “Becoming,” Michaela Coel in 2021 for “I May Destroy You,” Dime Davis and Bridget Stokes for “A Black Lady Sketch Show” in 2021 and 2022, and Nneka Onuorah in 2022 for Lizzo’s “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls.” That is 37 years of names you can list in a single breath.
Now, the part that complicates the celebration. Of every Black woman ever nominated for directing an Emmy, only two have actually won: Bridget Stokes and Nneka Onuorah, both in variety categories. Drama has never produced a Black woman winner. Neither has comedy, limited series or documentary. So four of this year’s nominees are competing for a statuette that has never been handed to a Black woman in their category, which is a very different thing from competing for a statuette.
Variety’s read on the race is that Stapleton has the best shot of the group, since “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” carries the timeliest subject on the documentary ballot, arrived with critical acclaim, and has Netflix pushing it. If that holds, it would be the first documentary directing Emmy for a Black woman. Directing nominations also differ from acting nominations in terms of what they actually do for a career. They function as hiring credentials. Showrunners staff directors off lists, agents build those lists from recognition, and a name that has never appeared on a nomination sheet has a harder time getting into the room at all. So five nominations in one morning is not only a symbolic milestone. It is five women whose booking prospects for the next two seasons just changed.
On camera, the Black women in this year’s class include Quinta Brunson, nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for “Abbott Elementary” and again for Outstanding Writing for the episode “Team Building,” and Ayo Edebiri, nominated for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for “The Bear.” In drama, Zendaya picked up her sixth career nomination for the final season of “Euphoria,” and Chase Infiniti earned a Lead Actress nomination for “The Testaments.” In supporting categories, Janelle James is nominated for “Abbott Elementary,” Jessica Williams for “Shrinking,” and Joy Sunday for “DTF St. Louis.”
That looks like a strong list until you set it against the full picture. TheWrap reported that only 18 of the 91 nominated performers this year are Asian, Black or Latino, down from 24 last year and 30 the year before that. Three acting categories have no performers of color at all: Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Deadline’s breakdown found that no category this year had more than two nominees of color, compared to four in the top category last year. So the on-screen numbers are sliding in the exact same season the directing numbers hit a high, which says the progress is happening in one specific room and not across the building.
The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards air Monday, September 14 on NBC and Peacock, live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, hosted by Mariska Hargitay. The ceremony moved off its usual Sunday slot because NBC had a football game.
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