It was a banner night for queer performers and television creators at the 76th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, with Jodie Foster, Richard Gadd, and Greg Berlanti among the night’s big winners.
Lesbian icon Jodie Foster took home her first Emmy in the category Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role in “True Detective: Night Country.” Foster thanked her wife and kids in her acceptance speech, telling her kids to remember that “Love and work equals art.” Foster has previously been nominated for her work behind the camera, directing “Orange is the New Black,” and producing “The Baby Dance” and “AMC: Film Preservation Classics.”
The Netflix drama “Baby Reindeer,” Richard Gadd’s autobiographical miniseries about his experiences with sexual assault and a stalker, was a big winner at this year’s ceremony. The show took home the award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, while Gadd took home awards for writing and lead actor, and his co-star Jessica Gunning took home the award for supporting actress in the category. The show also took home honors for casting and picture editing at the Creative Arts Emmys earlier in the week.
Peacock’s “The Traitors” won in the Outstanding Reality Competition category, earning an Emmy for producer and host Alan Cumming. Cumming also won Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Show at the Creative Arts Emmys, ending an 8-year streak of wins by “RuPaul’s Drag Race” host RuPaul. Cumming, who is openly bisexual, has been nominated four times before – three times for his role on “The Good Wife” and once as the host of the Tony Awards broadcast. He has also been nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his work on “Arthur: Show Off.”
Longtime writer and producer Greg Berlanti was honored with the Governor’s Award in recognition for his work depicting underrepresented communities on screen across his nearly 25-year-long career. Berlanti’s career has written, directed, and produced dozens of television shows, including such milestones as the first on-screen kiss between two gay characters on his first show, “Dawson’s Creek.”
He later achieved acclaim creating shows like “Everwood,” “The Flight Attendant,” and the CW’s various “Arrowverse” shows, and set a record with producing 18 shows that were on air during the same television season in 2019-2020. His shows frequently broke ground in LGBTQ representation, including the first transgender recurring character on “Dirty Sexy Money” and shows that put gay characters in leading and title roles, like “Batwoman,” “Brilliant Minds,” and “Freedom Fighters: The Ray.”
In his acceptance speech, the 52-year-old Berlanti spoke of the impact of the lack of LGBTQ representation in television when he was a kid.
“There wasn’t a lot of gay characters on television back then, and I was a closeted gay kid, and it’s hard to describe how lonely that was at the time,” Berlanti continued. “There was no Internet to connect with other queer kids, no LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in schools. Back then, the only way to tell if another kid might be gay was if he also watched ’Dynasty,’ ‘Dallas’ and could name all four of the Golden Girls.”
He said it wasn’t until the AIDS crisis in the 1980s that he saw gay men on television “holding hands with other men, marching and fighting for their rights.”
“They gave me hope that I might one day have their courage to come out and share my truth with the world,” Berlanti said.
A queer creator also made history at the Creative Arts Emmys last weekend.
Benj Pasek, who is openly gay, together with his songwriting partner Justin Paul, who is straight, became the 20th and 21st people to achieve EGOT status – winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony – with their win for Best Original Song for “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It” from the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building.” The pair have previously won the Grammy and Tony Awards for their musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” and the Oscar for writing the song “City of Stars” from the movie “La La Land.”
With only seven years between their first and most recent awards, the pair set a new record for shortest time span for competitive EGOT winners, beating previous record holder Robert Lopez’s 10-year span.
Several other queer-themed shows took home honors at this year’s Emmys.
Max’s “Hacks” took home the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for star Jean Smart.
Netflix’s “Ripley” series took home the awards for directing, cinematography, and special visual effects in a single episode in the limited or anthology series category.
“Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” took home the award for period costumes in a limited or anthology series.
Story courtesy of the Washington Blade via the National LGBTQ Media Association. The National LGBTQ Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: https://nationallgbtmediaassociation.com/