First, the good news about this year’s Emmy nominees: Queer, Black, Asian and Latino performers made history. The less good news: Overall representation is down for people of color, especially for folks of Asian and indigenous descent.
Of the 92 total performers nominated in the acting categories, 24 of them are people of color, a dip from 2024, when Asian, Latino and Black actors made significant strides, with 30 nominees.
This year, members of the LGBTQ community did well across all categories. Bella Ramsey picked up their second Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for HBO’s “The Last of Us,” becoming the only nonbinary performer to be twice nominated for acting Emmys. This bit of history builds on Ramsey’s own milestone from 2023, when they became the first openly nonbinary actor to be nominated in a lead acting category. (In 2021, non-binary performer Carl Clemons Hopkins was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for “Hacks.” That same year, Emma Corrin earned a nod for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for “The Crown,” though they were not publicly known as nonbinary at the time of the nomination.)
Queer actors were particularly well represented in the supporting actor in a comedy series category, where Colman Domingo, Jeff Hiller, Michael Urie and Bowen Yang took up more than half of slots. In comparison, Hannah Einbinder — who identifies as bisexual — is the only openly queer nominee in supporting actress in a comedy series. Cynthia Erivo earned her third Emmy nomination (this time for guest actress in a comedy series for “Poker Face”), while queer performer Robby Hoffman earned her first Primetime Emmy nomination for her guest work on “Hacks.”
Queer stars RuPaul and Alan Cumming are again nominated for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program for “Drag Race” and “The Traitors” respectively. Now on his record-setting 10th nomination, RuPaul surpasses Heidi Klum (“Project Runway”) and Tom Bergeron (“Dancing with the Stars”) for the most nominated reality host of all time.
In 2022, Domingo became the first gay Black man to win an Emmy for guest actor in a drama for HBO’s “Euphoria.” If he wins this year, for supporting actor in a comedy series for Netflix’s “Four Seasons,” he will become the first Black actor to win the category since it was established in 1984. (In previous years, supporting actors competed in a “Comedy or Musical or Variety Series.”) Likewise, he would become the first gay Black actor to take home two acting Emmys. Back in 2019, Billy Porter made history as the first openly gay Black man to win an acting Emmy, earning recognition for his leading work on “Pose.”
“Severance” star Tramell Tillman is similarly positioned to make history. If he wins Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, he will become the first Black man to win this category in the 21st century; he could also become the first openly gay Black man to earn an Emmy in the category and the third openly gay Black man to win an acting Emmy at all.
Ayo Edebiri, who won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2023 for FX’s “The Bear,” scored an Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the second year in a row. The queer performer is also nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for “Napkins,” the sixth episode of the third season of “The Bear.” This makes Edebiri the first woman to be nominated for these two categories in the same year since Lena Dunham was recognized in 2013 for “Girls.” Edebiri is the first Black woman to be nominated in the two categories in the same year.
Joining Edebiri in Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series are fellow Black actresses Quinta Brunson and Uzo Aduba, who was one of this morning’s surprise nominees. At the 74th Annual Emmys, Brunson became the first Black woman to be nominated for three comedy categories at the same ceremony (series, lead actress and writing) for ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.” At the 75th Emmys, she became the first Black woman to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in more than 40 years. Now Brunson is again nominated for writing, this time for the “Abbott” episode “Back to School.”
The only other acting category that is not filled with predominantly white nominees is Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Last year, “The Bear”‘s Liza Colón-Zayas became the first Latina woman to win here, and she’s back in the running for 2025. Janelle James and Sheryl Lee Ralph (who won in 2022) both scored repeat nods for “Abbott Elementary.” And “Shrinking” supporting star Jessica Williams followed up her 2024 nomination with another one.
In the acting categories, Black actors and actresses are the second most represented group (after white performers). Other nominees include Jeffrey Wright (Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, “The Last of Us”), Forest Whitaker (Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, “Andor”), Brian Tyree Henry (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series, “Dope Thief”), Zoë Kravitz (Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, “The Studio”) and Natasha Rothwell (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, “The White Lotus”).
Compared to 2023, when Pedro Pascal became just the second Latino nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (after Jimmy Smits in 1999), for “The Last of Us” and “Wednesday” star Jenna Ortega became the first Latina to nab a lead actress in a comedy series spot since America Ferrera in 2008, representation for Latinos is down this year. Other than Pascal, once again nominated for lead actor in a drama series, Selena Gomez is the only other member of the community who made the cut, earning her fourth consecutive nod for Outstanding Comedy Series as an exec producer and solidifying her status as the most Emmy-nominated Latina producer ever. (She was nominated for lead comedy actress in 2024, but not in 2025.)
Asian representation in above-the-line categories also took a hit. With his fourth acting nomination for NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” Bowen Yang is now the most nominated Asian male performer in Emmys history. “Top Chef” host Kristen Kish is the only other Asian performer nominated for a Primetime Emmy.
This is a massive dip from the past few years, when “Shōgun,” “Beef” and “Squid Game” scored slews of nods and wins. “Squid Game” failed to garner a single nomination this year.
Indigenous representation took an even bigger hit, with zero above-the-line nominations just one year after the history-making recognition for Lily Gladstone, Kali Reis and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Ta.
