Here’s to DIY FYC. On Wednesday, Brittany Allen and Jeff Kober received Emmy nominations in the guest acting drama categories for “The Pitt.” It’s the first Primetime nom for both. And they earned them through grassroots campaigns independent of HBO Max.
Allen appears in Season 2 as Roxie Hamler, a woman dying of cancer who comes to the ER in extreme pain, ready to end her suffering. It’s a wrenching six-episode arc, one of the most prominent patient storylines of the season, but when it came time for HBO to submit actors for Emmy consideration, she was not among the network’s 14 chosen ones.
Nor was Kober, a seasoned veteran with forty years of screen credits (in his very first, he was an alien officer on NBC’s 1985 cult classic “V”). On “The Pitt,” he plays Duke Ekins, Dr. Robby’s zen biker pal with a worrisome growth in his chest.
Both self-submitted, paid the fees and launched their own campaigns, using social media, podcasts and interviews with the press to get the word out. (Eight other actors from “The Pitt” put themselves up for consideration independently, but none of them made the cut on Wednesday. Three more guest performers on “The Pitt” submitted by HBO, Tal Anderson, Tina Ivlev and Ernest Harden Jr.also received nods.)
Networks can only submit so many people from shows with big casts like “The Pitt,” lest they overwhelm voters with too many names and cannibalize their picks.
So it’s not unusual for actors to take matters into their own hands. Last year, for instance, Joel McHale was not among the 19 performers FX entered for “The Bear,” so he applied on his own. His efforts didn’t result in a nomination, but in 2019, “Game of Thrones” cast members Gwendoline Christie, Alfie Allen and Carice van Houten all self-submitted and ended up being nominated. Likewise, in 2018, Kelly Jenrette independently threw her hat in the ring as guest actress for “The Handmaid’s Tale” and received a nod.
It’s also worth noting that Allen and Kober have been here before in rather uncannily similar scenarios. Both appeared on ABC soap operas — she on “All My Children” in 2010 and he on “General Hospital” in 2021 — and self-submitted for Daytime Emmy consideration. Not only did they each snag a nomination, but they also won — Allen for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series and Kober for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
We’ll have to wait until September 14 to see if their Midas touch proves as effective at the Primetime Emmys.
