FILE - An Emmy statue is displayed Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, in Los Angeles. The 75th Primetime Emmy Awards will finally be held on Jan. 15, 2024, after a fourth-month delay. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Judith Light from “Poker Face” and Sam Richardson from “Ted Lasso” both became first time Emmy winners with early acting wins at Saturday’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Light, 74, took her first Emmy in a nearly 50-year television career for playing a 1960s radical hiding out in a retirement home on an episode of ” Poker Face,” the Peacock comedy-mystery series starring Natasha Lyonne. The star of the 1980s and 1990s sitcom “Who’s The Boss?”, Light had been nominated twice previously, including twice for her acting on “Transparent.”
“I’ve been in the business a long time, and this is quite a gift,” Light said backstage.
Richardson, 39, won his own first Emmy for playing a billionaire soccer enthusiast from Ghana on ” Ted Lasso,” the Apple TV+ series that is the year’s most nominated comedy with 21 nods. He had been nominated once previously for the same role.
He was the winner Saturday in a field of more famous nominees, including previous winner in the category Nathan Lane for “Only Murders in the Building,” and Pedro Pascal nominated Saturday for his hosting of “Saturday Night Live” and nominated next week for best actor in a drama series for ” The Last of Us.”
The two-part ceremony with nearly 100 awards that began Saturday night and continues Sunday night is a precursor to the main Emmy ceremony that will air at 8 p.m. EST Jan. 15 on Fox, with “black-ish” star Anthony Anderson as host. Just like the main telecast, the Creative Arts Emmys arrive after a four-month delay because of Hollywood’s writers and actors strikes.
This weekend is a chance for less famous players, from hairdressers to stunt performers, to have their moment at the podium. But a handful of awards annually claim major names among their nominees.
Among them this year is Barack Obama, who can repeat Sunday as best narrator, this time for adding his voice to the Netflix documentary series, “Working: What We Do All Day,” He’s in a star-studded category that also includes Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett and Pascal. (The former president previously won for narrating a Netflix series on national parks.)
Michelle Obama is also up for an Emmy alongside Oprah Winfrey. Each are nominated for best hosted nonfiction series or special for their Netflix show “The Light We Carry.”
