Indigenous Actors Make History with Emmy Nominations

Both Lily Gladstone and Kali Reis made history as the first Indigenous women to be nominated for acting Emmy awards. They are both nominated for Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie. Reis for HBO’s True Detective: Night Country, and Gladstone for Hulu’s Under the Bridge.

Joining Gladstone and Reis this year is D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (who also congratulated the two actresses on social media) who was nominated for Actor in a Comedy Series for FX’s Reservation Dogs. His nomination marks the first Indigenous lead acting nomination in Emmy history according to Variety. Also according to them, Taika Waititi also became the first Indigenous double nominee of a top series category with his producing nominations for both FX’s What We Do in the Shadows and FX’s Reservation Dogs.

In the 76-year history of the Emmys, the first time an Indigenous person was nominated in any acting category was August Schellenberg in 2007 for the HBO tv movie “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”. According to Variety, Gladstone and Reis now mark the second and third time (and Woon-A-Tai makes four).