The Emmy nominations were announced this morning and there is some very stiff competition among the actresses nominated in both drama and comedy categories, but there appears to be one upstart female star of this year’s Emmys and that is Lena Dunham.
While the acting categories are chock full of heavy hitting women Emmy’s love for women in writing and directing categories still lags sorely behind, so with that in mind cheers to the women who made inroads in those categories by scoring nominations, specifically to that threat Dunham who landed writing, directing and acting nominations for her dark comedy series Girls on HBO. Dunham is the only woman to be nominated in a directing category for a regular series.
Other women recognized for writing were Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler, who wrote the episode “The Debate” and Maria Jacquemetton and Erin Levy, who were nominated for co-writing episodes of Mad Men, although not as a team.
Getting down to the acting categories out actress Sarah Paulson was recognized for her role in the HBO film Game Change while queer comedian Margaret Cho was pulled one for her guest starring role on 30 Rock. The only actress nominated in a lesbian or bisexual role was Archie Panjabi for her turn as the show’s enigmatic investigator Kalinda Sharma on The Good Wife. Panjabi won the Emmy in 2010 for playing Kalinda.
Here’s how the battles shape up in the female acting categories. The Good Wife’s Julianna Margulies, Homeland’s Claire Danes, Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss, Damages’ Glenn Close and Oscar winner Kathy Bates in Harry’s Law will face off against veritable newcomer, Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery, lead actress in a drama category.
The supporting actress in a drama nominees are Breaking Bad’s Anna Gunn, Panjabi and Christine Baranski for The Good Wife, Maggie Smith and Joanne Froggatt for Downton Abbey and Christina Hendricks for Mad Men.
The women who made the cut as lead actress in a comedy this year include Dunham, Poehler, Zooey Deschanel for New Girl, Tina Fey for 30 Rock, Melissa McCarthy for Mike and Molly, Julia Louis-Dreyfus for Veep and Edie Falco for Nurse Jackie.
Supporting actress in a comedy nominees include Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara and Julie Bowen, The Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik, Nurse Jackie’s Merritt Weaver, Kathryn Joosten for Desperate Housewives and Kristen Wiig for Saturday Night Live.
Julianne Moore for Game Change, Connie Britten in American Horror Story, Ashley Judd in Missing, Nicole Kidman in Hemingway and Gellhorn and Emma Thompson in the Song of Lunch comprise the lead actress in a mini-series or movie category.
Meanwhile, Paulson’s got some stiff competition in the supporting actress in a mini-series or movie slot as she’ll face off with Mare Winningham for Hatfields and the McCoys, Jessica Lange and Francis Conroy for American Horror Story and Judy Davis for Page Eight.
Check out the full list of nominees here.
Image via Getty.
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