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| South Koreans Lee Jung-jae, left, and Hwang Dong-hyuk with their history-making Emmys. |
We celebrate Hwang's and Lee's accomplishments that widened the television industry's representation to include Asians, Asian American actors and series went almost unnoticed.
Although they didn't win the prestigious trophy awarded to television's projects and actors, huge recognition and credit should also be given to Karyn Kusama (Yellowjacket) and Cathy Yan (Succession) were both nominated for director in a drama series, Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) for actress in a drama series, Bowen Yang (Saturday NIght Live) for supporting actor in a comedy series.
Other Asians who received nominations included Hiro Murai who was nominated in two categories as director in a comedy series (Atlanta) and a drama series (Station 11); HoYeon Jung (Squid Game) supporting actress in a drama series; Park Hae-soo and O Yeung-su (Squid Game) supporting actor in a drama series; Lee You-mi (Squid Game) guest actor in a drama series; Himesh Patel, (Station Eleven), lead actor in an anthology; Padma Lakshmi (Top Chef) and Tan France (Queer Eye), host of a reality competition show; and Ali Wong, writer for a variety special.
Squid Game made history in a number of ways: Hwang is first Asian to win the best director award and Lee became the first person from a foreign language show to win in his category.
Set in Seoul, the series is about a group of people facing financial trouble who play against each other to win money. Losers die. It is the first South Korean series and the first television series not in English to to be nominated for best drama series, which eventually went to winner Succession. The show was nominated in 14 categories.
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