Emmys 2026: Hiro Murai makes history with his Emmy win

EMMY

Hiro Murai wins an Emmy for directing.

Hiro Murai smashed through a television glass ceiling at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards. Murai took home the trophy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series.

He won a tan Emmy for helming the premiere episode, "Welcome to Widow's Bay!", of Apple TV+'s freshman horror-comedy Widow's Bay.

The Asan American  community has faced decades of exclusion from major television directing categories. This win marks a major milestone. Murai is the first Asian director ever to win the comedy directing Emmy. 

        FYI: Complete list of Emmy winners

He is only the third Asian director to win an Emmy in any directing category. He joins Lee Sung Jin (Beef) and Hwang Dong-hyuk (Squid Game).

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A decade in the making: 10 Emmy nominations

This historic win was no overnight fluke. Murai has two other Emmys as Executive Producer in other productions. Murai has put in years of groundbreaking work, earning 10 career Emmy nominations along the way: 

• 2018: Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (Atlanta, "Teddy Perkins")
• 2018: Outstanding Comedy Series (Atlanta as Co-Executive Producer)
• 2022: Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (Atlanta, "New Jazz")
• 2022: Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series (Station Eleven, "Wheel of Fire")
• 2023: Outstanding Comedy Series (The Bear as Executive Producer – WON)
• 2024: Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, "First Date")
• 2024: Outstanding Drama Series (Mr. & Mrs. Smith as Executive Producer)
• 2026: Outstanding Comedy Series (Widow's Bay as Executive Producer – WON)

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From music videos to peak TV

Born in Tokyo, Japan, and raised in Los Angeles, Murai first gained widespread acclaim for his surreal visual style in the music video circuit. He directed iconic visuals for artists like Earl Sweatshirt, FKA Twigs, Chet Faker, and Flying Lotus. 

His career-defining partnership with Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) produced the music video "This Is America," which earned him a Grammy Award. That collaboration directly translated to the screen, where Murai helped forge the distinct, dreamlike visual tone of FX's masterpiece Atlanta. He has since lent his signature directorial touch to other prestige hits, including HBO Max's Station Eleven, FX's The Bear, and Prime Video's Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Other Asian American Emmy winners this year includes:

Joy Ngiaw – Won Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for an Animated Program for Apple TV+'s WondLa, making history as the first Malaysian to secure an Emmy Award.

Jongkun Park – Won Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie as part of the audio production team for Beef.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective interesting, please repost.

Darren Criss wins historic Emmy; Sandra Oh snubbed

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Darren Criss thanked his family for their love keeping him grounded.

LIKE A good Filipino son, Darren Criss thanked his family after winning the Emmy last night for his role in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. 

"Unlike the character I played, I was lucky enough to be raised in a home that was very loving and emphasized the value of hard work, compassion and not taking yourself too seriously," said Criss. Born to a mother from Cebu and a father of English, Irish, and German descent, Criss was raised in San Francisco.

Not only is Criss the first Filipino American to win an Emmy, but what makes the acting award even more unique and historic is that he played the role of Versace's murderer, Andrew Cunanan, who was a Filipino American.

"Oh, my God, you guys are witnessing the most extraordinary moment of my life thus far. I'm very privileged to be in this room among so many people who inspire the crap out of me, and I'm so honored to be nominated," Criss said in his accepting his award. "A lot of you guys, I've been a fan of for such a long time. Actors are really only as good as the moments they are given and the moments they are granted. So I am profoundly indebted to my friend Ryan Murphy for entrusting me with this opportunity of a lifetime and for believing in me."

The Assassination of Gianni Versace, nominated in eight categories, also won best drama in a limited series and for its casting.

Criss' win marks the second year in a row that an actor of Asian descent won the award. Last year, Asian Brit Riz Ahmed won in the same category for his role in The Night After.

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Sandra Oh brought her parents to the Emmy Awards. Her mother wore a traditional Korean hanbok.

The two other Asians nominated for Emmy's lost in their categories. Hiro Murai didn't win in the best director of a comedy series for Atlanta and Sandra Oh failure to win the Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her acting in the BBC spy thriller Killing Eve was a major snub. 

The best actress award went to Claire Foy of The Crown and Foy was expressed her surprise when she received the statuette. "This wasn't supposed to happen," Foy said when she took the stage to collect her first career Emmy. "Sandra Oh, I just love ya."

Despite her loss, Oh already made history for being the first Asian American actress to receive an acting nomination. This is the sixth time Oh has received an Emmy nomination.

In an earlier interview with ET, Oh said she hopes the Asian community continues to be proactive about getting their voices  and stories out into the world thanks to success of Crazy Rich Asians, Netflix's acclaimed teen romance To All the Boys I've Loved Before, John Cho's acclaimed thrillerSearching. 

The Chinese Canadian actress said she feels more comfortable expressing herself with color-blind roles like Killing Eve rather than politically. 

“Definitely understanding deeply that it’s not enough and to encourage our own community to find its own voice in its own way, that’s one thing that I feel we have not found our own footing yet. Because it has to be from us, uniquely in us, and there’s a lot to explore in that because Asians are very, very diverse," Oh said to ET. 

"Having been actively working in this space, where there has not been much representation at all and being [one] of the only visible faces, I feel like this is the only way that it works for me, I only look at it creatively."

The opening number "We Solved It," spoofed the Emmy's move towards inclusion, Saturday Night Live's kate McKinnon and Keenan Thompson introduced Oh. Oh said, "It's an honor just to be Asian." To which Thompson replied, "You see, there was none. Now there's one!"

That's no joke.

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Director Hiro Murai joins Criss and Oh as an Emmy nominee; AAPI still need more representation

HIRO MURAI

SANDRA OH isn't the only Asian to make history with her Emmy nomination as Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Japanese-born Hiro Murai can add his name to the Asian American history books with his nomination in the category for Directing for a Comedy Series. He is the second first Asian American to receive that nomination honor. 

It speaks to the lack of Asian American representation among TV talent that every nomination can still be deemed historic. Cary Fukunaga won an Emmy for directing True Detective in 2014.

The specific episode that Murai directed that's drawn the attention of the Television Academy is the utterly unforgettable claustrophobic "Teddy Perkins" episode of Atlanta.

Murai's directing star rose considerably this Spring when Donald Glover's music video as Childish Gambino was released. The shocking "This is America" music video was just the latest collaboration Murai has had with Glover. Besides directing several music videos for Glover, he also has directed multiple episodes for the Atlanta series.

Ironically, one of the other nominated directors is Glover, who won the directing Emmy last year -- the first African American to win that award.

Murai "helped make Atlanta the most acclaimed comedy series on television, greatly contributing to its signature style and tone and becoming an integral part of the creative team led by Donald Glover, said Nick Grad, original programming president for FX Networks and FX Productions.

The scarcity of Asian Americans on the nomination list  is not lost on Murai. “When we were in the room for the Golden Globes, I look around and it’s just me and Alan Yang,” he told GQ. “And obviously that’s very odd." 

Besides Oh and Murai, Filipino American actor Darren Criss was also nominated for portrayal of Andrew Cunanan, in American Crime Story's The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

“Regardless of awards season, this is an opportunity that I have worked and waited for my entire life. Actors are really only as good as the parts they can get, and the people that believe in them, and the complexity of the characters that they’re playing,” said Criss.

Criss points out the reason there aren't more Asian American actors, directors and writers receiving Emmy nominations. It is not a question of talent, it is the lack of opportunities to display that talent.

One recent study, "Tokens on the Small Screen," shows that despite the emergence of Fresh Off the Boat, Master of None and Into the Badlands, among the handful of shows featuring Asian Americans in lead roles, Asian Americans are still almost invisible on television and mostly relegated to what the study calls "token" roles -- or the only Asian in a show's cast.

Oh and Criss are the rare exceptions as Asian American actors playing complicated, three-dimensional characters.

When asked about the significance of her Emmy nomination, the Canadian-born Oh told the New York Times:

"Let’s celebrate it, man. I’m serious, just [expletive] celebrate it. It’s like, we’ve got to start somewhere. And I’m happy to get that ball rolling, because what I hope happens is that next year and the next year and the next year, we will have presence. And the presence will grow not only to Asian Americans, you know, from yellow to brown, but to all our other sisters and brothers. Our First Nations sisters and brothers. Our sisters and brothers of different sizes and different shapes. If I can be a part of that change, like [expletive], yeah, let’s celebrate it."

CORRECTED July 14 ,10 a.m. to include Cary Fukunaga's Emmy win in 2014.

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Sunday Read: 'This Is America' video a breakthrough for its Asian American director

FX

Hiro Murai has directed most of the hit series 'Atlanta.'

LAST WEEK, Childish Gambino's new music video "This Is America"  exploded into America's Internet consciousness prompting discussions about race and violence.
Some of the scenes have people gasping in its shocking imagery and the matter-of-fact reaction to violence from the performer, AKA actor Donald Glover.

It has also brought an avalanche of attention to its director, Japanese/American Hiro Murai. FX, the network that airs Glover's creation Atlanta, has contracted with Murai guaranteeing that it gets first look at any development ideas of the Japanese-born director.

What the video boils down to, Murai explained in a New York Times interview, is "a really crazy confluence of tone changes — that’s the premise of the whole video and the song, in a way." The "harrowing" yet "cartoony" violence also plays a huge role: "There’s Looney Tunes logic in there somewhere. Obviously we’re dealing with very provocative images, so it’s a total tightrope walk."

In other words, in today's America, we've become numb to the violence around us. We're no longer horrified, aghast or shocked. Violence has become normal; yet, the show must go on.

How does a Japanese/American director interpret, reflect or depict the black experience in the video and in Atlanta? (He's directed seven of the 11 episodes of the surprise hit.)

“I’m an immigrant and I think being an outsider in your home is something that I really relate to,” Murai explained to Indiewire. “I was like, 10 [when I immigrated].

Atlanta's writers are all black. Murai doesn’t pretend to know what their lived experience is like. He told MTV News he “wasn’t about to go in there and tell stories about what it’s like to be black in Atlanta.”

But he was able to use his experience as a first-generation immigrant -- as a perpetual outsider. "So when Donald was saying how strange it is to be black in America, and how you’re kind of outside of the main conversation in a way, I really related to that in a lot of ways.”

Murai also understands that as an Asian/American in the entertainment industry, the “outsider” feeling is all the more prevalent.

“When we were in the room for the Golden Globes, I look around and it’s just me and Alan Yang,” he told GQ. “And obviously that’s very odd. It’s ... weird to even grow around not that many people that look like you.”

There are only a handful of Asian/Americans out there making a living as a director. According to the Director’s Guild of America, Asian/Americans directed 5 percent of all TV episodes. White directors, on the other hand, directed 78 percent of all episodes.

So the attention Murai has gained through the music videos he's directed for big-name artists, his work for Atlanta and now the controversial "This Is America," has given him strong street cred in the business.

“Hiro has excelled as a director and a creative force in commercials, music videos and episodic television, and we welcome the chance to see him develop his own series through FX Productions,” said Nick Grad, original programming president for FX Networks and FX Productions. “He helped make Atlanta the most acclaimed comedy series on television, greatly contributing to its signature style and tone and becoming an integral part of the creative team led by Donald Glover. With his boundless artistry, Hiro is poised to take the next step as a television creator.”

It's only a metter of time that he directs a feature film. You can bet that Murai makes it unlike anything else we've seen.

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