LOS ANGELES — Julianne Nicholson and the craft crew behind “The Penguin” were early winners Saturday night at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Nicholson trumped Oscar winners Jamie Lee Curtis and Olivia Colman to win her first Emmy for best guest actress in a comedy, for playing a character known only as Dance Mom on “Hacks.”
“I love ‘Hacks,’” Nicholson said from the stage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. “I loved playing Dance Mom so much.”
Nicholson is also nominated for best supporting actress in a comedy at the main Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, which will air live on CBS on Sept. 14.
“The Penguin,” the HBO Max DC Comics series nominated for 24 Emmys overall, claimed four early awards for its makeup, costumes and hairstyling.
The Creative Arts Emmys, a precursor to next weekend’s bigger Emmys show, hands out nearly 100 trophies over two nights, most of them focused on behind-the-scenes crew.
“This is the real Emmys,” presenter Maya Rudolph said at the beginning of the show. “This is that Emmys they couldn’t have the other Emmys without, cause nothing would get made.”
The year’s top most nominated drama series “Severance” and most nominated comedy “The Studio,” both from Apple TV+, could bring in a boatload of early Emmys on Saturday, before later vying for the biggest awards. Each show won one early Emmy for its crew.
The weekend’s winners mostly have little name recognition outside their field. Categories include best sci-fi or period hairstyles and best stunt coordination for a comedy.
But big stars and big moments also emerge on Creative Arts weekend. Last year, “Shogun” broke a record for most Emmys for a series in a season with 14 at the Creative Arts ceremony, before it went on to dominate the main ceremony. And the songwriting team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul sneakily joined the elite EGOT club when they won their first Emmy to go with their Oscar, Tony and Grammy trophies for a song they co-wrote for “Only Murders in the Building.”
The guest acting categories bring some star power to the show. The guests who played themselves on “The Studio,” the Hollywood satire starring and cocreated by Seth Rogen, make for an A-list set of nominees. Directors Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese are up for their first acting Emmys, and they’ll be competing with fellow “Studio” guests Anthony Mackie and Bryan Cranston for guest actor in a drama.
Sunday will be devoted to reality and variety TV. Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé are both nominated for football halftime shows, while Barack Obama’s competition for his second Emmy in the narration category includes Tom Hanks and Idris Elba.
The big names don’t always show up to claim their Emmys at these ceremonies, but many nominees this year are also presenters, including Howard, Curtis, Questlove and Rudolph.
Because of the abundance of more technical awards including prosthetics and visual effects, the Creative Arts Emmys are often a time for genre shows to shine. “The Penguin” and “The Last of Us” could easily collect a set of wins for HBO and streaming partner Max, which led all outlets this year with 142 overall nominations.
So could “Andor” the gritty, revolutionary “Star Wars” series that is a rare Emmy bright spot for Disney+. Snubbed in the acting categories, 11 of its 14 categories will be handed out Saturday. It won an early award Saturday for its costumes.
It’s also up for best character voice-over for Alan Tudyk, who provided the bluntly honest dialogue of the droid K-2SO.
Tudyk’s category shows the strange range of nominees the Creative Arts ceremony can bring. His voice-over competitors include Julie Andrews for “Bridgerton,” Hank Azaria for “The Simpsons,” and Rudolph for “Big Mouth.”