Kate McKinnon, Samira Wiley, Laverne
Cox and BD Wong are among the out actors to receive Emmy Award nods
as nominations were announced Thursday.
Samira Wiley received a nomination in
the Supporting Actress, Drama Series category for her portrayal of
best friend Moira in Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale.
Tituss Burgess plays an unemployed
Broadway actor in Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. His
portrayal of Titus Andromedon earned him an Emmy nomination in the
Supporting Actor, Comedy Series category.
Lily Tomlin, who is out, and Jane Fonda
are competing in the Actress, Comedy Series category for their work
on Netflix's Grace and Frankie.
Kate McKinnon received a nomination in
the Supporting Actress, Comedy Series category for her work on NBC's
Saturday Night Live.
Comedian Wanda Sykes' guest appearance
on ABC's black-ish earned her a nomination in the Guest
Actress in a Comedy Series category.
In USA Network's haunting Mr. Robot,
BD Wong plays Whiterose, a hacker affiliated with the Dark Army, and
Chinese Minister Andrew Zhang. He'll compete in the Guest Actor in a
Drama Series category against Denis O'Hare, who plays Jesse on the
NBC drama This Is Us.
There are also two out actors competing
in the Guest Actress in a Drama Series category: Laverne Cox for her
performance in Orange is the New Black and Shannon Purser for
Stranger Things. Both dramas are Netflix original series.
Jane Lynch's portrayal of Olivia
Vanderstein on Dropping the Soap earned her a nomination in
the Actress, Short Form Comedy or Drama Series category. The comedy
streams on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video and Google Play.
VH1's drag competition series RuPaul's
Drag Race is competing in two categories – Unstructured Realty
Program and Reality-Competition Program – while Gaycation with
Ellen Page received a nomination in the Unstructured Reality
Program category.
Additionally, Jeffrey Tambor's
portrayal of a transgender woman coming out to her adult children in
Amazon's Transparent earned the actor a nomination in the
Actor, Comedy Series category, and Uzo Aduba received a nomination in
the Supporting Actress, Drama Series category for her portrayal of a
lesbian in Netflix's Orange is the New Black.