On September 5 and 6, the 2026 Creative Arts Emmy Awards took place in Los Angeles, spotlighting many LGBTQ+ shows and celebrities.
For instance, the HBO series Hacks, known for featuring a queer ensemble cast, won the Outstanding Picture Editing for a Single Camera Comedy Series award. The show received a record-breaking total of 24 Emmy nominations this year, including actor Jean Smart, who plays the character of Deborah Vance, being nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. The winner is set to be announced at the Primetime Emmy Awards on September 14.
Smart has been a vocal ally for the LGBTQ+ community, having received the National Equality Award at the 2024 Human Rights Campaign Dinner. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, during the event, she stated, “In a world where children are starving and dying because of war, it seems obscene and beyond understanding that any of us should be concerned with someone else’s sexuality”.
Smart’s co-star Hannah Einbinder is also among the Emmy 2026 nominees for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. The actor is openly bisexual, as is her character Ava in Hacks.
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Alongside Hacks, the series Pluribus won four awards for Original Main Title Theme Music, Sound Mixing for a Drama Series, Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program and Picture Editing for a Drama Series. The show is a sci-fi dark comedy centring a lesbian romance author, Carol, surviving the aftermath of an alien invasion. Carol’s actor, Rhea Seehorn, is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of the character.
Miriam Shor, who plays Carol’s wife Helen, is also a nominee for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Speaking to Fox LA, Shor shared, “It was about getting across the history these two people have together, the love they have together, in a very short period of time”.
She continued, “Rhea and I really worked together to create this bond that really matters, you have to care that Helen (spoiler alert) doesn’t make it, because it’s the whole show, that grief and Carol grappling with it”.
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Furthermore, queer icon and host of The Traitors, Alan Cummings, won the Reality TV Host award, with RuPaul, Ariana Madix and Kristen Kirsch also being nominated in the category. As reported by Them, Cummings previously commented on the importance of LGBTQ+ representation in The Traitors, saying: “With all these draconian, horrific things, laws, and attitudes against the queer and trans community in America right now, I think it’s a really positive thing to see so many queer people and, hopefully, trans people in a show that also celebrates dressing up, androgyny, femmeness, and queerness,”.
Other LGBTQ+ celebrities made appearances on the red carpet such as nominees Connor Storrie and Coleman Domingo. The latter made history in 2022 for being the first Black gay man to win Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series at the Emmys.
For more information on the Creative Arts Emmy Awards and the upcoming Primetime Emmy Awards, check out their website.
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