One of the most consequential storylines of this Emmy season involves the ones who say, “Action!”
Black women hold five directing nominations across three categories this year, the most the Television Academy has ever recognized in a single cycle. Salli Richardson-Whitfield is nominated twice in drama directing, for HBO Max’s “The Gilded Age” and “Task,” alongside Hanelle Culpepper for the Hulu dystopian thriller “Paradise.” Ricki Hughes earned a nod for helming the variety special “Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable,” and Alexandria Stapleton is nominated for the documentary series “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” both from Netflix.
To understand why five is a number worth stopping on, you must count backward.
Debbie Allen became the first Black woman nominated for an Emmy in directing in any genre category, for “The Debbie Allen Special,” in 1989. It took 20 years for another to follow: Millicent Shelton, for the “30 Rock” episode “Kidney Now!” in 2009.
What came after was less like a gusher and more like a trickle: Laurie Ann Gibson for the special “Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden” in 2011; Dee Rees for the HBO movie “Bessie” in 2015; Beyoncé Knowles-Carter for “Lemonade” in 2016 and again for “Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé” in 2019; Ava DuVernay for the documentary “13th” in 2017 and the limited series “When They See Us” in 2019; Nadia Hallgren for “Becoming” in 2020; Michaela Coel for “I May Destroy You” in 2021; Dime Davis and Bridget Stokes for “A Black Lady Sketch Show” in 2021 and 2022; Nneka Onuorah for the Prime Video competition series “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” in 2022.
