Indigenous performers Lily Gladstone, Kali Reis, and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai make Emmys history

The 2024 Emmy nominations have arrived, and with it, some new history-making stats. Selena Gomez, also nominated as an actor for the first time for Only Murders In The Building, has become the most Emmy-nominated Latina producer in the comedy category, while Sofia Vergara is the first Latina nominated in the Lead Actress in a Limited Series category, per Deadline. Elsewhere, True Detective: Night Country’s Kali Reis, Under The Bridge’s Lily Gladstone, and Reservation Dogs D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai all received their first Emmy nominations, becoming the first Indigenous actors nominated in their respective categories.

Before this year’s showing for indigenous nominees, only one other Indigenous performer had ever been nominated in an Emmy acting category: August Schellenberg in 2007 for the HBO television movie Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, per Variety. Earlier this year, Gladstone (who uses nonbinary pronouns) became the first Native American performer nominated as Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance in Killers Of The Flower Moon. Following the Emmy nomination announcement, Gladstone posted on Twitter/X, “RESERVATION DOGS!!!!” in celebration of the Woon-A-Tai’s show, which earned its first-ever Outstanding Comedy Series nomination for its third and final season. She also shared a post about her and Reis’ record-breaking accomplishment, writing, “KALI,” with several heart emojis. “So grateful to be on this ride with you, Sis,” she added.

Speaking with The A.V. Club earlier this year, Reis was optimistic about the future of Indigenous artists in entertainment, which has been reflected in a groundbreaking year for entertainment in 2024. “I didn’t grow up seeing faces like mine in the ring or on camera being of mixed race and Afro-Indigenous, or even just Indigenous. We don’t need anyone to tell our stories for us anymore. It’s not that we want to tell only stories of the past, but we have contemporary stories to tell. We have people behind the camera, in the writers’ room, and doing hair and makeup. We’ve been here,” Reis shared with The A.V. Club’s Saloni Gajjar. “My goal, with this and the future, is to make the best out of the opportunities I get, tell the stories that matter, get representation right, and not just do the job because somebody needs to check a box of having an interesting-looking mixed-race person in the room, but [because someone] thinks they have a talented person who fits the part and happens to be mixed race. I want to elevate voices and make the best of this.”