Before Emmy Gold: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

The 76th Primetime Emmy Awards features a particularly fascinating batch of nominees in the Outstanding Supporting Actress In a Comedy Series category. This lineup of legends and newcomers will go to toe-to-toe at September’s ceremony, representing such hit shows as The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, and Hacks. We even have two talented women from the same show, with both Janelle James and Sheryl Lee Ralph representing Abbott Elementary! While I predict a win for third-time Emmy nominee Hannah Einbinder, you can never discount the gravitas of performers like Meryl Streep or Carol Burnett.

As we look towards next month’s exciting reveal, the Before Emmy Gold series will be highlighting each of the nominees by reflecting on their standout projects before they earned their 2024 nomination. Let’s take a trip through memory lane with Carol Burnett, Liza Colón-Zayas, Hannah Einbinder, Janelle James, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Meryl Streep.

Carol Burnett

Nominated For: Palm Royale

Previous Nominations: Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Musical Program or Series – 1962, 1963, 1983, 1995; Outstanding Variety or Musical Series – 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978; Outstanding Variety Special – 1972, 1977, 2002, 2018, 2023; Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama – 1974; Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie – 1979; Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series – 1993, 1997, 1998; Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series – 2009

Hidden Gem: Better Call Saul

How do you share a hidden gem for one of the most iconic performers of the last century? The Carol Burnett show remains a must-watch for any younger readers who may not be familiar with the iconic sketch show that ran from 1967-78, but Burnett has been quietly punctuating the back half of her career with a string of iconic roles. Her work as Norma in Apple TV+’s Palm Royale may be one of Burnett’s more prominent performances in recent memory, earning her a whopping 26th Emmy nomination, but it is her work as Marion in the final four episodes of Better Call Saul that stands out as some of the most complex work of the comedy legend’s storied career. Marion is a uniquely pivotal character in the resolution to Saul Goodman’s epic character arc, and casting an icon like Burnett is a masterstroke of casting by Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, and the rest of their entire creative team.

Liza Colón-Zayas

Nominated For: The Bear

Previous Nominations: N/A

Hidden Gem: The Bear S1E7 “Review”

Liza Colón-Zayas finally receives recognition for her accomplished work as Tina in FX’s The Bear. Colón-Zayas makes the most of her increased screentime during the show’s second season, culminating in the first Emmy nomination of her career. While Colón-Zayas has appeared in bit roles across a variety of prestige films and television shows (Dexter, Nurse Jackie, The Purge: Election Year, Margaret), it is only fitting that our “hidden gem” for the New York native is the iconic “Review” episode of The Bear‘s first season. The episode remains among the most chaotic throughout the show’s run, but it also marks a kind of emergence for Tina, who steps out of the shadows and plays a pivotal role in maintaining a semblance of order amidst the dysfunctional mess in the kitchen at The Beef. She even brings her son to work that day so he can learn some culinary skills after being suspended from school. It’s the first of many memorable moments for Colón-Zayas on the show that has transformed the trajectory of her career.

Hannah Einbinder

Nominated For: Hacks

Previous Nominations: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Hacks – 2021, 2022

Hidden Gem: Hannah Einbinder: Everything Must Go (2024)

The 2020s have been kind to Hannah Einbinder. The LA native made her television debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in early 2020. The standup performance marked the show’s final onstage set for over a year, with a global pandemic interrupting the show’s regularly scheduled programming. Einbinder’s career kept chugging, however, and by 2021, she became a household name amongst fans of comedy and prestige TV, turning in a hilarious and affecting performance as Ava Daniels on Max’s Hacks. Einbinder has been recognized with an Emmy nomination for her work across all three seasons of Hacks, and yet the young actress is only getting started. She spoke with Awards Radar earlier this summer about her growth as an actress, breaking down a particularly pivotal moment in season three that marks a turning point for both Ava and the woman who plays her. It will only be a matter of time until we see Einbinder in a variety of other films and television shows, but fans of Hacks should definitely check out her comedy special Everything Must Go on Max, a hilarious and insightful excavation of the comedian’s identity and personality, satisfyingly reminiscent of Ava’s own idiosyncrasies on Hacks.

Janelle James

Nominated For: Abbott Elementary

Previous Nominations: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Hacks – 2022, 2023

Hidden Gem: Black Monday

Like Einbinder, Janelle James is celebrating the third Emmy nomination of her career in this same category. To draw one more parallel, both women are even nominated for inhabiting characters named “Ava” (Einbinder, a Philadelphia Eagles fan, would likely even appreciate her counterpart’s fictional fandom.) Of course, James’ Ava Coleman is the loud and inept principal at Abbott Elementary‘s titular school. Ava is objectively terrible at her job, and yet her unpredictable antics are consistently endearing, offering James one of the most deliciously silly roles on television. James has been a stalwart of the comedy scene for years, previously serving as a writer on Showtime’s criminally underrated Black Monday. She even appeared in a few episodes herself. Fans of James and Abbott Elementary should absolutely check the dark comedy out.

Sheryl Lee Ralph

Nominated For: Abbott Elementary

Previous Nominations: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Hacks – 2022, 2023

Hidden Gem: To Sleep with Anger (1990)

Sheryl Lee Ralph had the honor of announcing this year’s Emmy nominations alongside actor Tony Hale, and Ralph had an especially awesome moment when she and Hale got to announce her own nomination in this category. She won the award in 2022 for her impressive work as schoolteacher Barbara Howard on Abbott Elementary. Barbara is a motherly figure in the show, her traditional values often clashing with the bright-eyed Janine (Quinta Brunson). Of course, the two characters also develop a close bond across the show’s first three seasons, and Ralph’s energy and warmth emanate from Barbara in her most heartfelt and most hilarious moments. The actress/singer delivered an iconic speech after accepting the award in 2022, making history as the first Black woman to win in this category in over 35 years. Also Tony-nominated for her work as Deena Jones in Dreamgirls (1981), Ralph has a fascinating array of credits to her name. The clear hidden gem of her career is Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, for which she won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female in 1991. The film is quietly funny, but more importantly, it is a complex excavation of cultural and political tensions of which American film had only scratched the surface. It has been reclaimed in recent years as a near-masterpiece of African-American cinema, with the Library of Congress accepting it into the National Film Registry in 2017, and the Criterion Collection remastering the film in 2019.

Meryl Streep

Nominated For: Only Murders in the Building

Previous Nominations: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series – 1978; Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special – 1997; Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie – 2004; Outstanding Narrator – 2017; Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series – 2020

Hidden Gem: Angels in America (2003)

It may come as a small surprise that Meryl Streep, one of the most iconic movie stars of her generation, also has six Emmy nominations to her name, not to mention three wins, including one in 2004 for her work as a whole slew of characters in Tony Kushner and Mike Nichols’ stunning miniseries Angels in America. Streep plays Hannah Pitt, mother to Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson). But the show is not so simple. Streep also embodies a few ghosts and angels, including the haunting specter of Ethel Rosenberg. Angels in America remains the definitive depiction of the AIDS crisis in the United States, and Streep’s astonishing set of performances remain among the most underrated of her career.