‘Euphoria’ 2022 Emmy Nominations: Lead Actress, Outstanding Drama Series and More

Credit: HBO

'Euphoria' 2022 Emmy Nominations: Lead Actress, Outstanding Drama Series and More

Awards season high. Following the news of the 2022 Emmy Awards nominations in July, numerous Euphoria cast members reacted to the critical acclaim their show received. “Making this show with this cast and crew of the most incredibly talented people that I get the privilege of learning from everyday has been a highlight of my life. I’m so proud to work beside you and CONGRATULATIONS! I don’t have the words to express the love and gratitude I feel right now, all I can do is say thank you with all my heart,” Zendaya wrote via Instagram at the time. The Spider-Man: No Way Home actress received four nominations for her work on the show: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, two separate nods for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for "Elliot's Song" and "I'm Tired," as well as a nomination for Outstanding Drama Series. The Greatest Showman performer, who stars as Rue in the critically-acclaimed teen drama, made history in 2020 when she became the youngest Emmy winner to score the lead actress in a drama series trophy. She's also the youngest person in Emmys history to be nominated as a producer. The Disney alum’s costars Sydney Sweeney, Colman Domingo and Martha Kelly are also up for honors on TV's biggest night. Sweeney, who portrays Cassie on the drama series, is nominated for supporting actress, while Domingo (Ali) and Kelly (Laurie) are both up for the guest actor and actress categories, respectively. [jwplayer v7YiA7MS-zhNYySv2] In addition to playing Cassie the popular HBO drama, Sweeney is also nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series for The White Lotus as Olivia Mossbacher. “It’s an honor to know that both Olivia and Cassie have connected with so many. I’m so proud of both these shows and grateful to everybody that’s been a part of them, the Sharp Objects alum shared via Instagram when she received the nominations in July. "But most importantly mom, I love you, we did it through the ups and downs!🥺♥️🥰 thank you thank you!!” Domingo, for his part, detailed how he found out about the news after wrapping The Color Purple musical movie in Atlanta over the summer. “It was my last day and I watched the nominations when it happened,” the If Beale Street Could Talk actor shared with the Los Angeles Times in August about the July day his nomination was announced. “I actually shed a tear. That’s not usually my style, but I felt like there was so much that had so many people rallying for me. I felt like I was, like, whoa, I didn’t want to let them down, in a way. That’s a strange thing to say, but I guess that’s what happened.” Here are the performers from the critically acclaimed series, which received 16 nominations total, including Outstanding Drama Series:

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Zendaya

“[My character Rue] is like my little sister in a lot of ways. And going back to that character is a home base for me,” the Disney alum told InStyle in September 2020 about playing the show’s complex protagonist.

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Sydney Sweeney

“I love [Cassie] because I feel her pain, I feel her loss, and I feel for her growth,” Sweeney shared in a February 2022 interview with WSJ magazine. “But I’m scared of the choices she makes because sometimes she doesn’t think everything through.”

The Washington native continued: “She has always wanted to be loved, whether it’s from her mom, her sister, her dad, boys, herself, and the part that complicates it is she doesn’t have that love for herself, and she doesn’t know how to achieve it. She thinks it’s through other people, but it’s through herself, and she doesn’t like herself enough to be able to not need other people in her life.”

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Colman Domingo

The Tony award-winner, who plays Rue’s guardian angel-esque NA sponsor, Ali, has worked on numerous productions, including AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead and Ava DuVernay’s Selma (2014). “I like the way [showrunner Sam Levinson's] mind works, so I just trust him,” Domingo told the Los Angeles Times in an August interview.

“So, when he came to me with Ali in Euphoria, it was even presented as, ‘Oh, he’s a small part. He grounds our main protagonist Rue’ — played beautifully by Zendaya — ‘and, you know, we’ll see where it goes.’ I didn’t know that it would take off the way it has. I didn’t know that at all. But I just had a lot of trust and faith in Sam and what he was creating not only for me, but for my peers.”

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Martha Kelly

Kelly, who plays terrifyingly stoic drug dealer Laurie on Euphoria told The Hollywood Reporter in August that she has a “very small emotional range in real life” which actually helped contribute to the role.

“[I thought], ‘I can’t play a child trafficker, I can’t do this,’” she recalled thinking when considering the part. “But [Sam] was so lovely, really kind and down to earth. And then I was like, ‘I have to try. I might be terrible at it, or it might backfire, and the fans of the show might end up hating me, but I have to try it,’ because I liked him so much.”