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Quinta Brunson, 2023 Emmys valedictorian?

“Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson is an early favorite for a comedy lead actress Emmy, and possible more.
(Illustration by Michael Dunbabin)
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“Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson is an early favorite for a comedy lead actress Emmy — continuing her remarkable awards roll during the last year.

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years since “The Jeffersons” star Isabel Sanford became the first and only Black performer to win for lead actress in a comedy series, a category in which women of color have been egregiously overlooked.

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Last year, Brunson became the first Black woman nominated in three comedy series categories — acting, writing and series (as an executive producer) — in the same year.

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She won the writing Emmy, becoming …

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... just the second Black woman to do so, after Lena Waithe won in 2017 for HBO’s “Master of None.”

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Since then, Brunson has won a Golden Globe, NAACP Image Award, and Independent Spirit Award for lead actress, among many other honors, including a Screen Actors Guild ensemble award and WGA and PGA nominations.

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Brunson could become the fourth comedy series lead actress winner to also have received a writing Emmy, after Tina Fey (“30 Rock” acting and writing; “Saturday Night Live,” writing), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag,” writing and acting) and Catherine O’Hara (“Schitt’s Creek,” acting; “SCTV,” writing).

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Fey and Waller-Bridge both won comedy lead acting, writing and outstanding series statuettes in a single year.

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If Brunson achieves the same holy trinity in September, she will be the youngest to do it.

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