Downtown Africa
The 2020 Emmy nominations are in and Issa Rae, Yvonne Orji, Trevor Noah and Uzo Aduba are repping Africa hard.
The exciting 72nd Emmy Awards nominations have been released and Insecure has scored once again with multiple nominations. The breakthrough show has been nominated for “Best Comedy” while Issa Rae has received a nomination for “Best Actress in a Comedy” and Yvonne Orji, “Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy”. Uzo Aduba bags the nomination for “Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Movie or Series”, for her radical political role in Mrs America. Additionally, South Africa’s Trevor Noah and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah have also bagged a whopping six nominations in the “Variety Talk Series”, “Writing for a Variety Series”, “Directing for a Variety Series”, “Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special”, “Picture Editing for Variety Programming”, and “Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series” categories.
Insecure’s strength is that it deliberately focuses on the intimacies between friends and the difficulties of relationships through the lens of Black, educated and funny women––a rarity in Hollywood. Since it hit the screens, the show has resonated not only with African-Americans but Africans in the diaspora.
Orji’s show Momma I Made It has her followers glued to the screen as she boldly and comically documents going back to her roots in Nigeria showing the nuances of Africa. Fellow Nigerian Aduba’s role in Mrs America is of the Black feminist who ran for political office in the 1970s and was seemingly erased from the history pages. Aduba remarks that filling in the “blindspots” of history motivated her stellar performance. Aduba’s first Emmy win was for her quirky breakout role as “Crazy Eyes” in Orange is the New Black. Breaking into the industry was admittedly difficult for Aduba as she refused to alter both her face and name to get more roles.
Though all actresses have been nominated and won Emmys before, the representation of multidimensional Black women is a quality that is still lacking in Hollywood television productions, the 2020 Emmy nominations clear evidence of that. Variety states, “The Emmys need shows like “Insecure” on the ballot in order to recognize what’s best on television, but “Insecure” didn’t need the Emmys to be great.”
This year’s Emmys will take place on September 20th, with popular late-night television host, Jimmy Kimmel, set to host the live ceremony.
