Jennifer Aniston won Best Comedy Actress at the 2002 Emmys for the hit laffer “Friends.” Twenty-two years later, she could well pick up an Emmy bookend by winning Best Drama Actress for her starring role as Alex Levy in the acclaimed Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show.” Her rival nominees are: Anna Sawai (“Shōgun”), Imelda Staunton (“The Crown”), Maya Erskine (“Mr. & Mrs. Smith”), Carrie Coon (“The Gilded Age”), and her “The Morning Show” co-star Reese Witherspoon.
Aniston is currently in third place in our odds chart with both Sawai and Staunton ahead of her. Sawai is hoping to win for the first season of “Shōgun,” and she could, theoretically, get taken along for the ride in a “Shōgun” sweep (we expect “Shōgun” to win Best Drama Series). Meanwhile, Staunton is hoping to prevail for the final season of “The Crown” — perhaps voters will get sentimental and want to bid farewell to the lauded show. Plus, every other actress who has played Queen Elizabeth in “The Crown” has won Best Drama Actress — Claire Foy and Olivia Colman. Staunton could follow suit.
However, Aniston is an Emmy favorite. This is her ninth nomination. She was previously nominated for Best Comedy Supporting Actress in 2000 and 2001 for “Friends.” She then snagged three Best Comedy Actress citations for the same show in 2002, 2003, and 2004, winning in 2002. “30 Rock” earned her a Best Comedy Guest Actress bid in 2009 before she was recognized for Best Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) as a producer on “Friend: The Reunion” 2021. She was nominated for Best Drama Actress for “The Morning Show” in 2020 and repeated that same bid this year.
Clearly, voters like Aniston as Alex Levy in “The Morning Show.” In fact, this is a role that has brought her plenty of awards. She won the SAG award for Best Drama Actress in 2020 while she was also nominated for a Golden Globe. She was nominated for another SAG and Golden Globe in 2022. And she was cited for both of those awards again earlier this year.
If she were to win this award, she would be only the second person to win both Best Drama Actress and Best Comedy Actress. The only other actress to win this pair of awards is Edie Falco. Falco won three Emmys for Best Drama Actress for “The Sopranos” — in 1999, 2001, and 2003. She then took home Best Comedy Actress in 2010 for “Nurse Jackie.” There have, however, been multiple other actresses who have won Emmys for both comedy and drama — just not both lead acting awards. Some of these include the following.
Allison Janney won Best Drama Supporting Actress for “The West Wing” in 2000 and 2001 as well as Best Drama Actress for the same show in 2002 and 2004. She then won Best Comedy Guest Actress for “Mom” in 2014 and 2015. In the former year, she won Emmys for both comedy and drama in the same year as she also took home the award for Best Drama Guest Actress for “Masters of Sex.”
Doris Roberts won Best Drama Supporting Actress in 1983 for “St. Elsewhere” before she won four Best Comedy Supporting Actress awards for “Everybody Loves Raymond” — in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005.
Cynthia Nixon won Best Comedy Supporting Actress in 2004 for “Sex and the City” before she snagged Best Drama Guest Actress for “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.”
Elaine Stritch won Best Drama Guest Actress in 1993 for “Law and Order” and Best Comedy Guest Actress in 2007 for “30 Rock.”
Cloris Leachman won Best Comedy Supporting Actress in 1974 for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and Best Drama Guest Actress in 1998 for “Promised Land” (she also won Best Comedy Guest Actress in 2002 and 2006 for “Malcolm in the Middle”).
Beach Richards snagged Best Comedy Guest Actress in 1988 for “Frank’s Place” and Best Drama Guest Actress in 2000 for “The Practice.”
And Uzo Aduba won Best Comedy Guest Actress (in 2014) and Best Drama Supporting Actress for the same show — “Orange is the New Black.”
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