Anna Sawai Wins Best Lead Actress in Drama at 2024 Emmys

A new winner was crowned Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the 2024 Emmy Awards.

Anna Sawai earned the award for Shōgun during the Sunday, September 15, ceremony, which was held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

“I was crying before my name was announced,” Sawai, 32, said through tears. “I’m a mess today.”

Sawai gave thanks to the Academy for the nomination, as well as the FX team for “believing in our story.” She also gave a sweet shout-out to her family, including her mom. “You are the reason I’m here,” she said.

“This is to all the women who expect nothing and continue to be an example for everyone,” she concluded.

The Morning Show’s Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, The Gilded Age’s Carrie Coon, Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s Maya Erskine and The Crown’s Imelda Staunton were also nominated in the category.

Ahead of the event, none of the nominees had ever prevailed in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series race. Aniston, 55, and Witherspoon, 48, were previously nominated in the category for The Morning Show in 2020 and 2022, respectively. While they did not take home the prize in previous years, both are already Emmy winners, with Aniston earning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Friends in 2002 and Witherspoon receiving Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series in 2017 for her work as a producer on Big Little Lies.

Coon, 43, Erskine, 37, and Staunton, 68, were all previously nominated for Emmys: Coon in 2017 for her performance on Fargo, Erskine in 2019 and 2021 for her work as a producer and writer of the Hulu comedy series PEN15 and Staunton in 2013 for her role in the television movie The Girl.

Meanwhile, Sawai, 32, earned her first Emmy nod this year.

Although Staunton had yet to win an Emmy prior to the Sunday ceremony, her predecessors on The Crown, Claire Foy and Olivia Colman — who played Queen Elizabeth II in the earlier years of her life during seasons 1 through 4 of the Netflix series — both received recognition in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category in previous years. Foy, 40, won in 2018, while Colman, 50, followed in her footsteps in 2021. (Staunton took over the role of the late British monarch for seasons 5 and 6.)

At the 2023 Emmys, which took place in January due to delays from the writers and actors unions’ strikes, Sarah Snook won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Shiv Roy on Succession. She competed against Bad Sisters’ Sharon Horgan, Yellowjackets’ Melanie Lynskey, The Handmaid’s Tale’s Elisabeth Moss, The Last of Us’ Bella Ramsey and The Diplomat’s Keri Russell.