Emmy nominations 2025, Canadian edition: Surprises, snubs and a big haul for The Studio | Canada Voices

The Emmy Award nominations were announced on Tuesday morning, marking a very good day for television’s American-Canadian dual citizens and green-card holders despite the continuing cross-border tensions.

Notably, The Studio, Apple TV+’s satirical series about the declining American motion picture business created by L.A.-based B.C. boys Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, led the way in the comedy categories with 23 nominations.

That’s a new high bar for nominations for a comedy in its first season, breaking the one set by Ted Lasso (20) back in 2021.

Rogen, who stars in The Studio as a hapless studio head named Matt Remick, is himself up for three Emmys altogether: for his acting, his writing and his direction.

But he’s far from the only Canadian nominated, or the only one with two or more nominations.

Catherine O’Hara’s been recognized for her performances on both The Studio (of course) and HBO zombie drama The Last of Us (oh!). Jessica Lee Gagné is nominated for both cinematography and directing for her work on Apple TV+’s drama category-leading sci-fi hit, Severance.

Indeed, there’s are enough Canucks represented in the 2025 nominees that we might as well do a full Emmy Snubs and Surprises … Canadian Edition.

Surprise: The Studio’s big haul

While it’s far from shocking that Academy of Television Arts & Sciences voters enjoyed a loving satire of Hollywood, one that shot in Los Angeles and premiered in the wake of the wildfires, the overall nomination tally for the Point Grey-produced show was still more than expected.

Chalk it up to the well-connected Rogen – who was the subject of a cover feature in Esquire in March headlined “Seth Rogen is the boss now” – and his ability to land cameos from many of Hollywood’s biggest and brightest.

Six of The Studio’s nominations were for either outstanding guest actor or actress in a comedy series: Bryan Cranston, for his role as studio chief executive officer Griffin Mill; but also Dave Franco, Ron Howard, Anthony Mackie, Martin Scorsese and Zoë Kravitz, all for playing themselves on screen.

Snub: Sarah Polley

Given all that love for The Studio’s guest stars, it’s hard to understand why Polley didn’t get one for her first onscreen role in 15 years in the comedy series. The director played herself in the perhaps the best episode of the first season – directing a long take (the show’s signature) that kept being interrupted by Remick’s shenanigans. It was at least as good as Howard and Scorsese’s cameos.

That said, there may simply be more comedic competition in the guest actress performance category. Robby Hoffman, the American-Canadian who’s hilarious as a new assistant in Hacks, definitely deserves her slot.

Surprise: Seth Rogen/Nathan Fielder showdown

In all three of his categories, Rogen is up against other Canadians. He’s competing against Martin Short from Netflix’s Only Murders in the Building for lead actor in a comedy series.

But the big showdown is between him and his creative partner Evan Goldberg and The Rehearsal’s Nathan Fielder; they’re wrestling it out for awards for both writing and directing of a comedy series.

The Rehearsal is simply the most original television show of any genre – so I hardly expect Fielder to triumph on either front. But, at least, he can sleep well at night knowing he did what he could to help prevent future aviation disasters.

Not-a-snub: North of North

This hit Nunavut-set comedy starring Anna Lambe that originally debuted on CBC and APTN in January before hitting the Top 10 internationally on Netflix this spring has been warmly received south of the border. Indeed, it’s currently nominated for outstanding new program at the Television Critics Association Awards.

But North of North’s lack of nominations at the Emmy Awards is not a snub – it’s a choice made by Netflix. A streamer representative says that the Canadian comedy has been submitted for the International Emmy Awards, and you can only submit to one or the other.

Surprise: The White Lotus composer still adul-ulululu-lated

The TV Academy clearly didn’t mind that Quebec composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer – who’s responsible for the offbeat music and weird “ulululu” sounds that provide running commentary on the characters in HBO’s The White Lotus – ran off his mouth about working with series creator Mike White right before the third season aired.

Well, the guy is a genius after all. Tapia de Veer is another Canadian double nominee: up for both for outstanding music composition for a series and for best main title theme music, even though some fans complained this season’s wasn’t as much of a banger as the first two.

Snub: Interview with the Vampire

Season two of AMC’s gothic horror series based on Anne Rice’s books has a 100-per-cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes – and many thought it would make its Emmy breakthrough this year. It did, but only in makeup and hair.

In the writing for a drama category, the show’s producers had submitted a single episode – one penned by Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch and Jonathan Ceniceroz.

Maybe it’ll finally sink its teeth into the Emmys with its third season, which is currently shooting in Toronto, and features Moscovitch alongside fellow Canadian stage scribe Anusree Roy in the writer’s room.

Surprise: Love for the Canadian zombies in The Last of Us

While HBO’s Canadian-shot undead drama didn’t land as well with critics and audiences in its second season, it’s still up for outstanding drama and has 16 Emmy nominations total.

One of those is for outstanding casting for a drama series – and the nominated team includes Corrine Clark and Jennifer Page from Vancouver’s Clark & Page Casting Inc. Hey, all those mushroom-zombies don’t cast themselves.

Snub: Enrico Colantoni and the cast of English Teacher

Critics went wild for this FX comedy about a gay Texas high school teacher when it premiered in the fall in the fall. But an allegation of on-set sexual assault levelled against creator and star Brian Jordan Alvarez, dating back to a 2016 web series he created, seems to have derailed its Emmy chances.

This is no surprise, but it’s nevertheless an unfortunate twist of fate for the top-notch cast of the show including Colantoni, whose hilarious as a long-suffering principal.

Not that you can even feel too bad for Colantoni, who has main roles on three TV series, all renewed, at the moment (Crave’s The Trades, CBC’s Allegiance and, despite it all, English Teacher).