--- title: Emmy 2016: Diversity Report on Rami Malek, Regina King description: A snapshot of diversity on TV today, through the industry’s most prestigious award nominations. canonical: https://time.com/4499172/emmy-awards-2016-winners-diversity/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-19T17:15:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:41.881Z og:title: Here’s How Diverse the Emmys Actually Were og:description: Rami Malek's win for Elliot on Mr. Robot made history og:url: https://time.com/4499172/emmy-awards-2016-winners-diversity/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8670c67c4410c99/6988a69f97cdff45b06add87/emmys1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: emmys og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here’s How Diverse the Emmys Actually Were twitter:description: Rami Malek's win for Elliot on Mr. Robot made history twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8670c67c4410c99/6988a69f97cdff45b06add87/emmys1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here’s How Diverse the Emmys Actually Were by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Sep 19, 2016 5:15 PM UTC  Getty Images (4) by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Sep 19, 2016 5:15 PM UTC **Correction appended, Sept. 22, 2016** The 68th Annual [Emmy Awards](http://time.com/4498837/emmys-2016-review-recap-jimmy-kimmel/) offered recognition for robust roles played by non-white actors on television. Rami Malek won [Best Actor in a Drama](http://time.com/4497201/emmys-2016-winners-list/) for playing a detached hacker on _Mr. Robot,_ becoming the first non-white actor to win the category in 18 years. By the end of the night, four non-white actors had won acting awards, a slight increase from last year’s three. This year, [24.6% of the acting nominations](http://time.com/4406646/emmy-awards-nominations-diversity/) went to non-white actors, an increase from last year’s ceremony. (That still falls behind the approximately 28.3% of speaking characters on television who were black, Latino, Asian or Middle Eastern in 2015, according to a [USC Annenberg report](http://annenberg.usc.edu/pages/~/media/MDSCI/CARDReport%20FINAL%2022216.ashx) released in 2016.) The ceremony also gave airtime to presenters and winners like _Orange Is the New Black’s_ Laverne Cox and [_Master of None’s_ Alan Yang](http://time.com/4498750/emmys-2016-aziz-ansari-alan-yang/), whose calls to action championed marginalized groups. Two shows that address race — _Master of None_ and _Key and Peele_ — took home trophies for Best Writing for a Comedy Series and Best Variety Sketch Show, respectively. As for the leading and supporting actors who won awards, here are five numbers that illustrate, through the prism of the industry’s highest honors, the landscape of diversity on television today. **37 – Years since a non-white actor won an Emmy for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.** This year, half of the nominees were non-white, and ultimately, Keegan-Michael Key (_Key & Peele_), Tituss Burgess (_Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt_), and Andre Braugher (_Brooklyn Nine-Nine_) lost to Louie Anderson, who won for his blend of humor and heartbreak as the mother on _Baskets_. **18 – Years since a non-white dramatic lead actor won.** Rami Malek (Elliot, _Mr. Robot_) is the first non-white winner since 1998 when Andre Braugher took home the trophy for his performance in _Homicide: Life on the Street_. **9 – Years since a non-white actress won the award for Best Actress in a Comedy.** _Black-ish’s_ Tracee Ellis Ross was the first non-white actress to be nominated in this category since 2008, and in 2007, America Ferrera won her Emmy for _Ugly Betty_. This year, the honor went to Julia Louis-Dreyfus for helming the Emmy favorite, _Veep_. The last black actress to be nominated in this category was Phylicia Rashad for playing Clair Huxtable on _The Cosby Show_ in 1986. **3 – Non-white actors took home awards this year for their supporting roles in a miniseries.** Half the nominees for Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, often the most inclusive category, were non-white. Regina King won for her role as Terri Lacroix on _American Crime_, and she acknowledged the show for exploring mass incarceration in her speech; Sterling K. Brown won for his portrayal of attorney Christopher Darden on _The People v. O.J. Simpson;_ and Courtney B. Vance won for his role as Johnnie Cochran on _The People v. O.J. Simpson_. **1 – More non-white winners than last year’s three non-white winners**. This year brought the total non-white leading and supporting actors up to four, compared to last year’s three: Viola Davis (repeat nominee), Uzo Aduba (left out this year) and Regina King (repeat winner.) **Correction:** The original version of this story misstated who won the Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy in 1986\. Betty White won for her role as Rose Nylund on _The Golden Girls_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4499172/emmy-awards-2016-winners-diversity/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4499172/emmy-awards-2016-winners-diversity/"},"headline":"Here’s How Diverse the Emmys Actually Were","datePublished":"2016-09-19T17:15:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:36:41.881Z","description":"A snapshot of diversity on TV today, through the industry’s most prestigious award nominations","url":"https://time.com/4499172/emmy-awards-2016-winners-diversity/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8670c67c4410c99/6988a69f97cdff45b06add87/emmys1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8670c67c4410c99/6988a69f97cdff45b06add87/emmys1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"emmys","caption":"Emmy Awards","creditText":"Getty Images (4)","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4499172/emmy-awards-2016-winners-diversity/","name":"Here’s How Diverse the Emmys Actually Were"}}]}] ```