The buzziest first-time Emmy nominees you should know

GAME Of Thrones, The People V. OJ Simpson, UnREAL: which hit show will clean up at the Emmy Awards?

WITH the nominations for this year’s 68th Emmy Awards, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has proven it can still surprise us.

While the 2016 pack includes its share of familiar TV faces and winners, it also bestows nods on a number of first-timers — 36 to be exact.

RuPaul Charles, a first-time nominee after hosting RuPaul’s Drag Race for eight seasons, got the rookies off to a good start with a win at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 11 — beating out perennial nominees Ryan Seacrest, Tom Bergeron and the megapopular Steve Harvey (himself a first-time nominee) for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program.

Though Charles said in an interview before this year’s nominations were announced that “I’d rather have an enema than an Emmy,” his win showed that the Academy is willing to pay attention to niche shows and diverse performers — a sharp contrast to the Academy Awards and its #OscarsSoWhite criticism.

Here’s a look at some of this year’s buzziest first-time nominees.

THE BREAKOUTS

Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo)

You may have seen Woodbine’s face on TV from his steady work in guest roles over the past 20 years (Southland, City of Angels). But you probably didn’t know the 43-year-old by name until his scene-stealing performance as Kansas City mobster Mike Milligan in the second season of FX’s true crime yarn, where he got some of the series’ best dialogue.

Rami Malek (Mr. Robot)

Malek’s past credits include the HBO miniseries The Pacific and the forgettable Fox family sitcom The War at Home, but the 35-year-old was a virtual unknown when he burst onto the scene in 2015 for his superb portrayal of socially anxious computer hacker Elliott Alderson on the dark USA drama.

After losing the Golden Globe for best actor in a TV drama to Jon Hamm in January, Malek told the Hollywood Reporter that on Emmy nomination morning, “I was pretty much just trying to get some rest, and trying everything I could not to think about it.”

Sterling K. Brown (The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story)

Brown previously starred in seven seasons of Lifetime drama Army Wives in addition to recurring roles on Person of Interest and Supernatural during his 15-year Hollywood career.

But it was the 40-year-old’s touching portrayal of prosecutor Christopher Darden — including that chemistry with Sarah Paulson’s Marcia Clark that had everyone wondering, “did they or didn’t they?” — that made him one to watch.

Paulson, nominated for two awards herself (for The People v. O.J. Simpson and American Horror Story), told the Associated Press she was so delighted to see her co-star get the nod that she sent him a series of unintelligible text messages.

“It looked like a tiny baby infant got a hold of my phone,” she said. The exposure is already paying off for Brown with a lead role in NBC’s This Is Us, perhaps the fall’s buzziest new show.

THE BRITISH INVASION

Tom Hiddleston

Tom Hiddleston (The Night Manager)

It’s hard to remember a time when Hiddleston wasn’t most closely associated with Taylor Swift — he confirmed their since-defunct relationship on the day of his nomination, after all (“It’s not a publicity stunt,” he told the Hollywood Reporter).

But months before his quickie tabloid summer romance, the 35-year-old — who previously only worked on UK TV shows and was known to international audiences for the Thor movies — was garnering widespread praise for his portrayal of mysteriously suave spy Jonathan Pine on the AMC miniseries. (He went up against fellow Brits Benedict Cumberbatch and Idris Elba in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie category.)

Kit Harington and Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones)

Thrones was the first TV series for both young actors, and the 29-year-old Harington spent five seasons brooding around the North before his resurrected character finally got a meaty storyline in season six.

Nineteen-year-old Williams’ Arya likewise benefited from the female-focused season (and reacted by tweeting a perfectly-placed pun: “@GameOfThrones wtf ARYA KIDDING ME?!!”). Their nominations this year are part of the increasing Emmy love for the megapopular HBO fantasy epic: While Peter Dinklage is the only cast member to have ever won, five Thrones actors were nominated this year, including repeat nods for Dinklage, Lena Headey and Emilia Clarke.

THE MOVIE STARS

Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons in Fargo.

Kirsten Dunst (Fargo) and John Travolta (The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story)

The increasingly blurry lines between film and television in Hollywood mean that bona fide movie stars now find themselves walking the Emmys red carpet.

Dunst, 34, has worked almost exclusively in film since the late ’90s, but it was the darkly comic role of murderous beautician Peggy Blumquist in Fargo that gave her career a jolt.

Travolta’s last regular TV series role was Welcome Back, Kotter in the late ’70s, but the 62-year-old earned a nomination for his campy portrayal of Simpson defence lawyer Robert Shapiro.

In a statement, Travolta noted his surprise at getting the nod and called it “a wonderful way to come back to television.” His O.J. co-star Cuba Gooding Jr., an Oscar winner for Jerry Maguire, even got his own first nod — despite critics saying his Simpson portrayal was the weak point of the FX series.

THE TRIPLE THREAT

Aziz Ansari.

Aziz Ansari (Master of None)

Ansari spent seven seasons without earning a nomination as cocky serial entrepreneur Tom Haverford on NBC’s Parks and Recreation.

But when the comedian, 33, showed a more serious side in his introspective Netflix series Master of None, he immediately earned three nominations: for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (the first South Asian nominated in the category) and for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy (for the well-reviewed Parents episode). The series was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, as well. If you’re looking for the next Louis CK, Ansari is a strong bet.

“It is cool to see, there’s so much diversity at the Emmys,” Ansari told New York Magazine’s ‘Vulture’ blog. “Like, there’s no #EmmysSoWhite — it’s like the Emmys are f — — king diverse. The Emmys are real.”

THE VETERANS

Constance Zimmer in UnREAL.

Keri Russell (The Americans)

Russell, 40, first rose to fame starring in Felicity on the WB (never a network that received much Emmy love) from 1998 to 2002. She got her first prestige drama role as undercover KGB spy Elizabeth Jennings on FX’s The Americans in 2013, but the show was shut-out of major Emmy categories, to critics’ horror, every year until now.

“We’ve not been nominated so many times we were so sure we’d never be nominated!” Russell told USA Today of her and co-star/boyfriend Matthew Rhys, also a first-time nominee.

Constance Zimmer (UnREAL)

Zimmer is one of those actresses who has consistently worked in supporting roles on TV since the ’90s — Good Morning, Miami, Joan of Arcadia, Boston Legal, Entourage and House of Cards among them.

But she finally got her Emmy-worthy role at age 45, as the deliciously ruthless TV producer Quinn King. “I screamed, jumped up and down, got a little teary and screamed again,” Zimmer told Access Hollywood.

Courtney B. Vance (The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story)

At 56, Vance has racked up a long resume of TV roles, including starring in five seasons of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, the short-lived Flashforward and guest roles in ER, Revenge and The Closer.

But the Yale drama grad is perhaps more recognised on Broadway, where he’s nabbed three Tony nods (including a win for 2013’s Lucky Guy). But it was his spot-on portrayal of Simpson defence lawyer Johnnie Cochran that confirmed to a wider audience what theatregoers have known for years: Vance is the real deal. And while he went up against his former scene partner Gooding Jr. in the category, Vance said there’s no cast rivalry: “I love my man, so win, lose, or draw, we’ll still be brothers,” he told E! News.

This story originally appeared in the NY Post and is republished here with permission.