20 Couples Who Scored Emmy Nominations in the Same Year | Vanity Fair

Amid the annual rush of snubs and surprises to emerge from the 2024 Emmy nominations, there was one other feel-good takeaway: Those who make great TV often come in pairs. At the 2024 Emmys, at least four real-life couples are nominated alongside one another. Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup, who are nominated in the limited series and drama series categories, wed in June 2023. Longtime couple Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor were both recognized this year, as were HBO mainstays Carrie Coon and Tracy Letts. Plus, Hacks cocreators Paul W. Downs and Lucia Aniello received joint nominations—for the third time—for their show’s latest season.

Upon learning of her first-ever Emmy nod, Watts said that she “squealed and immediately asked if Billy got nominated too. He did, which makes today even more special.” Coon tweeted a photo of Letts’s nomination with the caption: “His & Hers.” Ahead, a look back at some of the other romantic partners who have been nominated for Emmys in the same year, from Bill Hader and Ali Wong to Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt.

Watts earns her first Emmy nomination for playing the indomitable Babe Paley on FX’s Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, while Crudup earns his third nod for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for the AppleTV+ drama The Morning Show. He won for playing the often-smarmy network executive Cory Ellison in 2020.

Paulson and Taylor, who have been linked since 2015, have a fair share of Emmy recognition between them. Taylor won a supporting-actress trophy for 1999’s The Practice and was a frequent nominee for Two and a Half Men. Paulson took home the award for playing Marcia Clark in 2016’s The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and is regularly nominated for her work in other Ryan Murphy projects. But this is the first year in which they’re both nominated: Taylor for her supporting work on The Morning Show, and Paulson in the guest-acting category for her role as a therapist on Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Showbiz is a small world. Letts, who was once engaged to Sarah Paulson, received his first Emmy nomination this year. Carrie Coon, whom he wed in 2013, was nominated this year as well. Both are recognized for prestige HBO dramas—she in the lead-actress category for The Gilded Age and he in the guest-acting race for Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.

Downs and Aniello, who worked on Broad City before helming Hacks, join a rich legacy of real-life couples turned TV titans, from The Good Wife’s Robert and Michelle King to Tina Fey and Jeff Richmond of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

After making their red-carpet debut as a couple at the Golden Globes, Hader and Wong sat side by side for the Emmys, where he was nominated for HBO’s Barry and she won for her lead performance in Netflix’s Beef.

Before welcoming a daughter together in March 2023, the couple celebrated their newfound romance on the Emmys red carpet. Cuoco was nominated for leading the Max comedy series The Flight Attendant, while Pelphrey earned a nomination for his guest appearance on the final season of Ozark.

For three straight seasons, Russell and Rhys–who fell in love while playing married Russian spies on FX’s The Americans—were nominated for concurrent Emmys. In 2018, Rhys won for the show’s final season and thanked Russell during his acceptance speech. “And to the woman who truly got me to this award, who stands in front of me every day and puts up with me,” he began, “she said, ‘If you propose to me, I’ll punch you clean in the mouth.’ I don’t have the words. I don’t have the time. Neither of which would do you justice, except thank you, more to come.”

Before earning their first Oscar nominations together in 2022 for The Power of the Dog, Dunst and Plemons became Emmy honorees in the same year for season two of Fargo—the project on which they met while playing a married couple.

Staunton, who is nominated this year for her role as Queen Elizabeth II on Netflix’s The Crown, received her first nod for a supporting role in the HBO TV movie The Girl. That same year, Carter, who has been her husband since 1983, was nominated for his role on Downton Abbey. Another bit of TV history? The couple’s daughter, Bessie Carter, now stars on Netflix’s Bridgerton.

The couple of more than 15 years were both recognized by the TV Academy in 2009—Sedgwick for her leading role on TNT’s The Closer, and Bacon for fronting the HBO limited series Taking Chance.

Here’s a wild bit of Emmys trivia: Each year that Huffman was nominated for an Emmy for her work on Desperate Housewives or American Crime, her husband of more than 25 years was also recognized—either for Shameless or for a limited series.