Actors Over 50 Nab 24 Key Emmy Nominations

Lead Actor, Comedy

Martin Short, 76, Only Murders in the Building

Let’s hope beloved comic actor Short kills it this year for his charmingly hilarious work as crime-solving theater director Oliver Putnam on Hulu's long-running hit mystery-comedy series. Clues point in his direction for 2026: Short took home the SAG actor award this year for the role. 

Steve Carell, 63, Rooster

An icon of TV comedy since his role on megahit The Office, Carell might finally snap a two-decade Emmy losing streak with this nomination for HBO's comedy, where he plays Greg “Rooster” Russo, a best-selling novelist turned reluctant writer-in-residence navigating his daughter’s messy divorce at a New England college. It would be a funny acceptance speech, that’s for sure. 

​Matthew Rhys, 51, Widow’s Bay

Passionate fans of Apple TV's horror-comedy hit know that Welsh actor Rhys is worthy of a nomination in either drama or comedy … he’s that good in both modes. But comedy was the path chosen by Apple, so this Emmy winner (for The Americans in 2018) can show off his range for his performance as Tom Loftis, the bumbling mayor of a literally cursed New England island. 

Lead Actress, Comedy

Lisa Kudrow, 62, The Comeback

Kudrow, a brilliant comic actor, was one of only two cast members of NBC’s monster hit series Friends to win an Emmy for her work (in 1998). And the road for her aptly named HBO series has been its own stop-start of wins and losses in the form of cancellations and revivals. A third and final season — a bittersweet, absurdist last glimpse of the career and personal journey of aging sitcom star Valerie Cherish — puts Kudrow back in the spotlight as a high-odds nominee.

Jean Smart, 74, Hacks

Here’s the woman Kudrow will have to beat. Smart is the heavy favorite for a fifth consecutive Emmy for HBO Max's Hacks, where she plays Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas stand-up comic, in the show's final season. A seven-time Emmy winner, Smart has yet to lose this category — four nominations, four wins. Would five in a row break an Emmy record? Believe it or not, another incredible actor has won six consecutive times in the category: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, for Veep. 

Supporting Actor, Drama

Billy Crudup, 58, The Morning Show

Happy birthday to Crudup, who turns 58 today and scored his third Emmy nomination for playing Cory Ellison, the comically scheming network executive on The Morning Show. This season has found Cory jobless, blackmailing his way back to power and grieving his mother’s death. It’s a tempting mix for a winning turn this year. 

Shawn Hatosy, 50, The Pitt

Talk about an upgrade. Hatosy won a guest actor Emmy last year for playing The Pitt’s combat-veteran-turned-ER-doctor Jack Abbot. The show gave him a bigger role in the second season, which has moved Hatosy up into the more competitive supporting actor category — and the unenviable job of competing against fellow Pitt nominees Patrick Ball and Gerran Howell. 

Carlos-Manuel Vesga, 50, Pluribus

You may not know this Colombian stage actor’s name — yet — but if you watched Season 1 of Pluribus, you can’t forget his performance as Manousos, a defiant Paraguay-based survivor who refuses the show’s hive-mind virus and treks solo to New Mexico to find fellow holdout Carol Sturka. 

Supporting Actress, Drama

Katherine LaNasa, 59, The Pitt

Don’t mess with nurse Dana. LaNasa is the front-runner to repeat as best supporting actress for HBO Max's 2025 awards juggernaut The Pitt, where she plays the ER’s tough-love charge nurse who unravels after a brutal on-the-job assault. LaNasa won this category last year — her breakout after 25 years as a pro. It’s a perfect role for her age, the New Orleans native told AARP in January. “I play a lot of powerful characters,” she said, “and because of that, it was natural for me to go into roles of women that might have more age on them, women that were bosses or mothers or whatever.”

Allison Janney, 66, The Diplomat

Here’s a moment for the record books: Janney, who plays Grace Penn, the vice president thrust into the presidency after her boss’s shocking death, is now positioned to tie the all-time acting Emmy wins record if she scores an eighth TV trophy for Netflix's political thriller this fall. 

Julianne Nicholson, 55, Paradise

No stranger to the Emmy Awards podium — winning for performances in Mare of Easttown and Hacks — Nicholson was nominated for this same role last year but lost to Katherine LaNasa. On the Hulu series, Nicholson plays Sinatra, the ruthless tech billionaire running the underground bunker at the heart of the post-apocalyptic thriller; let’s see if she can throw some elbows to snag her third win this year.

Supporting Actor, Comedy

Harrison Ford, 83, Shrinking

It’s hard to imagine this Hollywood legend, who’s starred in some of the best-loved films of all time, competing in a supporting role. But with this role, Ford is finally getting his shot at the honor. Never having wonin the running for an acting award in his long career, Ford was nominated last year for playing Dr. Paul Rhoades, the gruff therapist facing Parkinson’s disease on the Apple TV dramedy. He lost to Somebody Somewhere’s Jeff Hiller, but he’s the favorite this year. And as he turns 84 on July 13, the star has no intention of taking his foot off the gas: “I don't see any reason to stop as long as my presence is tolerated,” he told AARP last year. “And I still love what I’m doing and find it challenging and engaging.”

Nick Offerman, 56, Margo’s Got Money Troubles

Most TV watchers may see Offerman and think instantly of Ron Swanson, the gruff, deadpan character from Parks and Recreation. But as Jinx, a former pro wrestler and recovering addict trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Offerman delivers a surprisingly tender, against-type role in the Apple TV comedy. The actor won an Emmy in 2024 for a guest role as a survivalist on The Last of Us, so maybe he’ll find gold again showing his softer side.

Stephen Root, 74, Widow’s Bay

This beloved film and television character actor is an integral part of the quirky, superb fun of Apple TV’s breakout horror-comedy series. Playing Wyck Crawford, a local crackpot who feuds with the mayor (played by fellow nominee Matthew Rhys), Root is in the hunt for his first Emmy win at age 74. 

Colman Domingo, 56, The Four Seasons

Already an Emmy winner for HBO Max’s Euphoria, Domingo has two nominations this year: for playing Danny on Netflix’s The Four Seasons as well as guest actor, drama for returning as Ali on Euphoria. On The Four Seasons, Danny is part of a longtime friend group whose vacations turn messy as marriages, loyalties and old tensions shift. “I’ve been working for over 34 years, and to have sort of these moments in my 50s is extraordinary, ” he told AARP in 2025.

Supporting Actress, Comedy

Michelle Pfeiffer, 68, Margo’s Got Money Troubles

Long loved as a dramatic actor in both film and TV, Pfeiffer put her comedic gifts on display this season as Shyanne, the free-spirited former Hooters waitress turned pastor’s fiancée and mother of Elle Fanning's title character in the Apple TV comedy. 

Dale Dickey, 64, Widow's Bay

Dickey earns her first Emmy nomination for playing Rosemary on Widow’s Bay. Rosemary works as Mayor Tom Loftis’ receptionist in the eerie island town, where local lore, curses and strange deaths keep getting harder to dismiss. Dickey told AARP in 2022 she has “been known to play pretty-rough gritty characters,” and this nomination adds another offbeat character to a résumé full of them.