Emmy Nominations 2016: Actor And Actress Nominees

Emmy nominations for 2016 were announced today by the Television Academy for the 68th Annual Emmy Awards. Find out which of your favorite actors and actresses made the esteemed list of nominees this year. The 2016 Emmy Awards will air September 18 on ABC.

Emmy nominations for some of the most-anticipated categories of the year included the hit HBO series, Game of Thrones, for “Outstanding Drama Series.” Series actors Peter Dinklage and Kit Harington were also personally nominated for “Outstanding Supporting Actor, Drama.” Leading ladies Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, and Maisie Williams all received nominations for “Outstanding Supporting Actress, Drama” for Game of Thrones.

Game of Thrones just completed its sixth season and received 23 nominations, which is the highest total for any show. The show received 24 nominations last year, and won its first best drama Emmy.

Rally the realm.#GameofThrones is nominated for "Outstanding Drama Series" in this year's #Emmys. pic.twitter.com/BcaohCv9Fz

— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) July 14, 2016

Funny woman Amy Schumer got a nomination for “Outstanding Comedy Actress” in her Comedy Central series, Inside Amy Schumer. Other comedian actresses that were nominated included Ellie Kemper from the Netflix hit series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

The streaming services Netflix and Amazon continue to make significant inroads, with each scoring its highest Emmy nomination totals this year, according to the Television Academy. Netflix received a total of 54 nominations, and Amazon received 16. Netflix continues to impress viewers with their original series like Orange Is The New Black, Bloodline, and House of Cards.

Congrats to all the nominees today. Really excited about this year's honorees. #Emmys

— Laverne Cox (@Lavernecox) July 14, 2016

Emmy nominations for ‘Outstanding Limited Series’ included the noteworthy drama based on the O.J. Simpson trial on FX, The People v. O.J. Simpson, as well as fan-favorite anthology series Fargo, and the sensationally powerful short series on ABC, American Crime.

Emmy nominations for ‘Outstanding Reality Competition’ once again included the ever-popular vocal competition series on NBC, The Voice. According to Entertainment Weekly,The Voicewon this category last year in 2015 and has been nominated every year since the start of the series. The 2015 Emmy Award was the series’ fourth Primetime Emmy Award nomination in this category and second win.

Will any other reality shows have a chance of stealing the title away from The Voice? Nominations this year also included The Amazing Race, Top Chef, and Dancing With The Stars.

After three seasons as a critical and cult darling, The Americans finally broke through the Emmy barrier with three nominations, for Best Drama Series, Best Actor for Matthew Rhys, and Best Actress for Keri Russell. But while some series experienced their first nominations, others were subsequently left out this year. In the past, The Good Wife was a perennial Emmy favorite. This year the series went out with a whimper, as it got no nominations in major categories. Julianna Margulies was shut out of the Best Drama Actress race this year after winning twice before for her role as Alicia Florrick.

Emmy nominations for “Outstanding Comedy Series” included some repeats from 2015 and a few new series. HBO‘s Veep,Modern Family, and Black-ish all made the list this year.

Black-ish has won this category three times. However, last year Veep took the title for most outstanding comedy series. Will we see a repeat winner this again this year?

Emmy nominations can usually be expected to include television series, specials, movies, and shorts. Here is the biggest surprise of all this year: Beyoncé’s surprise visual album, Lemonade, was nominated for Outstanding Variety Special and three other nominations, including Beyoncé herself for Directing.

Lemonade was a full-blown phenomenon when it premiered on HBO, but did anyone expect it would become an Emmy darling, as well?

Voting begins August 15 for the more than 22,000 Television Academy members and ends at 10 p.m. PT on August 29. Some of the winners will be announced at the Creative Arts Awards on Sept. 17 on FXX before the ABC telecast of the Emmy Awards on September 18 at 7 p.m. ET.

Emmy nominations totaled to 113 categories this year. Visit the official Emmy Awards website or click here for the full list of nominees.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Staff/Getty Images]