2025 Creative Arts Emmy Awards Night One: ‘The Studio’ Breaks Comedy Emmy Record, ‘The Penguin’ Dominates in Limited Series
Night one of the 2025 Creative Arts Emmy Awards were held tonight where a handful of shows dominated and a new king was crowned. With nine wins, AppleTV+’s freshman season of The Studio has bested The Bear for the most Creative Arts Emmy wins ever for a comedy series.
In all, The Studio won Emmys for Casting, Guest Actor (Bryan Cranston), Cinematography, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Picture Editing, Production Design, Music Supervision and Costumes.
Those nine wins put it only two away from tying The Bear‘s overall single season record of 11 wins, a feat is just accomplished last year. Tonight, The Bear went home empty-handed.
Presenter Maya Rudolph opened Saturday’s show with a shout-out to the artisans and crew members who dominate the Creative Arts categories. “This is the real Emmys,” Rudolph said. “This is the emmys for the people that make all the magic happen.” Rudolph, a four-time Emmy winner, has banked all of her awards during the Creative Arts awards.
The two-night event is being held September 6–7 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles with tomorrow’s ceremony covering variety, reality and documentary categories. Highlights of the two Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies will air on September 13 at 8 p.m. PT on FXX. The Primetime Emmy Awards will air live next Sunday, September 14 on CBS and Paramount+ and hosted by comedian Nate Bargatze.
This year, Apple TV+’s Severance leads all series with 27 nominations, followed by The Studio as the top comedy with 23 and HBO’s The Penguin dominating limited series with 24.
Bryan Cranston earned his 5th Emmy for acting–but first for comedy–and his 7th overall tonight. His previous wins all came from Breaking Bad both as a performer and a producer. Julianne Nicholson won her second Emmy, this time for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for Hacks. She previously won for her supporting work in the limited series Mare of Easttown, where she bested Jean Smart, her co-star on Hacks.
Merritt Wever won Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her work in Severance and now has wins across all narrative programming. She won Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Nurse Jackie in 2013 and Supporting Actress in a Limited Series for Godless in 2018. Uzo Aduba and Cloris Leachman also accomplished this feat, with Aduba doing it for the same show in two instances: Orange is the New Black was initially submitted in the comedy categories, where she won her first Emmy in Guest Actress, then in drama where she earned her second in drama when the show was moved, in Supporting Actress. Her third came in Supporting Actress for a Limited Series for 2019’s Mrs. America.
Shawn Hatosy won his first ever Emmy on his first nomination, for his guest work on The Pitt.
Andor won the Emmy for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Drama Series, beating out The Last of Us, The White Lotus and three episodes of Severance, a category The Pitt wasn’t even nominated in. But, medical drama bested Severance (and all other shows) in Casting for a Drama Series, something of a good bellwether in the top category but one that will keep us guessing until the envelope is opened.
The Penguin was a huge winner with eight awards, dominating the technical categories going into next weekend’s Primetime Emmys. The White Lotus, once a huge winner here, came away with just a single win, for its main title theme music. Earlier this year, composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer revealed he would not be returning to season four of the hit HBO series after creative differences with show creator Mike White. This was de Veer’s fourth Emmy win for The White Lotus.
Here is the complete list of winners from night one of hte Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Outstanding Animated Program: Arcane
Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series: The Studio
Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series: The Pitt
Outstanding Casting for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: Adolescence
Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance: Julie Andrews, Bridgerton (“Into the Light”)
Outstanding Choreography for Scripted Programming: Étoile (Routines: Piece 2 / Growing Pressure / Big In Japan / Piece 1)
Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: Adolescence (“Episode 2”)
Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour): The Studio (“The Oner”)
Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (One Hour): Severance (“Hello, Ms. Cobel”)
Outstanding Contemporary Costumes for a Series: The Studio (“CinemaCon”)
Outstanding Contemporary Costumes for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: The Penguin (“A Great Or Little Thing”)
Outstanding Contemporary Hairstyling: The Penguin (“Cent’anni”)
Outstanding Contemporary Makeup (Non-Prosthetic): The Penguin (“Cent’anni”)
Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes: Andor (“Harvest”)
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series: Bryan Cranston, The Studio (“CinemaCon”)
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series: Shawn Hatosy, The Pitt (“9:00 P.M.”)
Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series: Julianne Nicholson, Hacks (“A Slippery Slope”)
Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series: Merritt Wever, Severance (“Who Is Alive?”)
Outstanding Motion Design: Octopus!
Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score): The Penguin (“After Hours”)
Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score): Severance (“Cold Harbor”)
Outstanding Music Supervision: The Studio
Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music: The White Lotus
Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics: “Let’s Put the Christ Back in Christmas,” The Boys
Outstanding Performer in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series: Desi Lydic, The Daily Show: Desi Lydic Foxsplains
Outstanding Period or Fantasy/Sci-Fi Hairstyling: Bridgerton (“Old Friends”)
Outstanding Period or Fantasy/Sci-Fi Makeup (Non-Prosthetic): House of the Dragon (“The Red Dragon And The Gold”)
Outstanding Period Costumes: Bridgerton (“Into The Light”)
Outstanding Picture Editing for a Drama Series: Andor (“Who Are You?”)
Outstanding Picture Editing for a Multi-Camera Comedy Series: Frasier (“My Brilliant Sister”)
Outstanding Picture Editing for a Single-Camera Comedy Series: The Studio (“The Promotion”)
Outstanding Picture Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (“Blame It on the Rain”)
Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program (One Hour or More): Severance (“Chikhai Bardo”)
Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More): Andor (“Who Are You?”)
Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Program (Half-Hour): The Studio (“The Note”)
Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup: The Penguin (“After Hours”)
Outstanding Sound Editing for an Animated Program: Arcane (“The Dirt Under Your Nails”)
Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour): The Studio (“The Golden Globes”)
Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour): The Last Of Us (“Through The Valley”)
Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special: The Penguin (“After Hours”)
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation: The Studio (“The Golden Globes”)
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour): Severance (“Cold Harbor”)
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie: The Penguin (“After Hours”)
Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie: Andor
Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode: The Penguin (“Bliss”)
Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Comedy Programming: The Righteous Gemstones
Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Drama Programming: The Boys
Outstanding Stunt Performance: The Boys (“The Insider”)
Outstanding Television Movie: Rebel Ridge
Outstanding Title Design: Severance
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