Emmys 2022: 5 Ups & 7 Downs
3. Lee Jung-Jae's Historic Best Actor Win
Perhaps the single most satisfying award win of the night was Lee Jung-Jae's history-making Outstanding Lead Actor (Drama) win for his performance in Squid Game.
Beating out heavyweight competition from Jason Bateman (Ozark), Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong (Succession), Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul), and Adam Scott (Severance), the South Korean actor became the first performer in Emmy history to win the award for a non-English language role. Jung-Jae was also the first Asian actor to ever scoop the gong.
It certainly wasn't a remotely tokenistic victory, though: Squid Game wouldn't have become the global phenomenon it did without Jung-Jae's deftly calibrated performance.
And with the actor recently cast as the male lead in the upcoming Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte, we're surely going to be seeing plenty of him in the years to come.