Katherine LaNasa, Tramell Tillman and Jeff Hiller are three Emmy winners to root for. Here’s why
By Lisa France, CNN
(CNN) — Just about everyone has a backstory in Hollywood, and sometimes a few special ones shine through.
Such is the case with Emmy winners Katherine LaNasa, Tramell Tillman and Jeff Hiller.
LaNasa won the award for outstanding supporting actress in a drama for her role as nurse Dana Evans on “The Pitt.”
During her acceptance speech, she thanked “all the nurses that inspired Dana.”
The hit medical drama isn’t the only reason nurses have a special place in LaNasa’s heart.
The 58-year-old actress penned an essay for Women’s Health that was published in June in which she wrote: “Playing nurse Dana Evans on the Max medical drama The Pitt comes naturally to me—we’re a lot alike.”
“We’re both part-competent-working-woman-who suffers-no-fools and part-nurturing-den-mother,” she wrote. “But my performance as the steadfast eyes and ears of the ER was also informed by my own health struggle and the calm, compassionate nurses I met during treatment.”
“In February 2023, I was diagnosed with Stage I breast cancer—and I’m ready to share my story now in a way that I hope is useful,” she added.
LaNasa explained that while appearing years ago on the series “Three Sisters,” she had a mammogram that came back as “inconclusive.”
And while those results turned out to be benign, it caused her to be pretty vigilant about mammograms and led to the discovery of cancer in 2023.
“It hit me like a ton of bricks, but I was so fortunate that my very first thought was, why not me? rather than why me? It happens to so many people, you know, and coming from that why not me? perspective opened the door to staying positive throughout my treatment,” she wrote. “At every stage of the process, it became more manageable. I learned I wasn’t going to die from it.”
LaNasa beat it after surgery and radiation treatment and wrote “My goal was for Dana to be a love letter and a thank you to all the people who treated me so kindly, so lovingly, and so thoughtfully when I had cancer.”
A history-making win
Tramell Tillman also could lean on his past to inform his character.
He picked up an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama for his role as Seth Milchick in the Apple TV+ series ‘Severance.”
The sci-fi series revolves around the fictitious biotechnology corporation Lumon Industries, where employees have no memories of the outside world while at work and none of work when they are away from the office.
Tillman’s character is the sole Black employee in the office, something the the 40-year-old actor has experienced.
In an interview with The Cut, Tillman recalled being the only Black student in his acting M.F.A. program at University of Tennessee Knoxville. It was something of a “culture shock,” since he’d had previously studied medicine at Xavier University in New Orleans, an HBCU, and graduated with a degree in communications from another HBCU, Jackson State.
“I stood out like a sore thumb, and although my classmates were always supportive and my teachers were supportive, it was the environment outside of the theater that was toxic,” Tillman told the publication. “I was fortunate to have the work to help me push through it.”
He made history Sunday as the first Black man to win in his category. He credited his mother.
“My first acting coach was tough, y’all. But all great mothers are,” the first time nominee said in his acceptance speech. “Mama, you were there for me when no one else was, and no one else would show up. Your love and kindness stay with me, and this is for you.”
An overnight success, years in the making
Another first-time nominee and winner who touched hearts with his acceptance speech was “Somebody Somewhere” star Jeff Hiller.
Hiller took home the outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for his role of Joel on the show, which concluded its three-season run on HBO in December. So beloved among factors, Hiller’s fellow nominees Colman Domingo, Michael Urie and Bowen Yang showed their obvious delight with his win.
Hiller’s speech was just as delightful, as he appeared genuinely shocked by his win and spoke of the difficulty of breaking through in Hollywood.
“I feel like I’m going to cry because for the past 25 years I’ve been like, ‘World, I want to be an actor,’” he said. “And the world’s like, ‘Maybe computers?’”
“I just want to say thank you to HBO for putting on a show about sweaty middle-aged people on the same network as the sexy teens of ‘Euphoria,’” Hiller joked.
While he looks for his next role, you can read Hiller’s comedic memoir, “Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
