NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 11: Brittany Allen attends Showtime’s “Dexter: Original Sin” New York Premiere at SVA Theater on December 11, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/WireImage)
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Before Brittany Allen was an Emmy nominee, she was almost a Supporting Actress. (Spoilers) Allen plays Roxie Hamler in The Pitt‘s second season, a young mother with terminal cancer who is admitted to the ER contemplating ending it all.
Roxie’s arc started as a six-episode role, grew to eight scripted episodes, and then lost its final one — the death scene never made air. Emmy rules split guest and supporting categories by episode count, and losing that scene held Allen under the line: seven aired episodes instead of eight, keeping her in guest actress rather than bumping her to supporting.
“When I saw that they just had her pass away off camera, first of all, I thought that was a beautiful decision creatively,” she told Variety. “And then it opened the door for me to be eligible — which was, oh my God, exciting.”
Eligible was one thing. Submitted was another. Allen learned she had been left off HBO’s 14-strong list of Emmy contenders from a publicist she no longer works with.
“It wasn’t dramatic,” she told Variety. “You don’t take it personally. You see the facts and decide what you want to do with them,” which, in her case, was to submit herself instead.
On Wednesday, that bet paid off: Allen received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series — her first Primetime Emmy nomination, and proof that it never hurts to bet on yourself.
Why The Pitt’s Brittany Allen’s Emmy Self-Submission Worked
LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 18: Actress Gwendoline Christie attends the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 18, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Getty Images)
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Self-submissions are not unprecedented, but they are rare successes.
In 2019, three Game of Thrones actors took the same route — Alfie Allen and Gwendoline Christie among them — and it worked: all three scored nominations after entering themselves.
Kelly Jenrette did the same thing in 2018 for The Handmaid’s Tale and was nominated. Joel McHale self-submitted for The Bear last year without success, per The Wrap.
Allen’s résumé stretches well past The Pitt. She played the ill-fated supe Popclaw on Amazon’s The Boys in 2019, and more recently took a recurring role as Laura Moser, Dexter Morgan’s mother, in Showtime’s Dexter: Original Sin.
This is also not Allen’s first self-submission rodeo; in 2010, she entered herself for a Daytime Emmy for her role in All My Children, and won.
“I did submit myself, and a year after finishing on the show, I ended up winning,” she said. “You have to fight for yourself. You have to believe in your work, and you can’t expect other people to do that for you. The industry is built on hype, and if nobody is creating that hype for you, you have to find a way to do it yourself,” she said in her Variety interview.
She was not alone in her self-submission campaign. Jeff Kober, fellow guest star on The Pitt, whose screen career stretches back four decades arc, also independently entered for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. His gamble paid off as well, and they are both now first-time Primetime Emmy nominees.
The Pitt’s Emmy Record This Year
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 01: (L-R) Taylor Dearden, Fiona Dourif, Noah Wyle, Alexandra Metz, Tracy Ifeachor, Isa Briones, Jalen Thomas Brooks, and Patrick Ball, winners of the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Award for “The Pitt,” pose in the press room during the 32nd Annual Actor Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on March 01, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/WireImage)
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The Pitt leads all television series with 25 Emmy nominations in total this year the most of any show. Nine of them, like Allen, are self submissions.
Noah Wyle collected three nominations of his own for acting, directing, and producing, and the show placed three men in supporting actor and four women in supporting actress, including reigning winner Katherine LaNasa, who could become the first back-to-back winner in that category since Julia Garner. Behind the camera, The Pitt picked up nods for production design, casting, two editing categories, both makeup categories, original music, and sound mixing, on top of two writing nominations.
Not every branch was as generous. HBO submitted six episodes for directing consideration; only Wyle’s got through.
In the Guest Actress in a Drama Series category specifically, Allen will compete against two Pitt co-stars — Tal Anderson, who plays Dr. King’s sister Becca, and Tina Ivlev, whose character Ilana survives a sexual assault in the series— both of whom were submitted by HBO. “There was no conversation amongst those of us who self-submitted,” Allen told Variety, “but I’m happy to be in their company.”
She reacted to the nomination on Instagram on Wednesday, saying, “So thankful to have gotten this audition one year ago around this time, and for everything that has followed since,” and ending with a hashtag of The Pitt.