Awarded at the 74th Annual Television Academy Awards, Zendaya took home the trophy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Euphoria. Zendaya won the award in a category with several talented nominees. She bested Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Laura Linney (Ozark), Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets), Sandra Oh (Killing Eve), and Reese Witherspoon (The Morning Show). Season 2 of Euphoria premiered on HBO in January, and since then, the show has dominated cultural conversations about what to watch next. The show even surpassed Game of Thrones as HBO’s second most-watched series ever.
The 2020 Emmy for Lead Actress in the Drama Series went to Zendaya for her work on the first season of Euphoria. With Viola Davis’s triumph for How to Get Away With Murder in 2015, she was just the 2nd Black woman to win the prize, and now she is the first Black woman to have won the award twice. Zendaya stars as Rue Bennett on the CW’s Euphoria, a show she contributes to in more ways than one. She even holds the record for being the youngest female producer nominee. The cast includes Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Angus Cloud, Jacob Elordi, Maude Apatow, Alexa Demie, Barbie Ferreira, and Sydney Sweeney.
Also for her role in the second season, Sweeney was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, although she ultimately lost to Julia Garner of Ozark. On September 12, 2022, NBC broadcast the 74th Annual Emmy Awards live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The ceremony was also broadcast for the first time on NBC’s streaming platform, Peacock.