Emmys 2021: Josh O’Connor wins Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

The winner of the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series has been announced at the Emmys 2021. But before we get into the award winner, we’re going to highlight who was the favorite and discuss some of the nominees.

This category posed an interesting challenge at the Emmys 2021 as we saw three previous winners face-off against three newcomers. Last year’s winner, Joshua Strong, was not eligible as Succession Season 3 was postponed until October.

However, Sterling K. Brown could have won again for his role in This Is Us and Billy Porter also had a chance to repeat for his performance on the groundbreaking FX drama Pose, which recently wrapped its third and final season.

As Deadline noted, three of the other actors in this category, Regé-Jean Page, Josh O’Connor and Jonathan Majors, only had one shot at this category for the roles they were nominated for due to extenuating circumstances. Page has opted not to return to Bridgerton, at least not in a full-time capacity, Majors’s show Lovecraft Country was canceled after just one season (despite the fact it received 18 nominations), and O’Connor has aged out of playing Prince Charles on The Crown.

Matthew Rhys finally won a long-overdue Emmy Award for his performance on The Americans. This year was his first nomination for his new HBO drama Perry Mason, a reboot of the original series.

Emmys 2021: Josh O’Connor wins Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Josh O’Connor has won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work on The Crown, beating out Matthew Rhys, Regé-Jean Page, Jonathan Majors, Sterling K. Brown, and Billy Porter.

Gillian Anderson also won for The Crown for Supporting Actress and Olivia Colman won for Best Lead Actress. Tobias Menzies won for Supporting Actor and the show also won for Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing. At the end of the night, The Crown won top honors with the Outstanding Drama Series Award.

If you haven’t watched The Crown yet, the first four seasons are currently streaming on Netflix.

Are you happy that Josh O’Connor won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series? Why or why not? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.