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This year, there was a battle between one actor, five actors in the studio and five actors in the studio.
Brian Cranston was announced on Saturday, September 6th at the 2025 Creative Arts Emmys studio as the winner of the outstanding guest actor in the Apple TV+’s The Studio comedy series.
Also nominated in the 77th Annual Awards Show category were Bear (Hulu’s FX) and Dave Franco, Ron Howard, Anthony Mackie and Martin Scorsese’s Jon Bernthal (FX on Hulu) in the studio.
Cranston, 69, plays Continental Studios CEO Griffin Mill in the studio.
Cranston’s character is giving film executives who still believe in the original film in the sea of Seth Rogen’s Matt Remic – IP-based films a chance to run Continental Studios as its new head. The hilarity continues in the second half of the season when Griffins are raised with mushroom chocolate.
This is Cranston’s 16th Emmy nomination. He previously won four Emmys in the drama series in his role as Walter White in Breaking Bad.
He is proud to be his work, Cranston is also a dad who is proud of his daughter, Taylor Dearden.
Bernthal, 48, will play the bear Michael “Mikey” Bernthat, the older brother of Jeremy Allen White’s Carmen “Carmy” Bernthatt.
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Bernsal was nominated for his film for the season three episodes of Dramadi, entitled “Napkins” and is directed by Star Ayoede Bili.
In the episode, Mikey has a heartfelt conversation with Tina of Liza Colon Zayas in a flashback. The scene touched the hearts of viewers and won critical acclaim.
The actor was nominated for his job in the first season, but was eventually lost. However, when he was nominated last year and won the best guest actor for his work in a season 2 episode entitled “Fishes.”
Franco, 40, plays a hilariously elevated version of himself in the studio.
Apple TV+
When it comes to wild antics on psychedelic trips, if anyone can surpass Cranston, that’s Franco.
Franco has exclusively called his nomination “unusual” in an exclusive chat with people despite his laugh-worthy cameo.
“And the whole truth about it is that I didn’t even think this nomination was possible,” he shared at the time. “When they first sent me all the episodes (of the post-shoot show), I started watching over it, and I said, ‘Oh, this is my favorite show and I’m trying to ruin it.”
Howard, 71, plays himself in the studio, and his character is not a fan of getting a note in his latest film, Alphabet City.
Apple TV+
In the episode where Howard was nominated, Matt is worried about feeding back to the director that he needs to cut scenes from his new film. The tension escalates the moment Matt finally brings the news, but Howard doesn’t go well. Howard then calls Matt and agrees to cut the sequence, but threatens to destroy him.
Despite playing an iconic role in the Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days, this was the first Emmy nomination for Howard’s acting.
“I’ll play my own A—- version,” Howard told people in an exclusive chat about his studio nomination. “It seems I’ve got over that. I have a lot of noms and even have some wins on the side of the producer and director, but my first name as an actor is kind of weird.”
“I’m getting a kick from it,” he added his 14th Primetime Emmy nod.
Mackie, 46, portrays the star and producer of Howard’s fictional film, playing himself in the studio.
Apple TV+
He himself of Mackey’s fictional version knows he stays on the good side of Howard in the episode.
This is Mackie’s first Emmy nomination.
Despite his roles in Cherned Carbon, The Falcon, The Winter Soldier and Twisted Metal, he is best known for his dramatic film roles, starring as Sam Wilson in the Marvel Cinematic universe.
The 82-year-old Scorsese plays herself in the studio and breaks the director’s heart with an episode of the pilot.
Apple TV+
Scorsese is brought to direct the film based on the Kool-Aid Man, using a script he wrote about the Jonestown Massacre. Matt ultimately decides to go with another director, and deliberately buys Scorsese’s script (intentionally to be his last film) with the sole intention of killing the project. This leads to a devastated Scorsese, which is being violently defended by the actual Charlize Theron.
This shared an emotional response that the Oscar-winning director’s first acting Emmy nomination, and that his daughter Francesca was nominated. “Our little actor 🫶,” she wrote about her dad.
Scorsese has already won three Emmys. One won two for the outstanding director of a drama series to direct the pilot episode of Boardwalk Empire in 2011, and two for documentary George Harrison: Materials About the Beatles Musicians in 2012 to direct and produce Life in the World.
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The 2025 Creative Arts Emmys will be unveiled in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 6th and Sunday, September 7th. The full show will air on FXX on Saturday, September 13th at 8pm.
