She submitted herself for an Emmy. Now she’s a nominee

(CNN) — Actor Brittany Allen was home in bed in Los Angeles on Wednesday morning when she learned she was among the 25 Emmy nods that “The Pitt” received. The HBO medical drama was this year’s most nominated show, scoring recognition from the Television Academy for many of the doctor and nurse characters in its cast, including star Noah Wyle. But Allen had extra reason to celebrate. After all, she was the one who put herself forward for awards consideration.

“This industry really doesn’t do you any favors. Nobody’s got your back but yourself,” Allen said by phone from LA. “When you put so much work into something, you want to give it the best shot to be recognized. It felt important to stand up and say, ‘Hey, take a look at what I did,’ and to fight for it and to be my own advocate.”

Allen guest starred in seven episodes of the show’s second season, playing Roxie Hamler, a young mother with terminal cancer who makes the difficult decision to die, rather than continue with her pain. While dozens of patients come and go through the hospital emergency ward across the season’s 15 episodes, Roxie’s quiet suffering and stoic dignity felt particularly memorable to viewers — and, it turns out, to Emmys voters.

Last month, after being informed that HBO had opted to concentrate on other performances in the show, Allen announced on Instagram that she had decided to pay the $225 fee and fill out the necessary paperwork to submit herself for awards consideration. She was proud of the work she’d done to portray Roxie, studying books on death and spirituality and spending more than two months on set, thinking endlessly about mortality. Her audacious and tenacious campaign was run mostly via her own social media, but also earned her some attention in the press.

“When I saw that I wasn’t being submitted by HBO, there wasn’t really a question of whether or not I would try to submit myself,” Allen said. “This is a platform, and I am going to seize it.”

On Wednesday, Allen’s boldness and self-belief paid off when she was announced among the nominees for outstanding guest actress in a drama series. Allen said she was humbled when she first heard the news, but she did eventually allow herself to feel more pride as she reflected on her accomplishment. “If you had told me at any point in the last 20 years that I would be nominated for an Emmy for my work on an HBO show, I would be just beyond excited and proud to have made it someplace that I was dreaming about getting for a long time,” Allen said.

Self-submissions to the Emmys aren’t unheard of, especially in shows with large ensemble casts. In 2019, the “Game of Thrones” actors Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth), Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy) and Carice van Houten (Melisandre) all put themselves forward for awards consideration and successfully received nominations. Allen wasn’t even the only actor from “The Pitt” who was nominated on Wednesday after running their own campaign. Jeff Kober, who portrayed Duke Evans, the motorcycle mechanic friend of Wyle’s Dr. Robby, also was recognized with an outstanding guest actor nod after submitting himself. (On Instagram, Kober celebrated his accomplishment, calling it a “joy and an honor,” and earned congratulations from Wyle.)

Asked about the decision not to submit Allen for consideration, Casey Bloys, the chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content, told the Hollywood Reporter that the choice was purely a strategic one. “’The Pitt’ has hundreds of performers and we simply, just strategically, can’t submit everybody. It’s just the reality. But we encourage people to self-submit and I love that she got nominated,” Bloys said. (Both HBO and CNN are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)

Some online speculated that Allen might be feeling smugly vindicated about her accomplishment, but Allen said Bloys’ explanation was perfectly reasonable and that she bore no ill will to anyone at HBO. “That makes perfect sense to me, and that’s why from the get-go this is not something that I took personally whatsoever,” Allen said, adding that she had felt supported both on-set and off- by the creative team behind the medical drama. “When it comes to awards and nominations, it’s more political than anything, and so if the politics weren’t working in your favor on that day, then you find a way to make them work in your favor.”

Allen, who previously won a Daytime Emmy award in 2011 for her work on the soap opera “All My Children,” wasn’t the only actor on “The Pitt” to be recognized in her category. Also nominated were Tal Anderson, who plays Becca, the sister of Mel King (Taylor Dearden), and Tina Ivlev, who portrayed sexual assault survivor Ilana Miller.

The Emmy Awards will be held on Sept. 14, meaning Allen now has a few months to find both a dress and a babysitter for her three-and-a-half-year-old child. “It’ll be nice to put some heels and makeup on, and dress up, and go celebrate with my partner,” Allen said. “This moment doesn’t come around every day, and when you’ve been chipping away at a business for as long as I have, you really have to take in the wins. Being there that night will be a big win for me.”

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