Hollywood, meet the King and Queen of Emmy self-submissions.
When HBO Max notified “The Pitt” guest cast members Brittany Allen and Jeff Kober that they wouldn’t be part of the network’s official Emmy submissions, the actors and their teams went to bat for themselves, self-submitting their performances in the guest acting categories.
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Allen, recognized in the guest drama actress category for her turn as Roxy, a terminal cancer patient, and Kober, nominated for guest drama actor as Duke, a zen biker friend of Dr. Robby, self-submitted for consideration after HBO Max’s initial ballot for the sprawling medical drama did not include them. It is a distinction that turns two character actors into the day’s most distinctive success stories, and it pushed “The Pitt,” which led all series this year with 25 nominations, to the top of the field.
For Allen, the recognition was already reshaping her career in real time.
“A week ago I couldn’t get a good agent if my life depended on it, and in the last hour I think that’s already starting to change,” Allen tells Variety from her home in Los Angeles. “These nominations and accolades from the industry have credit. It’s not always easy for somebody to stand behind an artist based purely on their own belief in them.”
This is a path Allen has walked before. She won a Daytime Emmy earlier in her career for a self-submitted turn on the soap opera “All My Children.” HBO has also seen self-submitting pay off for actors in the past. In 2019, three performers submitted themselves for the final season of HBO’s fantasy juggernaut “Game of Thrones”: Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy) and Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth) landed in the supporting drama races, while Carice van Houten (Melisandre) was nominated for guest drama actress. Another example came in 2018, when Kelly Jenrette earned a guest drama actress nom for her role as Annie in the sophomore season of Hulu’s dystopian drama “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Allen, who grew up in a suburb of Toronto with no family ties to the business, has made a habit of thriving when written off. It is a posture she leaned into throughout her campaign for Roxy.
“I tend to do well when I’m in an underdog position, and this business gives you plenty of opportunities to be put in that position,” she shares. “I get fired up when I get a no. I see doors close around me, and I go, ‘Wait a minute, no. I want to be on the other side of that door. I’m going to kick it down.’ It reminds me of my own capabilities and my own power.”
The role itself, she says, remains the achievement that matters most.
“Bringing Roxy’s storyline to the screen was one of the greatest honors of my career and of my life, to be able to tell a story that all of us will face in one form or another,” Allen says. “To feel the reaction of people who were touched by it has been a great, deep honor.”
Her message to performers still chasing a break was direct.
“Just keep going. Keep honing your craft,” she says. “‘The Pitt’ came about because I just stuck with it year after year. I didn’t let the rejections make me run back home. I stayed here and kept focusing on the work.”
Kober, 72, arrives at his nomination four decades into a career built on scene-stealing guest turns across prestige television, from “NYPD Blue” to “ER” to “Lost.” He earned a Daytime Emmy in 2022 for “General Hospital,” another prize won through self-submission, and he approached the morning of the nominations with characteristic calm, choosing to spend it with a group that practices spiritual living rather than watch the announcement.
His longtime manager delivered the news.
“I was happier for her than I was for myself. She was crying,” Kober says. “She’s the one in the trenches all the time, seeing something in her clients that she wants other people so desperately to see. Every once in a while, it all lines up, and this is one of those times.”
Kober’s path to the role was a sprint. He landed the audition on a Wednesday morning with hours to turn it around.
“I got a call at 9:30 and the audition had to be in at 5 o’clock that evening. I cleared my calendar, worked on these six pages and shot it that afternoon,” he recalls. “When I went to put it together to send it in, my microphone batteries were dead, so I had to do it again. But it was perfect, because something magical happened that last time.”
Like Allen, Kober framed his decision to self-submit as a matter of conviction rather than calculation.
“I just felt like I wanted this to be seen, regardless of the consequences or the outcome. I felt like it was strong work, and I wanted it to be seen,” he says. “One of the great things about being an actor is the constant work of bringing the definition of yourself inside rather than needing to find it outside. When you don’t need approval, you’ve got your own back.”
He was philosophical about the timing of the recognition.
“I’ve been blessed to have lots of opportunities over the last 40 years. Every eight or 10 years or so, you get a job where you really get to fly with it. It’s in your wheelhouse, you find yourself in the pocket and everything supports the work,” Kober says. “This is just a time when that happened, and it got seen.”
As for his future on “The Pitt,” with Season 3 currently in production, he does not expect to return.
“The script has not crossed my desk, so I don’t believe I’m a part of season three. Maybe I die off-screen, I don’t know,” he explains. “But so far I’m not a part of it.”
However, he would jump at the chance to come back.
“Oh my god, yeah. I love that character, and I love the relationship with Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby,” Kober says. “It really was so very special in every way.”
Both nominees now head into the phase two campaign for a series that suddenly cannot forget either of them. Allen received a congratulatory email during our interview. Kober, who at the time of the interview had not yet heard directly from the network, though it had reached out to his manager, put it plainly.
“Someone sent me a picture of myself with a nomination, with HBO on it,” he says. “I guess they’re aware of me now.”
Those two self-submissions proved decisive. They handed “The Pitt” two additional nominations, lifting its total to 25 and nearly doubling its haul from its inaugural year. HBO Max’s “Hacks” finished close behind with 24. Without Allen and Kober, “The Pitt” would not be the leading series of the day.
Last year’s guest drama actor winner, Shawn Hatosy of “The Pitt,” announced that he would submit his role as Dr. Jack Abbott in the supporting drama actor category for Season 2, where he was ultimately nominated.
Final-round voting takes place Aug. 17-26 ahead of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards and Governors Gala on Sept. 5-6. The Primetime Emmy Awards will air Sept. 14 on NBC.