Steve Carell & More Celebs Who’ve Never Won an Emmy

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When it comes to the Emmys, it’s truly an honor to be nominated—and these stars know the feeling best.

Ahead of the Emmys 2026 kicking off at Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. ET Sept. 14, there are plenty of worthy nominees whose names could be engraved for, surprisingly, the very first time. 

Indeed, the upcoming ceremony—which will be hosted by Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay—could correct one of the biggest omissions in television comedy history, as Steve Carell is up for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in Rooster

And while Carell’s category mates include Wonder Man’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Widow’s Bay’s Matthew Rhys, Shrinking’s Jason Segel and Only Murders in the Building’s Martin Short, a win for Carell is long overdue as he never took home a statue for his portrayal of Michael Scott in The Office

For his part, Carell—who received six nominations for his iconic role in the NBC comedy series—has never bemoaned the missed opportunity to work a “that’s what she said,” joke into an acceptance speech, but trust, his fellow Dunder Mifflin colleagues have expressed disappointment. 

In fact, the Television Academy is lucky all the trophies weren’t put in Jell-O.

Rainn Wilson, who played Carell’s No. 2 Dwight Schrute in the Greg Daniels series, slammed the TV academy after the 2011 ceremony—Carell’s last year of eligibility for the role—in a since-deleted post on X, “The world of TV should be ashamed of itself that Steve Carell never won an Emmy for Michael Gary Scott.” (That year, the Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons took home the Emmy.)

Of course, while Abdul-Mateen II, Rhys and Short have all taken home a trophy at least once, Segel has similarly never won an Emmy. However, despite starring in How I Met Your Mother for nearly 10 years, he only received his first-ever nomination in 2023 for Shrinking

Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for HBO

Meanwhile, David Harbour—up for Outstanding Supporting Actor for his role in DTF St. Louis—similarly has an opportunity to receive an Emmy for the first time after missing the opportunity for his Stranger Things role following nominations in 2017 and 2018. 

And although the beloved Netflix series nabbed seven nominations for its final season at this year’s ceremony, the series’ stars—including Millie Bobby Brown who also received nominations in 2017 and 2018—have never taken home wins for their roles.

Of course, TV fans are well aware that “not yet” doesn’t always mean “never.” Noah Wyle finally took home his first win last year after five prior nominations for his iconic role as Dr. John Carter in ER

And for the longtime TV emergency physician, the wait was well worth it. 

“What a dream this has been,” Wyle said on stage last year. “Thank you to everyone at HBO Max and Warner Bros. Television for allowing the conditions to exist for lightning to strike in my life twice.”

In anticipation of similar speeches possibly being read tonight, keep reading for more iconic TV stars who have never won an Emmy… 

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Steve Carell

Carell received ten Emmy nominations for his run on The Office—on which he played Michael Scott and was a producer. Despite his acclaimed performances during his seven-season run, Emmy voters never quite declared him the World's Best TV Actor.

Nine years later, Carell scored one nod for portraying disgraced news anchor Mitch Kessler on The Morning Show in 2020. 

In 2026, he earned his 12th Emmy nomination for his role of Greg Russo on The Rooster.

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Keri Russell

It's an honor to keep getting nominated. The star has received eight Emmy nomination nods—five for starring as Kate Wyler and producing The Diplomat and three for starring on The Americans.

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Kaley Cuoco

While her Big Bang Theory costar Jim Parsons won four Emmys for playing Sheldon, Cuoco was never even nominated for her role as Penny.

And while she was, however, up for two Emmys for her work on The Flight Attendant, in which she played Cassie and served as an executive producer, she still hasn't taken home a trophy quite yet. 

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Kathryn Hahn

The actress is a four-time Emmy nominee, most recently nominated for her role in The Studio in 2025.

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Natasha Lyonne

Since her first 2014, Lyonne has received five Emmy nominations for her acting, writing and producing on Poker Face, Russian Doll and Orange Is the New Black.

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Matthew Perry

Could Emmy voters have had a bigger snub? Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Aniston are the only core cast members of Friends who have won an Emmy.

Perry, who died in 2023, earned one individual nomination for his role of Chandler Bing, and went on to earn two more for The West Wing, one for The Ron Clark Story and one for his work as an executive producer on Friends: The Reunion. 

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Courteney Cox

Justice for Monica! Shockingly, Cox is the only core Friends star who has never even been nominated for an individual Emmy. In 2021, she shared a nomination for Outstanding Variety Special for her appearance in the Friends reunion.

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Matt LeBlanc

Like his Friends character Joey, LeBlanc has had some practice with his gracious loser face. He's received seven individual Emmy nominations, including three for playing Joey and four for his role of a satirical version of himself on Episodes. The actor also got an executive producing nod for the 2021 Friends reunion.

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David Schwimmer

Schwimmer was nominated for an individual Emmy for playing Ross on Friends in 1995 and received a second acting nod in 2016 for portraying Robert Kardashian, the late father of Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Rob Kardashian, on the limited series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.

Add these to his executive producing nod for the Friends reunion, and his total comes to three.

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Connie Britton

TV's favorite mom has been shut out: Britton scored two nods for playing Tami Taylor on Friday Night Lights before being nominated for her performances on American Horror Story, Nashville and The White Lotus, garnering a total of five Emmy nominations.

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Kristen Wiig

Trust, fans will be more excited than the Target Lady when Wiig finally gets to give an acceptance speech. 

The Saturday Night Live alum has been nominated for a whopping 13 Emmys: eight for her performances on SNL as both a cast member and host, two for her producing and acting on Palm Royale, one for her voice-over work as Lola on The Looney Tunes Show, one for her role on The Spoils of Babylon and one for her song in Will & Harper.

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Hugh Laurie

Laurie has received ten Emmy nominations, including one for his guest role on Veep, two for his work on The Night Manager and seven for his run on House. Unfortunately, he's won none. As Dr. House would say, "What's the opposite of thank you?"

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Angela Lansbury

Before her death in 2022, the late legendary actress was nominated for 18 Emmys, including 12 for her role of Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote

While the Emmy votes couldn't give her a statuette, they did her one better: Lansbury became a Hall of Fame honoree in 1996.

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Cate Blanchett

The two-time Oscar winner has been nominated for three Emmys, including for her performance in Disclaimer as well as for her acting and producing in Mrs. America.

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Lauren Graham

Coffee, coffee, coffee? More like snub, snub, snub! The Gilmore Girls actress has never received recognition at the Emmys for either her role as Lorelei or Sarah Braverman on Parenthood.

She has, however, been nominated for two Actor Awards and one Golden Globe for Gilmore Girls.

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Denzel Washington

While he's more of a movie star, the two-time Oscar winner has received two shared Emmy nominations: Outstanding Non-Fiction Special for Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks in 2001 and Outstanding Informational Special for Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream in 1995.

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Amy Adams

Adams was up for two Emmys for her producing and performance in Sharp Objects in 2019. She might not have won an award, but fans are still talking about the perofrmance. 

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Emilia Clarke

But when will winter come? The actress was nominated for Emmys in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2019 for playing Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, but luck was not on her side.

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Kit Harington

While the HBO series earned a whopping 59 Emmys during its run, Clarke's costar Harington has also never received Emmys recognition, though he was nominated twice for playing Jon Snow. 

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Leonardo DiCaprio

The Oscar winner received his first Emmy nomination in 2015 for producing Virunga, which is about mountain gorillas and was up for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.

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Hugh Grant

A two-time Emmy nominee, Grant was up his roles in The Undoing and A Very English Scandal in 2021 and 2019, respectively. 

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Milo Ventimiglia

This Is Unfair. The actor was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2017, 2018 and 2019 for This is Us but sadly never walked away with an Emmy.

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Mandy Moore

Meanwhile, the Tangled actress received her first-ever Emmy nod for her role on This Is Us in 2019 but came up empty-handed.

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Lena Dunham

Dunham is certainly a voice of a generation, receiving eight Emmy nominations for Girls, including in the acting, directing, writing and producing categories. 

And yet, Dunham still hasn't taken home a statuette. 

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Don Cheadle

This isn't Marvel-ous at all...Cheadle has been nominated for an Emmy for acting 11 times and has never won.

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