Nick Offerman Wins His First Emmy for The Last of Us: ‘Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book’

Nick Offerman took home his first Emmy at the 75th Annual Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday, winning Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in The last of us.

The category was dominated by nominations for performances in HBO shows, with four actors – Murray Bartlett, Lamar Johnson, Keivonn Montreal Woodard and Offerman – competing for the award against Succession actors James Cromwell and Arian Moayed.

“Happiness gives gifts not by the book,” he said in his acceptance speech.

Offerman also saluted Cromwell and thanked his “magnificent” co-star Megan Mullally, who previously encouraged him to take on the role of Bill, a paranoid survivalist who unexpectedly falls in love with unexpected intruder Frank (Bartlett).

While taking questions from reporters afterward, Offerman suggested there could be an entire miniseries revolving around Bill and Frank’s decade-long relationship, joking, “It could be a musical.”

Here’s a look at the six nominees.

‘Succession’, ‘White Lotus’ and more dominate 2023 Emmy nominations: See the full list

Liane Hentscher/HBO

Offerman and Bartlett broke hearts in episode 3, “Long, Long Time,” playing two men who fall into each other’s orbits and hearts after a global apocalypse. From reluctant friends to decades-long lovers, timid survivalist Bill (Offerman) and extroverted nomad Frank (Bartlett) save each other before deciding not to live without each other. They found their only remaining purpose in life in each other, moving viewers to tears with the 1970 Linda Ronstadt song from which the episode is named.

Liane Hentscher/HBO

Bartlett isn’t just a double nominee this year — he also earned a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 2023 for playing real-life choreographer Nick De Noia in Hulu’s limited series Welcome to Chippendales — is also a repeat Emmy winner after taking home the 2022 Supporting Actor statuette for his breakthrough season one White lotus.

This year was Offerman’s fourth Emmy nomination after three joint nods with Making of co-hosted by Amy Poehler. (His and Bartlett’s co-star Anna Torv also received a guest actress nod for her three episodes, which include “Long, Long.”)

Nick Offerman almost turned down ‘The Last Of Us’ role until wife Megan Mullally intervened: ‘You’re going’

Liane Hentscher/HBO

Johnson and Woodard played the brave but doomed brothers in episodes 4 and 5 The last of us. Johnson’s Henry, a.k.a. “Kansas’ Most Wanted Man,” would do anything to protect his deaf younger brother Sam—even if it meant taking on a risky mission to help Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey’s travelers Joel and Ellie as they evaded a pursuit by ruthless local power player Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey, who is also in the running for Best Guest Actress).

Liane Hentscher/HBO

Johnson and Woodard’s nominations were their first, with 10-year-old Woodard making history as the youngest actor ever to be nominated in the category, as well as the first black-deaf actor to win an Emmy.

Deaf guest star on ‘The Last of Us’ makes history with Emmy nomination — and praise from Marlee Matlin

Macall Polay/HBO

Cromwell wrapped up his four seasons of the darkly hilarious family drama with a third nomination for his role as Ewan’s tough, liberal brother Logan Roy (Brian Cox). Perhaps Cromwell’s accolade this year was earned by his rousing, poignant delivery of an impromptu eulogy for Logan: “I loved him, I suppose, and I suppose some of you did too… The sky darkened a little here and there. Closed-hearted men. Feed on that a dark flame in men, a hard, unrelenting flame that keeps their heart warm while it cools another’s.”

‘Succession’ Shocking! Find out which character died and why the actor says they knew it was coming

Cromwell received four more Emmy nominations during his storied career, and received praise for his supporting work in 2012. American Horror Story: Asylumtwo guest actors nod Six feet under (2003) and Emergency (2001) and a supporting nomination for his portrayal of publishing titan William Randolph Hearst in the 1999 TV movie. RKO 281.

Moayed, second Succession OG, was also nominated in 2022 in this category for playing agnostic venture capitalist Stewy Hosseini, whose billions kept rolling in even though — and probably because — his allegiance to Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) shifted and whipped as fast as the winds of Wall Street.

Peter Kramer/HBO

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Watch PEOPLE’s full coverage of the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards live on Fox from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

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Source: HIS Education