Emmy Awards 2022: Netflix ‘Squid Game’ Star Lee Jung-jae Wins Best Lead Actor

The Emmy Awards for Best Actor of 2022 goes to Lee Jung-jae!

At the 2022 Emmys, Lee Jung-Jae made history when he won best actor in a drama series for his performance in Netflix's Squid Game.

Netflix went to Twitter to congratulate the actor. Lee Jung-jae did not just win as the best actor, but also made a significant contribution to the history of acting.

As captioned by Netflix, the Squid Game star is the first actor from a non-English show to ever win at the Emmy Awards.

As he received his award, the actor expressed gratitude to Netflix, the staff of Squid Game, and Hwang Dong-Hyuk for directing and writing the drama series.

He thanked Director Hwang for making a drama series based on the realistic problems that are faced in everyday life and yet creating it so beautifully with a great script and amazing visuals.

During the awards show, actor Lee Jung-jae is not alone with his nomination. Director Hwang was also nominated and won an award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.

In addition, in his speech, he also thanked the people watching back home in South Korea.

Emmy Awards 2022: Best Lead Actor Lee Jung-jae

The Emmy Awards' Best Actor was brought to Lee due to the impressive portrayal of his character in the hit Netflix series Squid Game.

Netflix predicted that Squid Game would soon be its most renowned original series, and that has been proven right. The Squid Game has surpassed every other show on the charts of the streaming platform.

It took the world by storm with a dominating trend that spawned globally, making it the most watched series on Netflix. When the series was first released in 2021, Netflix stated that the series reached 111 million fans just 28 days after it was first released.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "This is Lee's first Emmy nomination and first win for his role in the groundbreaking Netflix drama series, which made history this year as the first non-English language series to be nominated at the Emmys."

In a pool of foreign and non-English speaking series, Lee was the first actor to win an award at the Emmy. This award also makes Lee the first actor to win an Emmy award in acting for a non-English performance.

Additionally, Lee was presented with the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Drama Series back in February of this year.

Emmy Awards 2022: Best Actor Nomination

The Emmy Awards 2022 today had a tough call for its most outstanding actor in drama.

According to Comicbook, other shows such as Succession, Severance, Better Call Saul, and Ozark also had actors who were strong candidates for the role of best lead actor.

One of the actors from those shows will definitely take home another Emmy award. Other nominees included Jeremy Strong, Bob Odenkirk, Brian Cox, Adam Scott, and Jason Bateman. However, at the end, the award-giving body chose Lee Jung-jae and he was awarded the Best Lead Actor.

Additionally, it has also been reported that Lee is also going to be a part of the cast in the upcoming Star Wars: Acolyte series on Disney+.

Of course, he is also expected to star in the second season of Squid Game, which Netflix has confirmed that they will be producing.