This year’s Primetime Emmy Awards will be full of drama. Among the major plotlines: Will SF State graduate Jeffrey Tambor win his third consecutive award for Lead Actor in Comedy Series? Will fellow SF State alum Spencer Averick win his first Emmy, after garnering an Academy Award nomination for his work on the documentary 13TH?
Jeffrey Tambor
Tambor (B.A., Drama, ’65) will defend his two-year reign for Transparent. In the Amazon comedy, he portrays Maura Pfefferman, a divorced parent of three who decides to come out as a transgender woman after retirement. Tambor is a seven-time Emmy nominee who has also earned a Golden Globe Award, and two additional nominations, for his role on Transparent.
Tambor is an accomplished actor known for his unforgettable comedic roles on Arrested Development and The Larry Sanders Show. His movie credits include The Hangover, Hellboy and Pollock. His memoir Are You Anybody? was published earlier this year by Crown Archetype. A San Francisco native, Tambor was raised in the Parkmerced apartment community next to the SF State campus, often visiting as a child to observe rehearsals. He was named SF State’s 2009 Alumnus of the Year.
Spencer Averick
Averick, who studied Radio and Television at SF State, is up for Writing for a Nonfiction Program for 13TH with Ava DuVernay. The Netflix documentary is an in-depth look at the U.S. prison system in the United States, showing how it reveals the nation’s history of racial inequality.
Averick and DuVernay wrote and produced 13TH. Their Oscar nomination for the film came in the Best Documentary Feature category.
Praised by Duvernay as “my long-time ace,” Averick has edited many of the acclaimed director’s projects, including the Academy Award-winning Selma and the forthcoming big-budget feature A Wrinkle in Time. His other credits include editor of two Kevin Hart comedy specials and editor and producer of the documentary Since: The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
The 69th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony will air at 5pm Pacific time on September 17 on CBS.
— Matt Itelson
Links
- Emmy Awards
- Center Stage: Jeffrey Tambor, SF State Magazine, spring/summer 2015
- Petaluma High School grad Spencer Averick up for Oscar with 13TH, Argus-Courier, February 23, 2017
- School of Theatre & Dance
- Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts Department
Left: Jeffrey Tambor. Photo by Justin Stephens/FOX. Right: Spencer Averick. Photo courtesy of Spencer Averick.