Nava Mau Makes Emmy History with Supporting Actress Nomination for ‘Baby Reindeer’

Baby Reindeer actress Nava Mau has made history with another Emmy nomination.

Mau was nominated on Wednesday for best supporting actress in a miniseries, anthology series or movie, making her the first transgender Latina woman to be nominated in that category. She joins co-star Jessica Gunning, as well as Dakota Fanning (Ripley), Lily Gladstone (Under the Bridge), Aja Naomi King (Lessons in Chemistry), Diane Lane (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans) and Kali Reis (True Detective: Night Country).

Baby Reindeer tells the story of Donnie Dunn, a struggling comedian played by Richard Gadd, who meets a lonely woman at the bar where he works. A chance encounter in which he invites her for tea at his house escalates when Martha (played by Gunning) turns out to be a dangerous serial stalker. Over the course of several years, she bombards him with thousands of emails, hundreds of tweets and letters, and 350 hours of voicemails. Mau, who previously starred in the Max comedy Generation, plays Teri, Donny’s transgender lover who gets caught up in the mess.

Along with a successful Emmys morning, the popular Netflix series received 11 nominations in all, including outstanding limited or anthology series.

“I stayed up all night and I started journaling about it,” Mau said at an FYC event in May of receiving the show’s script. “It really kind of found a place in my mind and in my heart and never left.” She also spoke at the event of how the part helped her process dormant emotions, explaining, “I had no idea that I internalized so much anger and that I shut it down. As a trans woman, as a Latina woman, I have had to do that in order to survive, in order to make my way into the world as far as I have, it’s kind of been my responsibility to take care of other people’s emotions. It was so difficult and challenging, honestly, to play a character who felt so entitled to her own emotions and was not too concerned about taking care of other people’s emotions. That was very empowering for me to get in tune with my body again.”

The 76th Emmy Awards will air live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on September 15th on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu.