‘The Studio’ Sweeps Comedy Categories

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 01: (L-R) Kathryn Hahn, Seth Rogen, Ike Barinholtz, and Chase Sui Wonders, winners of the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Award (and Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series on behalf of Catherine O’Hara) for “The Studio,” pose in the press room at the 32nd Annual Actor Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on March 01, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

FilmMagic

Apple TV’s satirical Hollywood comedy The Studio swept all three comedy categories at the 2026 Actor Awards on March 1, taking home Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for Seth Rogen, and a posthumous Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for the late Catherine O’Hara.

The wins, presented at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles during the ceremony’s first year under its new name (formerly the SAG Awards), cap an extraordinary awards season for the freshman series that has dominated since its March 2025 premiere.

Catherine O’Hara’s Final Performance

The night’s most emotional moment came when O’Hara won Female Actor in a Comedy Series for her role as Patty Leigh, the head of Continental Studios’ publicity department. O’Hara died January 30, 2026, at age 71 following a brief illness, making this her final acting award. The audience rose to its feet as her co-star Rogen accepted on her behalf, delivering a tearful tribute that left fellow nominees and attendees visibly moved.

“I know she would have been honored to receive this award from her fellow performers, who I know she respected so much,” Rogen began, as cameras captured co-star Kathryn Hahn wiping tears. “She was such big fans of all of yours.”

Rogen then shared insight into O’Hara’s creative process that exemplified her dedication to the show. “I haven’t said this to the other actors because I don’t want them to get ideas, but pretty much every evening before she had a shooting day on our show, she would email out me and Evan an email that was pretty similar, that said, ‘Hello, I hope you’ll consider the following,’ and there would be a completely rewritten version of whatever she was doing that day,” he revealed.

“And literally, 100% of the time, it made not just her character better, but it made the scene better and the entire show better as a whole. And she really showed that you can be a genius and be kind, and one of those things does not have to come at the expense of the other in any way, shape or form.”

He added: “Something that I’ve been marveling at for the last few weeks was her ability to be generous, kind, and gracious while never minimizing her own talents and her ability to contribute to the work we were doing. She knew she could destroy and she wanted to destroy every day on set.”

The tribute brought tears to many in the audience, including Jenna Ortega, O’Hara’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice co-star who was also nominated in the category for Wednesday.

Seth Rogen’s Double Duty Night

Rogen had already won Male Actor in a Comedy Series earlier in the evening for his role as Matt Remick, the beleaguered head of Continental Studios. In that acceptance speech, he took a jab at the Writers Guild of America, which had canceled its own West Coast ceremony just hours earlier after its staff union went on strike.

“You were able to pay your own employees enough to keep the awards show from being canceled,” Rogen said, congratulating SAG-AFTRA. “Take notes, WGA.”

The Ensemble Win

The Studio ensemble cast — Rogen, O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn, Ike Barinholtz, and Chase Sui Wonders — was presented the comedy ensemble award by cast members from The Office: Mindy Kaling, Jenna Fischer, Ellie Kemper, and Angela Kinsey. The show beat out Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Hacks, and Only Murders in the Building.

Awards Season Dominance

The Actor Awards wins continue The Studio‘s unprecedented awards season run. At the 2025 Emmy Awards in September, the show set multiple records:

• 23 nominations, the most ever for a freshman comedy series (tying the all-time record across all comedy seasons)
• 13 wins, breaking the record for most comedy wins in a single season
• Outstanding Comedy Series
• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Rogen)
• Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (Rogen and co-creator Evan Goldberg)
• Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series

In January 2026, the show won Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes, with Rogen taking Best Actor in a Television Series Musical or Comedy. At the Critics’ Choice Awards, it won Best Comedy Series, with Ike Barinholtz winning Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

O’Hara received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her performance as Patty Leigh but did not win either award before her death. The Actor Award marks her fourth career win from the guild, following her Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG Award, and Critics’ Choice Award wins for playing Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek (2015-2020).

About ‘The Studio’

Created by Rogen, Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez, The Studio offers a satirical look at Hollywood’s obsession with IP-driven content, tentpole films, and awards shows. The series is shot largely in long takes at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles, with Rogen playing the stressed studio head navigating celebrity egos, box office pressures, and corporate politics.

The show features an extensive roster of celebrity cameos, including Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Zoë Kravitz, Ron Howard, Zac Efron, and Adam Scott. In a particularly meta moment, one episode was set at the Golden Globes, and the show went on to receive actual Golden Globe nominations shortly after.

Apple TV renewed The Studio for Season 2 in May 2025, before the first season’s finale even aired. Season 2 was filmed in late 2025 without O’Hara, with her character Patty Leigh written off the series following her death.

O’Hara’s final screen appearances include her role in The Studio and as Gail Lynden in Season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us, both of which earned her Emmy nominations in 2025. She died at her Los Angeles home on January 30, 2026, and is survived by her husband, production designer Bo Welch (whom she met on the set of Beetlejuice in 1988), and their sons Matthew and Luke.

The 2026 Actor Awards, held March 1 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and streamed on Netflix, marked the ceremony’s first year under its new name, having been known as the SAG Awards for 31 years prior. The name change was announced in November 2025 to better align with the award statuette itself, which has always been called “The Actor.”