‘Squid Game’ wins Best Drama Actor and Director awards at Emmys

“Squid Game,” the Netflix original drama from South Korea, has won Emmys as the first non-English show to achieve such an unprecedented feat. On Tuesday, Squid Game wrote a new chapter of history with Director Hwang Dong-hyeok and lead actor Lee Jung-jae winning the honors at the 74th Emmy Award ceremony at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles.

Thanks to the Best Drama Actor and Best Drama Series Director awards on Tuesday, the Squid Game has won six Emmy awards, including Guest Award (for actress Lee Yu-mi) and Stunt Performance.

The Squid Game’s winning of Emmys has completed the puzzles of major awards for K-content, with the movie “Parasite” carrying four Academy awards and the Korean boy band BTS sweeping the Billboards and American Music Awards last year.

Mr. Hwang became the first Asian to win the director’s award at Emmy with the show’s first episode “Green Light, Red Light.” “When our show was nominated for 14 Emmys, people said I made history. But it was never my job alone. We made history together,” he said at the ceremony, winning a standing ovation from the crowd. Hwang competed and won against Mark Maylod of the HBO show “Succession,” Ben Stiller of Apple TV Plus show “Severance,” and other prominent directors.

Lee Jung-jae won the Best Drama Actor award as the first Asian actor to do so. His competitor included Jeremy Strong, who won the Best Actor in Drama Series at Golden Globe Awards in January before Lee Jung-jae. After making a short speech in English, Lee said he wanted to share the joy with the people of South Korea, who must be watching this moment. During a press interview, Lee said Seong Gi-hoon (Squid Game's lead character) proved that linguistic difference is not essential.

“Their sophisticated approach and insight to tackle the issues of today such as disparity and lack of opportunities have struck a chord with global audience,” said President Yoon Suk-yeol in a congratulatory message that he sent to the Squid Game team on Tuesday.


Hyo-Ju Son hjson@donga.com