Brittany Allen did not wait for HBO to recognize her. She did it herself.
Allen played Roxie Hamler in the second season of The Pitt, a terminally ill cancer patient who enters the hospital with a broken leg and ultimately decides to remain there to die rather than return home to her family. The six-episode arc drew an intense reaction from viewers, and Allen's name appeared on several early Emmy predictions lists, including the Feinberg Forecast and Gold Derby.
Then she learned HBO had not submitted her for Emmy consideration.
"As a working class actor, I have become very familiar with being overlooked in my career, and you toughen your skin, and you just keep your head down, and you keep working, and you keep bettering yourself. And then you reach a point where you go, you know what? I don't want to get overlooked anymore," Allen told The Hollywood Reporter.
She self-submitted for the category of outstanding guest actress in a drama series. She and her husband also launched a social media campaign on her behalf. The strategy worked. On Wednesday, Allen received an Emmy nomination for the role.
She was not the only guest star on the show to go this route. Jeff Kober, another guest actor on The Pitt, also self-submitted and received a nomination. Allen noted the two never met during production due to their separate storylines and the immersive nature of the set.
The nomination caps a career that began when Allen was a young actor in Canada. She appeared on All My Children, a role that earned her a Daytime Emmy Award, before continuing to work in film and television in the United States.
Allen described the moment she saw her name on the nomination list with more calm than celebration. "I felt a calm sense of accomplishment when I saw my name on the list," she said. "It's funny sometimes when big news comes your way, it doesn't hit you with a loud scream and champagne popping, it's actually something more deep and meaningful than that."
The nomination has already begun to open doors. Allen told The Hollywood Reporter she is seeing potential movement on landing an agent, though she is still weighing the costs of continuing to campaign through the full Emmy cycle.
