13 LGBT Actors Emmy-Nominated For Playing LGBT Characters: Jesse Tyler Ferguson

In this series of posts leading up to this year’s Emmy Awards (going down on August 25th), we’re highlighting the 13 LGBT actors who were nominated for playing LGBT characters in years past, in honor of the fact that a whopping 7 new additions to that list have been nominated this year (Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons, Laverne Cox, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Nathan Lane, Joe Mantello and Kate McKinnon).

We’re going in chronological order, with the posts so far looking John Glover and his nomination for 1985’s TV movie “An Early Frost” (read that here, along with some more background on Emmy’s history with LGBT nominees), Ian McKellen and Ellen DeGeneres, who collectively are the only two LGBT people to receive two different nominations for playing LGBT characters, Angelina Jolie, the only bisexual person ever nominated for an Emmy for playing another bisexual person, and Sean Hayes, Victor Garber and Leslie Jordan — all for “Will & Grace” (and two of them winners). Today, we move into the 2010s with a five time Emmy nominee…

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Nominated For: In 2010, he received his first of now 5 consecutive Emmy nominations for playing Mitchell Pritchett on “Modern Family.”

Did He Win?: Nope. Not then, and not since. Nominated again this year, Ferguson lost this first time around to his onscreen husband Eric Stonestreet (who is straight), and then to Ty Burrell, Stonestreet again and, last year, Tony Hale. Will next week make it 0 for 5?

Significance: “Modern Family” has been an absolute Emmy phenom in its first five seasons (with the entire primary cast all getting at least 3 nominations each) and a milestone in the further mainstreaming of LGBT people on television. Ferguson is the sole actual LGBT person represented within its cast, and has been consistently vocal about LGBT rights over the course of the show’s run.

Watch Ferguson and his co-star Stonestreet talk about their character’s wedding this past season below: