Tramell Tillman makes Emmys history with his ‘Severance’ win

Advertisement

Advertise with us

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tramell Tillman is the first Black man to win an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for his role in “Severance.”

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/09/2025 (367 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tramell Tillman is the first Black man to win an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for his role in “Severance.”

Tillman spoke backstage Sunday about the “beautiful work” that scores of Black actors have done before him, including the late Andre Braugher and Michael K. Williams.

“I’ve been taken by their work for years and I’ve borrowed from them, so I’m just honored to be in the class,” Tillman said.

Tramell Tillman, winner of the award for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for
Tramell Tillman, winner of the award for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for "Severance," poses in the press room during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Tillman, 40, thanked his mother in his acceptance speech, who he told reporters backstage “was there for me when no one else was and when no one else could be. There’s nothing like a mother’s love.”

His win brought a total of eight Emmy awards for ” Severance,” which led nominations this year with a total of 27 nods. Britt Lower also took home best lead actress in a drama for the show. The Apple TV+ thriller series, centers on an office where workers’ memories are surgically divided between their work and personal lives.

Tillman plays Seth Milchick, the floor manager who is considered one of the show’s main antagonists, given his loyalty to the company, Lumon.

Milchick’s Blackness was integral to the character’s storyline, Tillman said, adding that he hoped to portray the character as “a man that was aware of his race and aware that he was in a place where he was one of few.”

The second season explored “how race folds into the world of Lumon,” he said.

“I never wanted to lose sight of that and I’m grateful that I was a part of a team that also didn’t want to lose sight of that,” Tillman said.

Tillman studied medicine as an undergrad, before he found his passion for acting, a career that he was told “leads to a dead end.”

“I was actually inspired at Xavier University by so many of my classmates who are now doctors and dentists, how they were pursuing the thing that they’re passionate about, and I said, ‘Well, if they can do that, why can’t I do what I’m passionate about?’” Tillman said.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Man, 21, killed in animal attack on Manitoba First Nation

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Preview

Man, 21, killed in animal attack on Manitoba First Nation

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Monday, Sep. 14, 2026

The family of “a kind and gentle giant” is grief-stricken as officials try to determine what kind of animal killed the 21-year-old man in western Manitoba.

Moses Campeau was walking on a road to a friend’s house in Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, about 600 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, when he was fatally injured Sept. 9, his mother, Paula Campeau, said Monday.

“Moses was a kind and gentle giant,” she said. “He was a person who (people) would ask to come and help them, and he would go without even hesitating.”

Manitoba RCMP said officers from the Swan River detachment responded to a report of a suspicious death at about 3:10 a.m. The scene was held and the RCMP’s major crime services took over the investigation.

Read
Monday, Sep. 14, 2026

Online fundraiser for ‘polite, modest farmer’ facing firearms charges sending message, neighbour says

Nicole Buffie 4 minute read Preview

Online fundraiser for ‘polite, modest farmer’ facing firearms charges sending message, neighbour says

Nicole Buffie 4 minute read 5:45 PM CDT

Thousands of dollars have been raised to help cover the legal fees of a Manitoba man charged after he allegedly fired a gun at thieves during a theft on his farm in August.

Read
5:45 PM CDT

Seven years sought for serial harasser

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Seven years sought for serial harasser

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Alexander Beaton finished serving a two-year jail sentence for criminally harassing six women and didn’t last two days in the community before he was back at it, sending unwanted obscene messages and videos to a dozen women.

Now prosecutors are seeking a seven-year prison sentence for the 30-year-old Winnipeg man, whose latest string of victims includes a police officer who investigated his earlier crimes.

“He essentially continued (offending) unabated,” Crown attorney Brett Rach told provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald at a sentencing hearing Friday. “It caused more than a nuisance to these victims — it caused them to fear for their safety.”

Beaton pleaded guilty to 14 charges of criminal harassment, sending indecent communications and breaching court orders for a campaign of harassment waged between 2015 and 2025.

Read
Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Tramell Tillman makes Emmys history with his ‘Severance’ win

Itzel Luna, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Tramell Tillman makes Emmys history with his ‘Severance’ win

Itzel Luna, The Associated Press 3 minute read Sunday, Sep. 14, 2025

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tramell Tillman is the first Black man to win an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for his role in “Severance.”

Tillman spoke backstage Sunday about the “beautiful work” that scores of Black actors have done before him, including the late Andre Braugher and Michael K. Williams.

“I’ve been taken by their work for years and I’ve borrowed from them, so I’m just honored to be in the class," Tillman said.

Tillman, 40, thanked his mother in his acceptance speech, who he told reporters backstage “was there for me when no one else was and when no one else could be. There’s nothing like a mother’s love.”

Read
Sunday, Sep. 14, 2025

Federal Court awards OCN $27M, 62 years after construction of hydro dam

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Preview

Federal Court awards OCN $27M, 62 years after construction of hydro dam

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Updated: 12:02 PM CDT

The Federal Court has ordered Ottawa pay Opaskwayak Cree Nation $27 million over damages suffered due to the construction of the Grand Rapids hydro dam in the 1960s.

In a decision dated Sept. 3, Federal Court Justice Sébastien Grammond says the federal government had a fiduciary duty to protect the community from the impacts of the dam.

“When the Crown exercises a discretionary power over an Indigenous interest, it has a fiduciary duty and it must exercise the discretion in the best interests of the Indigenous group,” the ruling said. “Canada breached its fiduciary duty to OCN because it approved the (project) without ensuring that the impacts of the Grand Rapids dam on OCN’s traditional way of life were mitigated or compensated.”

The First Nation took the federal government to court in February over impacts on the community after the dam, located about 145 kilometres southeast of Opaskwayak Cree Nation, was installed on the Saskatchewan River in 1964. The case was heard over 14 days in a judge-alone trial in Winnipeg.

Read
Updated: 12:02 PM CDT

Suspension on the horizon for Hellebuyck as pre-season set to start

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Preview

Suspension on the horizon for Hellebuyck as pre-season set to start

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Yesterday at 6:21 PM CDT

In this high stakes game of chicken, Kevin Cheveldayoff, Connor Hellebuyck or any of the potential suitors for the Winnipeg Jets franchise netminder appear ready to blink.

Read
Yesterday at 6:21 PM CDT