'The Last of Us' Actor Makes Emmy History as Youngest Ever Honored

First Keivonn Montreal Woodard broke the hearts of The Last of Us fans, now he’s breaking a record.

The 10-year-old newcomer just picked up an Emmy nomination for guest actor in a drama series, making him the youngest ever to be honored in the category.

Woodard — who is deaf — played a young deaf apocalypse survivor named Sam.

The character was a departure from The Last of Us game which served as the HBO drama’s source material and won praise from fans and showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.

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“He was astonishing,” Mazin said on HBO’s The Last of Us podcast. “I have never been in a circumstance where a kid, who has never really acted on film before, shows up and is so naturally good at it. He was a joy to have around, and a total dream. He’s incredible and I cannot wait to see more from him. I hope that when people watch this episode, here in Hollywood and in our business, that they don’t just stop at the end of it and go, ‘Boy, that kid was really good playing the character of Sam’. I hope that they go, ‘That kid ought to be in a lot of things.'”

Also nominated in the category are Woodard’s The Last of Us co-stars Nick Offerman, Lamar Johnson (who played Sam’s brother Henry) and Murray Bartlett.

Overall, The Last of Us debut season was nominated for a whopping 24 nominations, second only to HBO’s Succession.

The 75th Primetime Emmy Awards are scheduled for Monday, Sept. 18 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT live on Fox.

Check out the full list of major Emmy nominations.

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