With a second Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series win for playing William Hill on This Is Us, Ron Cephas Jones (This Is Us, Luke Cage) joined his daughter Jasmine Cephas Jones (Hamilton, Blindspotting) in accepting a 2020 Emmy award, making the pair the first ever father-daughter team to score wins in the same year, according to Variety. As the week-long awards rolled along, Eugene Levy (American Pie, Best in Show) and Dan Levy (Schitt’s Creek) became the first father-son duo to accomplish the same feat, as their fictional Rose family of Schitt’s Creek swept the comedy category, making the 2020 Emmy Awards a true family affair.
Unlike the Levy family, the Cephas Jones wins were earned in dramatic categories during the Creative Arts Emmys that led up to Sunday’s virtual ceremony. The elder Cephas Jones has earned four Emmy nominations and two wins throughout his run on NBC family drama This Is Us, while his daughter’s Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series win marks her first Emmy award. Not only did Jasmine Cephas Jones’ victory put her on the map, Emmy-wise, it secured a win for struggling freshmen streaming service, Quibi, via The Hollywood Reporter.
The short form Emmy categories, presented during Thursday’s Creative Arts Ceremony, earned bite-sized streaming service Quibi all 10 of its nominations. Quibi launched in April of this year, making these 10 nominations the services’ first as a late arrival to the ongoing streaming wars. The network took two awards home, both for #FreeRayshawn, a drama centered on a stand-off between police officers and military veteran Rayshawn Morris. Moment before Cephas Jones win, Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix, Black-ish) received an Emmy for his role as Lieutenant Steven Poincy in the short form drama.
“I am honored and grateful to be a part of an important story that is #FreeRayshawn,” Cephas Jones stated during her recorded acceptance speech at Thursday’s Creative Arts ceremony “to be an emotional vessel, to shed light on these victims and what their families go through.” The 31-year-old’s first Emmy award was earned for three words and less than 30 seconds of screen time, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
2020 has been a banner year for the younger Cephas Jones, as her role in the hit musical Hamilton became accessible to a wider audience through Disney+ and news broke that her Blindspotting role would return in a television series, in development at Starz. Cephas Jones’ work in Hamilton has already earned the actress and musician a Tony Award, meaning her Emmy win puts her halfway toward the coveted EGOT-status, reserved for those accomplished performers who’ve earned an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony throughout their careers.
“To see my daughter progress and move into this place where she’s earned an Emmy is beyond words,” Ron Cephas Jones gushed while discussing his family’s joint wins during a virtual press conference “I tear up every time I think about it to be honest with you” (Deadline). Overwhelmed with pride for his daughter, Cephas Jones claimed his Saturday victory was merely “icing on the cake”, via Deadline. Nevertheless, after a slight miscommunication where the wrong name was announced during the stream, Cephas Jones’ This Is Us win secured his family’s place in Emmy history.
The younger Cephas Jones harkened back to her Hamilton origins by using lyrics from the Broadway hit to describe her feelings on her family’s legacy in a post on Instagram following her father’s win. Other members of the Hamilton cast chimed in with Lin Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, His Dark Materials) tweeting his excitement and Cephas Jones’ on-stage sister, Renee Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton, Altered Carbon), simply exclaiming “WHAT?!?” on Instagram. Cephas Jones’ fiancé and fellow Hamilton-alumni, Anthony Ramos Jr. (Hamilton, She’s Gotta Have It), joined in on the celebrating by sharing endearing family photos of the father-daughter duo on Twitter.
Between the on-screen victories for the Roses of Schitt’s Creek and the Roys of Succession and the off-screen historic milestones for the parent-child teams of the Levys and Cephas Joneses, the 2020 Emmys embraced familial success on all fronts. According to Deadline, the elder Cephas Jones teased “some collaborations with my daughter” could be expected in the future. Perhaps a future television project starring father and daughter could secure the Cephas Jones family collaborative Emmys akin to those received by Eugene and Dan Levy during Sunday’s ceremony.