Octavia Spencer Wins First Emmy, Stops Sir David Attenborough Becoming Oldest Emmy Winner Ever

Norman Lear remains the oldest Emmy winner after Octavia Spencer scored a surprise win over Sir David Attenborough at the Peacock Theater. Spencer scored her first Emmy in the Outstanding Narrator category for her work on Investigation Discovery’s true-crime series Lost Women of Alaska. The win prevents 100-year-old Attenborough from becoming the oldest Emmy winner ever. Attenborough, who has been on television screens for over 70 years, had a 40% chance of winning the award given that he was nominated twice in the category for his work on Netflix’s A Gorilla Story: Told By David Attenborough and Nat Geo’s Ocean with David Attenborough. Spencer also beat out an A-list crowd including Jodie Foster, nominated for Netflix’s Breakdown: 1975, and Werner Herzog for Nat Geo’s Ghost Elephants. Watch on Deadline It is her first Emmy, having been previously nominated last year for the same award and in 2020 for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Limited Series or Movie for her role in Self Made: Inspired By The Life of Madam C.J. Walker. Spencer campaigned hard for the award, turning up to plenty of Emmy events. Last month, speaking at Deadline’s Contenders: The Nominees Studio, Spencer said, “I think there are a lot of people who are very new to the true-crime genre. I’m not, I’ve been studying it. I read a horrible story, a true-crime story, when I was 11 and I think it made an indelible mark on me.” A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough (Toby Strong / Silverback Films / Netflix) The shock win means that Lear, who won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) in 2020 as a producer for Live In Front Of A Studio Audience when he was 98, remains the oldest Emmy winner ever. Attenborough will have to be consoled that he is still the oldest nominee in Primetime Emmy history and the oldest person to win a Daytime Emmy for Secret Lives of Orangutans, which won the Outstanding Daytime Personality – Non-Daily award last year when he was 99.