By Kate Emswiler
The Emmy nominations came out last week, and although I’m glad to see certain folks nominated in the comedy category (Amy Poehler, Lena Dunham, Julia Louis-Dreyfus), I couldn’t help but notice that there’s a significant lack of Kates on that list. Specifically, there are two “Kates” (though neither one is technically named Kate) who definitely deserve more recognition for their comedic talents: Kathryn Hahn (above left) and Kaitlin Olson (above right).
1. Kathryn Hahn
I am always weary of the qualification “female comedian”. Because Hahn is easily more comedically gifted than many male comedians — or, as they’re usually called, just “comedians”. (Slate’s culture blog BrowBeat already brow beat me to the punch on this one, and eloquently so.) After Hahn was the only thing I remembered about the otherwise lackluster comedies “How Do You Know” and “Our Idiot Brother”, I started to take notice of Hahn in all of her many supporting roles — on both the big and small screens. On “Parks and Recreation”, a show that is positively lousy with funny people, Hahn managed to steal the spotlight as Jennifer — the shrewd, smarmy political strategist to Amy Poehler’s rival in the race for city council.
She’s also had a recurring role on “Girls” — as a character named Katherine, no less! — and most recently as a one-time paramour for Jeff Daniels’ character on Aaron Sorkin’s “Newsroom”.
Got a Kate-
