Jennifer Hudson has won a Daytime Emmy for her role as an executive producer in Baobab Studios’ “Baba Yaga,” putting her one award short of achieving EGOT status.
VR animated film “Baba Yaga,” made for the Oculus Quest, won in the interactive media for a daytime program category, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced on Thursday. Hudson starred alongside Glenn Close, Kate Winslet and Daisy Ridley, who also voiced characters. But it was Hudson’s role as executive producer that garnered her the Daytime Emmy Award.
Hudson already has an Oscar, winning for supporting actress in 2007 for her role in “Dreamgirls.” She also has two Grammy awards including Best R&B Album and Best Musical Theater Album. All she needs is the Tony Award to achieve the EGOT. And she came close in 2016, but was shockingly snubbed when the Broadway revival of “The Color Purple” landed four nominations with Hudson missing out.
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Should Hudson win a Tony award, she would join the elite group of artists who have achieved the status, including John Legend, Marvin Hamlisch and Robert Lopez. Composer Alan Menken was the last artist to earn EGOT status in 2020, also with a Daytime Emmy win, when he won for outstanding original song in a children’s, young adult, or animated program for “Waiting in the Wings” from Disney’s “Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure.”
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Hudson could also land a second Oscar nomination later this season for her performance as Aretha Franklin in “Respect.”
In the meantime, she is in the recording studio. Speaking with Variety earlier this year, Hudson said, “I am currently recording my… I don’t even know what album this is. Is this the fourth? The fifth?” (She was right the first guess.) “See, I’ve recorded for everything I do,” including film and TV musicals, “so I consider the ‘Respect’ soundtrack an album. To me, I’m always releasing music, but I guess it’s a difference when it’s a studio album. So, with the studio album of Jennifer Hudson, I am currently working on that as we speak — in the middle of all of this, yes.”
The announcement on Thursday came weeks after the other Daytime Emmy Awards had already been announced, but this category was delayed due to the pandemic. The category was judged remotely, “introducing some challenges that delayed the process,” the org said.
“This year we once again faced the challenge of adjudicating this category completely online, away from the native interactive experience our entrants are used to,” said Rachel Schwartz, Manager, Daytime Awards Administration (NATAS). “We owe the judges and entrants our immense gratitude for their flexibility, and congratulate this year’s winner Baba Yaga on this tremendous accomplishment.”
Here’s the complete list of everyone on “Baba Yaga” honored with the Daytime Emmy:
Eric Darnell, Director/Writer/Cinematographer
Mathias Chelebourg, Co-Director
Maureen Fan, Executive Producer
Kane Lee, Executive Producer
Larry Cutler, Executive Producer
Jennifer Hudson, Executive Producer
Nathaniel Dirksen, Producer / VFX Supervisor
Jeremiah Graves, Producer
Shannon Ryan, Development Producer
Ken Fountain, Animation Supervisor
Glenn Hernandez, Production Designer
Matthieu Saghezchi, Production Designer
Ryan Gong, Lead Animator
Artur Marcol, Lead Animator
Manish Kumar, Additional Animation Supervisor
Sanjeev Gharat, Additional Animation Supervisor
Bhavesh Chavada, Animator
Allison Meyers, Animator
Jeff Croke, Animator
Sanjay Ranvirkar, Animator
Kim Leow, Animator
Rob Somers, Animator
Mahesh Mathe, Animator
Shivangi Srivastava, Animator
Michael Wilson, Animator
Justin Fisher, Lead Rigger
Ben Chian, CG Generalist
Nathan Lindig, CG Generalist
Nichlas Chambers, Visual Effects
Joan Wirolinggo, Visual Development
Kelly Nakasone, Camera Artist
Cody King, Lighting Artist
Kent Seki, Cinematography Consultant
Michael Hutchinson, Engineer
Mike Solovykh, Engineer
Scott Mease, Engineer
Amy Rebecca Tucker, Engineer
Robert Schiewe, Engineer
Wei Wang, Engineer
Eli Asimow, Additional Engineering
Elliot Segal, Additional Engineering
Brendan Wolf, Audio Implementation
Steve Papoutsis, Head of Production
Camille Cellucci, Head of Production
Elise Fedoroff, Additional Art
Christina K. Wang, Additional Art
Anika Nagpal, Production Coordinator
Danica DiLeonardo, Production Coordinator
Aylah Donayre, Production Coordinator
Kal Athannassov, Art Director
