'Squid Game' star Lee Jung-jae makes history at Emmys; wins Best Actor award 

Seoul: Korean actor Lee Jung-jae has made history Tuesday by becoming the first-ever Asian actor to receive an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a Drama for his performance in 'Squid Game'. 

As per reports, he was only the fourth Asian actor ever to win in any of the Emmy performance categories and the first to win the drama award. The win marks the first time in Emmy Awards history that a Korean actor has won in the category for a non-English role.  

The award was Presented by Angela Bassett and Ariana DeBose. 

Squid Game was one of two non-English language series nominated this year, with Apple TV+’s Pachinko picking up a nomination for Outstanding Main Title Design. While Squid Game and Pachinko are the first non-English language programs to earn Emmy recognition, other non-American shows — such as the British Downton Abbey and Canadian Schitt’s Creek — have been nominated and won awards in the past. 

The Netflix show is also the first foreign language series to be nominated for outstanding drama series— and garnered a total of 14 nominations, tying the series with Severance, Barry and Dopesick for fifth-most nods. 

Set in Seoul, Squid Game, which became the most popular show in Netflix’s history, follows the story of hundreds of players in need of money playing deadly children’s games to win cash prizes.

The actor played Seong Gi-hun aka Player 456, who entered the game and ultimately won.