Hiro Murai Wins Emmy For Comedy Directing For Widow's Bay

Hiro Murai made Emmy history Monday night at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, winning Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for the Widow's Bay premiere episode "Welcome to Widow's Bay!" and becoming the first Asian director ever to win the category in the award's 78-year history.

It was Murai's first directing win and his first Emmy as a director, a remarkable fact given the quality of his previous work.

He has been nominated 10 times across Atlanta, Station Eleven and Barry without a directing win. He did win previously as an executive producer on The Bear's first season.

He is only the third Asian director to win in any Emmy category, following Lee Sung Jin for Beef and Hwang Dong-hyuk for Squid Game.

Widow's Bay, created by Katie Dippold and directed primarily by Murai, has now won 13 Emmys total across the Creative Arts ceremonies and Monday's show. Murai beat out Randall Einhorn for Abbott Elementary, Christopher Storer for The Bear, Lucia Aniello for Hacks and others.

"Katie Dippold, thank you for being brilliant and letting me ride shotgun," Murai said accepting the award. "I'm so proud of everything we did."