Catherine O’Hara earns posthumous Best Actress win for The Studio at Actor Awards 2026, receives standing ovation

Hollywood icon Catherine O’Hara received a final major honour on Sunday, weeks after her death, winning the Actors Award for Best Female Actor in a Comedy Series for her role in The Studio.

Posthumous win draws standing ovation

The announcement at the Shine Auditorium in Los Angeles was met with a prolonged standing ovation from the audience. Seth Rogen — writer, co-star and creator of The Studio — accepted the award on her behalf, delivering an emotional tribute.

Rogen recalled how O’Hara would often send thoughtful emails suggesting rewrites to her scenes, noting that her ideas invariably elevated the material. “It showed you can be a genius and be kind, and one of those things does not have to come at the expense of the other,” he said.

Encouraging fans to revisit her work, Rogen added: “If you have people in your lives who don’t know her work, show them O’Hara dancing to Harry Belafonte in Beetlejuice, show them O’Hara hurting her knee in Best in Show and hobbling around in that unforgettable scene — and tell them as they’re laughing that that’s Catherine O’Hara, and we were lucky to live in a world where she shared her talents so generously.”

A celebrated career

O’Hara, who died at 71 on January 30 from a pulmonary embolism, was widely regarded as a comedy legend. She rose to global fame in the 1990s with films such as Home Alone and Beetlejuice, and later won over a new generation with her acclaimed role in Schitt’s Creek.

About the Actor Awards 2026

The Actor Awards — formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards — are presented by members of the SAG-AFTRA. Because actors form the largest voting bloc in the Academy Awards, the honours are widely seen as a key bellwether for the Oscars.

This year’s ceremony streamed live on Netflix and was hosted by Kristen Bell, who opened the evening with a light-hearted song-and-dance performance despite ongoing global tensions and upheaval in the entertainment industry.