Jenna Ortega, Pedro Pascal join short list of Latino actors to earn leading Emmy nominations

Pedro Pascal and Jenna Ortega on Wednesday joined a short list of Latinos to be nominated for Emmys for leading roles.

Pascal was nominated for best lead actor in a drama for his role as Joel Miller, the morally gray protagonist of HBO’s “The Last of Us." Pascal is the second Latino to be nominated in the category, after Jimmy Smits, who was nominated five consecutive times for his role as Detective Bobby Simone on ABC’s “NYPD Blue” from 1995 to 1999.

Ortega was nominated for best lead actress in a comedy series for portraying Wednesday Addams, the titular character of Netflix’s hit show, “Wednesday.” She's the third Latina to be nominated in the lead actress category, following Rita Moreno in 1983 for ABC’s sitcom “9 to 5” and America Ferrera in 2007 and 2008 for ABC’s “Ugly Betty.” Ferrera won in 2007.

Pascal was also nominated as an outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for his appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” and outstanding narrator for CNN’s “Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World.”

Aubrey Plaza, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, was also nominated for outstanding supporting actress for her portrayal of Harper on HBO’s suspenseful drama “The White Lotus.”

While Diego Luna did not receive a best lead actor nomination for his role in the “Star Wars” franchise as the titular character of “Andor,” the series garnered several nominations, including outstanding drama series.

Selena Gomez, who is of Mexican heritage, was also not nominated for her lead actress role as Mabel in Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” — the second time she didn't get a nomination — though the show was nominated for best comedy series.

The strides for representation of Latino actors and actresses comes as Samba TV recently released a report detailing that diversity in casting appeals to nonwhite viewers of TV and movies.

As the U.S. becomes increasingly diverse, Samba TV highlighted that the majority of leads in film and TV were white, and less than half feature a lead that is Asian or Latino. Despite making up around 20% of the total U.S. population — and now outpacing California’s non-Hispanic white population — Latino actors only make up 10% of the acting industry, Samba found.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com