‘The White Lotus' will enter these 20 Season 3 actors — along with surprise submission Ke Huy Quan — for the 2025 Emmys
Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan could soon be adding an Emmy to his ever-growing awards mantel.
Gold Derby has learned that HBO will submit The White Lotus Season 3 in 39 categories at the 2025 Emmys, including for Best Drama Series and 21 of its cast members.
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Quan had an uncredited voice role as Kenny Nguyen in one episode of Mike White's buzzy vacation series. Kenny is the person who calls up Jason Isaacs' Timothy Ratliff while he was vacationing with his family in Thailand to discuss the financial crimes they committed together. The Everything Everywhere All at Once star is being submitted in Best Character Voice-Over Performance, which recognizes off-screen acting talent.
As for Isaacs, he's one of nine White Lotus stars campaigning in Best Drama Supporting Actor, along with Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett, Sam Nivola as Lochlan Ratliff, Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon Ratliff, Tayme Thapthimthong as Gaitok, Jon Gries as "Gary"/Greg Hunt, Sam Rockwell as Frank, Christian Friedel as Fabian, and Nicholas Duvernay as Zion Lindsey.
Ten others are vying for Best Drama Supporting Actress: Leslie Bibb as Kate Bohr, Carrie Coon as Laurie Duffy, Sarah Catherine Hook as Piper Ratliff, Lalisa Manobal as Thidapon "Mook" Sornsin, Michelle Monaghan as Jaclyn Lemon, Parker Posey as Victoria Ratliff, Natasha Rothwell as Belinda Lindsey, Aimee Lou Wood as Chelsea, Lek Patravadi as Sritala Hollinger, and Charlotte Le Bon as Chloe.
The White Lotus is once again opting not to campaign anyone in the lead categories, as it considers itself to be a true acting ensemble. Meanwhile, one guest performer is being submitted, Scott Glenn as Jim Hollinger, who meets the Television Academy's "fewer than 50 percent of episodes" eligibility rule.
The extended-length season finale, "Amor Fati," which ended with multiple characters being killed, is entering into the following eight categories: directing (Mike White), picture editing, production design, contemporary hairstyling, music composition, sound editing, sound mixing, and stunt performance.
Here is the complete list of The White Lotus Emmy submissions for Season 3. (Note that anyone can submit themselves for Emmy recognition, but these are the actors and artisans HBO is placing on the ballot.)
Best Drama Series
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Walton Goggins
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Jason Isaacs
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Sam Nivola
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Patrick Schwarzenegger
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Tayme Thapthimthong
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Jon Gries
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Sam Rockwell
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Christian Friedel
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Nicholas Duvernay
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Leslie Bibb
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Carrie Coon
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Sarah Catherine Hook
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Lalisa Manobal
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Michelle Monaghan
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Parker Posey
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Natasha Rothwell
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Aimee Lou Wood
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Lek Patravadi
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Charlotte Le Bon
Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series: Scott Glenn (Episode 307 'Killer Instincts')
Best Character Voice-Over Performance: Ke Huy Quan (Episode 302 "Special Treatments")
Best Writing for a Drama Series: Mike White (Episode 305 'Full-Moon Party')
Best Directing for a Drama Series: Mike White (Episode 308 'Amor Fati')
Best Picture Editing for a Drama Series: John M. Valerio, Scott Turner (Episode 308 'Amor Fati')
Best Cinematography for a Series (One Hour): Ben Kutchins (Episode 307 'Killer Instincts')
Best Production Design For A Narrative Contemporary Program (One Hour Or More): Cristina Onori, Jeremy Woolsey, Chaiyan 'Lek' Chunsuttiwat, Letizia Santucci (Episode 308 'Amor Fati')
Best Casting For A Drama Series: Meredith Tucker, Non Jungmeier
Best Contemporary Costumes: Alex Bovaird, Eileen Sieff Stroup, Preeyanan 'Lin' Suwannathada, Brian Sprouse, Giulia Moschioni (Episode 301 "Same Spirits, New Forms")
Best Contemporary Hairstyling: Miia Kovero, Derrick Anthony Spruill, Punchaya 'Nern' Phorang, Teresa Hinton, Sudjai 'Jaiko' Tangsiripracha (Episode 308 'Amor Fati')
Best Contemporary Makeup (Non-Prosthetic): Rebecca Hickey, Michelle Kearns, Wattana 'Geng' Garum, Vicky Nugent, Jibbie Avarin Phanvichian (Episode 305 'Full-Moon Party')
Best Main Title Design: Katrina Crawford, Mark Bashore, Mauro Gimferrer, Marcos Coral
Best Music Composition For A Series (Original Dramatic Score): Cristobal Tapia de Veer (Episode 308 'Amor Fati')
Best Original Main Title Theme Music: Cristobal Tapia de Veer
Best Music Supervision: Gabe Hilfer (Episode 301 "Same Spirits, New Forms")
Best Sound Editing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour): Kathryn Madsen, Mikael Sandgen, George Pereyra, Scott GG Haller, Jordan Aldinger, Mitchell Kohen (Episode 308 'Amor Fati')
Best Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour): Bea O'Sullivan, Christian Minkler, Ryan Collins, Jamison Rabbe, Michael Head (Episode 308 'Amor Fati')
Best Stunt Coordination For Drama Programming: Jack Gill, Supoj 'Jim' Khaowwong
Best Stunt Performance: Andy Dylan, Toma Morozova, Thanadol Butsaen, Pichit Phonpatan (Episode 308 'Amor Fati')
The first two seasons of The White Lotus won a combined 15 Emmy Awards from 43 nominations. White won three Emmys for Season 1 in Best Limited Series, Best Limited/Movie Writing, and Best Limited/Movie Directing; the show switched over to the Drama Series categories for Season 2. The acting champions so far have been Jennifer Coolidge (twice) and Murray Bartlett.
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Director Joshua Rofé says viewers may be able to relate the cremation scandal to other scandals they see in the news about companies cutting corners in order to make as much profit as possible in exchange for as little work as possible. But in the funeral industry, he says, 'it's pretty damn gruesome.' Here's a look at the most surprising moments in The Mortician. How David Sconce got caught Pasadena-area funeral home directors became suspicious of Sconce when he was completing more cremations than his competitors—and at lower prices. That's because, as former employees explain in the series, Sconce's team would cremate multiple bodies at a time—breaking a collarbone, arm, or leg to squeeze as many bodies into the oven as possible. When his operation moved further out into the California desert, production ramped up, cremating 150-200 bodies at a time. A soldier who liberated Auschwitz happened to live near Sconce's operation in the desert and phoned 911 because he smelled burning flesh, a smell he said he'd never forget after World War II. That's when Sconce got busted. In 1989, Sconce pled guilty to mishandling human remains and mining the corpses' teeth for gold fillings at Lamb Funeral Home. He served a couple of years in prison, and then was sent back in 2013 for violating his lifetime probation by being in possession of a firearm. He was released on parole in 2023. Funeral directors stress in the series that Sconce was a bad apple. They say the Sconce scandal led to more rules and regulations regarding cremations, including laws requiring unannounced inspections of crematories. Taking dental gold or silver is a felony now. How David Sconce carried out the illegal cremation business People who carried out cremations for Sconce recall the red flags they noticed while working for him. Former employees described stripping clothes off of bodies to sell and cutting off body parts to get jewelry to sell. There were running competitions among the employees to see who could fit the most bodies in the oven. Andre Augustine, who worked for Sconce, claims that Sconce's former employees didn't know which remains to put in which box. Clients would get the remains of not only their loved one, but also the remains of other bodies. Sconce's ex-wife Barbara Hunt says her husband was secretive about the cremation business, and claims that she only learned what he was doing from news coverage. But, she recalls, once she saw Sconce sitting on the floor of the garage cracking teeth with a hammer and putting the gold in a styrofoam cup that said 'Au,' the chemical symbol for gold. 'He sold the gold,' Hunt says. 'I just sat there thinking, what world am I in?' Why David Sconce has no regrets Sconce openly talks about cremating multiple bodies at once in the series with no sense of shame. As the series shows, he used to drive a corvette with the license plate 'I BRN 4U.' He argues that because crematories can never clean the ovens of every speck of ash before they put another body into the oven, it justifies what he did. 'Comingling of ash is not a big deal. I don't put any value in anybody after they're gone and dead. They shouldn't when I'm gone and dead. That's not a person anymore.' He said that most families signed up for Sconce to scatter their cremated relatives at sea, with no relatives in attendance, so he doesn't see why anyone would care if the ashes he scattered at sea came from one body or multiple bodies. When asked how he felt about delivering families the cremated remains of multiple people, he said, 'There's no difference in anybody's cremated ash…people just got to be more in control of their emotions. That's not your loved one anymore, and it never has been. Love them when they're here. Period.' Rofé argues that there's more to Sconce's motivation, telling TIME, 'It was about money.' He recalls a moment during the filming when he was alone with Sconce in a motel room and Sconce asked him what Rofé would do if someone gave him so much money to do a documentary that would make Sconce look bad. 'There was a look in his eye unlike any that I'd seen before,' he says. 'It was just scary.' Giving Sconce a voice in the documentary seemed like the right choice to Rofé, who says it's important to not avoid stories about people who have commited crimes. 'If we were to all walk around pretending that everything in this world is hunky dory, we would be doing a great disservice to humanity,' he says. 'But taking a good, hard look at people like this is vital.'
