Hacks, they stole audiences’ hearts as Marcus, the savvy-at-work, vulnerable-off-the-clock chief operating officer to Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance.
It’s a role that earned them a groundbreaking Primetime Emmy nod for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, marking the first time an out nonbinary actor has been nominated in the awards ceremony’s 73-year history.
But thanks to Clemons-Hopkins’s seasonal allergies, they snoozed right through it.“I was deep in a Benadryl sleep,” they recall with a laugh. “My partner woke me up, was like, ‘Hey, you need to check your phone right now.’” When they discovered more notifications than they’d previously thought possible, their first thought was that someone had died.