{"id":2021900,"date":"2025-09-14T21:49:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T21:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2021900"},"modified":"2025-09-14T21:49:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T21:49:55","slug":"michael-urie-of-shrinking-is-a-first-time-emmy-nominee-follow-along-as-he-gets-ready-for-the-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/michael-urie-of-shrinking-is-a-first-time-emmy-nominee-follow-along-as-he-gets-ready-for-the-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Urie of ‘Shrinking’ is a first-time Emmy nominee. Follow along as he gets ready for the show"},"content":{"rendered":"

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These days, Michael Urie spends most nights scribbling his name on Playbills after performances of “Oh, Mary!,” Cole Escola’s bawdy comedy about First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln in which Urie plays her teacher. And every now and then, in the bustle of signing and posing for fan selfies, he says, someone will chirp “Good luck at the Emmys!” and it feels like a whiplash reminder of his other<\/i> major career achievement this year.<\/p>\n

“It’s like, ‘Oh, yeah! That’s right, I have to go do that, don’t I?” he says, still very much processing his first Emmy nomination.<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old is nominated for supporting actor in a comedy series for his turn in Apple TV+’s “Shrinking” as Brian<\/a>, an estate lawyer whose friendship with his widowed therapist bestie Jimmy (Jason Segel) is on the mend after an estrangement. The actor is best known for his comedic flare in TV series such as “Ugly Betty” and stage productions such as “Once Upon a Mattress<\/a>” or “Buyer & Cellar<\/a>,” but the second season of “Shrinking<\/a>” provided Urie an opportunity to blend humor with heart. Urie’s Brian is working through his insecurities about becoming a parent while also inadvertently bringing the drunk driver responsible for Jimmy’s wife’s death \u2014 a character named Louis played by co-creator Brett Goldstein \u2014 back into their lives.<\/p>\n

“I was like, how on earth are they going to bring this character into this world?” Urie recalls thinking. “Turns out, it was my character that brings him in. And yet, it’s sort of inevitable. [Brian] runs into him in a moment where [he] needs to learn how to help somebody, and he [Louis] needs help. I think [Brian’s] walking a dog that he almost killed when I run into him. Here’s a grown man who is busted and broken and needs somebody and I’m there for him. This guy needs forgiveness in a big way and because I’m able to fold him into the group \u2014 in a very messy way \u2014 he gets that.”<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/b> In a pinch, the writers of ‘Shrinking’ turn to their acting ‘assassin’: Michael Urie<\/a><\/p>\n

Urie is nominated in the category alongside his co-star Harrison Ford<\/a>, who plays Paul, a curmudgeon therapist with a soft spot who finds love again while navigating Parkinson’s disease. (Urie says he received a text from Ford that morning that read: “You too? And Jessica. And Big Head.”) Co-created by Segel, Goldstein and Bill Lawrence, the series received a total of seven nominations, including for comedy series and acting nods for Segel and Jessica Williams.<\/p>\n

Urie’s first and only Emmys until now was in 2007, the year the awards show leaned into host Ryan Seacrest’s gig on “American Idol.” Attendees surrounded a rotating theater-in-the-round stage, an experiment that was widely criticized and never repeated. Urie was there as part of the cast of “Ugly Betty,” when the then-freshman ABC series received 11 nominations; that night, the show’s star America Ferrera took home the prize for lead actress in a comedy.<\/p>\n

“At one point, I went to the bathroom and my friend texted me, ‘Where are you?’ I guess I missed an opportunity to be on camera,” Urie says of the unusual setup. “I remember America winning and that being really, really exciting.”<\/p>\n

Now, he gets to celebrate his achievement with a new group of co-stars: “There’s so many cool people that are going to be there and our whole cast gets to be there. I’m so excited for what the night will bring.”<\/p>\n

One concern heading into the big night? Perspiration. He made a crucial request to his stylist: an outfit that won’t give him “swamp ass,” as he describes it, after hours of sitting. How’s that for thorough planning?<\/p>\n

Urie invited The Times along exclusively as he prepares for and experiences the Emmy Awards as a first-time nominee. Follow our live updates below.<\/p>\n

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