Catherine O'Hara's posthumous 'The Studio' Actor Award win leaves audience in tears

Catherine O'Hara earned a posthumous accolade from her colleagues at the 2026 Actor Awards.

On Sunday (March 1), the actress, who passed away January 30 at the age of 71, was awarded Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for her portrayal of Patty Leigh in The Studio.

Seth Rogen, who acts in and is the creator of the Apple TV series, accepted the award for O'Hara with a heartfelt address, as the audience full of stars grew emotional.

"I was beckoned to undertake the sorrowful honor of accepting this award for O’Hara," he began. "I am certain she would have been delighted to be recognized by her fellow actors, who she admired greatly. She was genuinely a big fan of every one of you."

"Recently, I've been thinking about the moments I cherished with her professionally and personally, and over these past weeks, it's been remarkable to recall her generosity, kindness, and grace, all while maintaining her incredible talent and significant contributions to our work," Rogen continued.

"She believed in giving her best, aiming to excel on set every single day," Rogen went on. "I never shared this with the other actors, fearing it might give them ideas, but nearly every night before her scheduled appearances on our show, she would email me and Evan [Goldberg] with suggestions. Her emails usually began with, 'Hello, I hope you’ll consider the following.' What followed was a completely revised version of the scene she was in. And every single time, it improved not just her role but the entire scene and show as a whole."

He praised O'Hara further for being "a testament that you can be a brilliant genius and still be caring and that these qualities need not be mutually exclusive."

O'Hara died on January 30 at 71. Her representative confirmed that O'Hara passed away "after a brief illness." 

In February, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed O'Hara's cause of death as a pulmonary embolism, per the death certificate. Rectal cancer was noted as the contributing cause of the embolism.

At this ceremony, where she was celebrated, the actress was a nominee five times. Her initial nomination was in 2011 for Temple Grandin, and she received four nominations for Schitt's Creek between 2020 and 2021.

In 2021, she, along with her fellow cast members — including Eugene Levy, Dan Levy and Annie Murphy — won the award for Best Ensemble.