Stranger Things hasn’t been over for even a full year and we still can’t get the Netflix classic out of our minds. As one of the biggest, if not the biggest, shows of the streaming era, we might never stop thinking about the series and its talented cast. Well, it’s hard not to think of the cast when they’re busy making new Netflix movies, scoring hit singles, and achieving amazing award wins.
Throughout the five-season, nearly 10-year run of Stranger Things, none of the main cast members won an Emmy Award for their performance in the show. Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour were both nominated for the first and second seasons, though ultimately walked away empty handed. For a new role, Harbour just made some Emmys history for the cast of the global phenomenon.
David Harbour becomes first Stranger Things star to win an Emmy Award
On Sunday, Sept. 6, David Harbour won his first Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Movie for his role in the HBO limited series DTF St. Louis. On top of being an incredible career achievement for the actor, winning his first major award, he also becomes the first Stranger Things cast member to win an Emmy for any television project.
Congratulations to David Harbour on his first Emmy win for Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie! pic.twitter.com/mUNCqwQAUG
— Television Academy (@TelevisionAcad) September 7, 2026
It’s hard to believe that the likes of Winona Ryder, Matthew Modine, Paul Reiser, and Cara Buono—who had all been nominated for Emmys prior to Stranger Things—hadn’t won before. For fans, it might also be hard to believe, or at least inconceivable, that Harbour and Brown never won a major award like an Emmy for their performances in the series’ early seasons.
Harbour won a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2018 for his role as Hopper, and the Stranger Things cast won the Actor Award (formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards) for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2017. But for the most part, the cast had been shut out for awards recognition.
Looking back at the other Stranger Things cast members’ Emmy nominations, Ryder picked up her only nomination so far in 2005 for Best Documentary for Independent Lens. Modine was nominated in 1994 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for the HBO film And the Band Played On. Buono earned her nomination in 2011 for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Mad Men, and Reiser has been nominated 11 times between Mad About You and The Kominsky Method.
DTF St. Louis marked Harbour’s first major series regular role in a television series after the Stranger Things series finale aired on New Year’s Eve in 2025. Harbour both starred in the series as Floyd Smernitch and executive produced alongside fellow star Jason Bateman. The series already picked up multiple Emmy wins, including one for Linda Cardellini’s performance, and Harbour stands to win another Emmy on Sunday, Sept. 13 for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series as a producer.
Following his big award win, Harbour’s next television role will reunite him with Brown. This summer, the pair were announced to once again play an on-screen father-daughter pair as they reteam for an upcoming and currently untitled spy drama series. Perhaps the in-the-works series will help add more Emmys to the Stranger Things cast members’ shelves.
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