Women have shattered barriers across TV and film, from pioneering directors like Alice Guy-Blaché to historic Oscar wins by Halle Berry and Viola Davis. This comprehensive list celebrates 55 groundbreaking "firsts" spanning a century, highlighting trailblazers in acting, directing, producing, and awards.
1. Asta Nielsen
Asta Nielsen was the first woman to play Shakespeare’s
famous Prince Hamlet on film in 1921.
2. Audrey Munson
Audrey Munson was the first woman to bare it all in the film
The Inspiration way back in 1915.
3. Alfre Woodard
State of Affairs’ Alfre Woodard was the first black actress
to play the U.S. president on TV.
4. Ava DuVernay
In 2014, Ava DuVernay became the first African-American
female director to receive a Golden Globe nod and receive Best Picture Oscar
nomination for Selma.
5. Anna Gunn & Alysia Reiner
Anna Gunn and Alysia Reiner star in Equity, the first movie
focused on the women of Wall Street.
6. Awkwafina
In Jan. 2020, Awkwafina became the first Asian-American
woman to win a Golden Globe for best actress. She snagged the historic honor
for her role in The Farewell.
7. Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett made history when she won Best Supporting
Actress during 2023’s Golden Globes. She was the first actor from a Marvel
movie to win a Globe — and she couldn’t have deserved it more.
8. Ali Wong
At the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, Ali Wong made history as the first Asian-American actress to win Outstanding Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie and the first woman of Asian descent to win an Emmy for a lead role for her role in Beef.
A week prior, Wong became the first actress of Asian descent to win a Golden
Globe in the best actress in a limited series category.
9. Ariana DeBose
Ariana DeBose made history with her 2022 Oscars win for the role of Anita in West Side Story (originally played by Rita Moreno, also on the 2022 Oscars red carpet).
DeBose is the first openly queer woman of color to take home an Oscar, a fact
she highlighted in her stunning acceptance speech: “You see a queer, openly
queer woman of color, an Afro Latina who found her strength in life through
art…to anybody who has ever questioned your identity ever, ever, ever, or you
find yourself living in the gray spaces, I promise you this: There is indeed a
place for us.”
10. Bea Arthur
11. Betty White
As if we needed yet another reason to adore Betty White,
here’s one: In 1983, she became the first woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding
Game Show Host for Just Men! Meredith Vieira is the only other woman to hold
this honor.
12. Cicely Tyson
Cicely Tyson was the first Black actress to star in a TV
drama, Eastside, Westside in 1963.
13. Cathy Lee Crosby
In the 1974 Wonder Woman, Cathy Lee Crosby starred in the
first TV movie about a female superhero.
14. Courteney Cox
15. Candice Bergen
With the debut of Murphy Brown in 1988, Candice Bergen
kicked up a controversy by being the first woman on television to choose to
raise her child alone. This set off a national debate — earning the ire of
then-Vice President Dan Quayle — over family values.
READ : Top 10 Best Movies Directed by Women
16. Chloé Zhao
In Feb 2021, Chloé Zhao made history as the first Asian
woman to win Best Director at the Golden Globes in their 78-year history for
her film Nomadland.
She’s the second woman to ever win that category after
Barbara Streisand for Yentl.
And in April 2021, she made even more history by winning a Best Director
Academy Award for the same film — the second woman in all of Oscars history to
win that award after Kathryn Bigelow in 2009 and the first woman of color.
17. Diahann Carroll
If you weren’t already familiar with Diahann Carroll, let us
introduce you to this inspiration! Her 1968 debut in Julia brought TV its first
Black woman in a non-stereotypical role — she played a widowed nurse and
mother.
She won a Golden Globe for the role and made headlines again
in 1969 as the first Black actress nominated for an Emmy. Did we mention she
was also the first Black woman to win a Tony Award?!
18. Donna Reed
When The Donna Reed Show came to the small screen in 1958,
Donna Reed became the star of the first family sitcom to focus primarily on the
mother as opposed to the father. She also helped develop the series, which
explored then-controversial topics like women’s rights.
19. Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres was the first actress to come out as gay on
TV in the show Ellen in 1997.
20 & 21. Eden Riegel & Olga Sosnovska
In 2003, Eden Riegel and Olga Sosnovska engaged in the first lesbian kiss on an American soap opera, All My Children.
Ernestine Barrier was the first woman to play the U.S.
president in the 1953 film Project Moonbase.
23. Greta Gerwig
Greta Gerwig made history when the success of Barbie made
her the first-ever solo female filmmaker with a billion-dollar film. According
to Variety, in just 17 days of release Barbie made $1 billion at the global box
office, including $459 million in North America and $572 million
internationally.
24. Halle Berry
Who could ever forget Halle Berry taking home the best
actress Oscar in 2002 for Monster’s Ball? She was the first Black woman to win
the award, and her speech remains one of the most stirring in Hollywood
history.
25. Helen Slater
Supergirl, played by Helen Slater, was the first superhero
feature film to star a female character in 1984.
READ : These Asian American Women Actresses Are Taking Over Hollywood
26. Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel was the first Black actress to star in her
own comedy TV show, The Beulah Show, in 1950.
27. Janet Mock
In 2019, Janet Mock signed a three-year,
multi-million-dollar production deal with Netflix. And while that in and of
itself is a huge deal, it’s made even more impactful by the fact Mock is the
first Black transgender woman to land a production deal at a major studio.
28. Judi Dench
In 2022, Judi Dench made film history with her best
supporting actress Oscar nomination for Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, making her
the oldest nominee yet for the category at age 87. “Retirement is not a word
used in my house,” Dench told the Daily Mail in October 2021 — and clearly, the
Academy Awards are all for it!
29. Jane Campion
In 2022, Jane Campion made history as the first woman to
ever be nominated twice for a directing Oscar — first in 1994 for directing The
Piano, for which she also won the best original screenplay Oscar, and now in
2022, for directing Netflix’s The Power of the Dog starring Benedict
Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, and Jesse Plemons.
Her film was the most-nominated of this year’s Academy Award
contenders with 12 total nods including best actor, best actress, best
Supporting actor, best supporting actress, and best picture.
30. Keke Palmer
The writer, lead actress, and creator of Abbott Elementary —
made history during the 2022 Emmy nominations, becoming the first Black woman
to earn three comedy Emmy nods for the beloved ABC series, per Variety.
31. Kerry Washington
Honestly, this one is both disheartening and hope-giving. In
2012, Scandal’s Kerry Washington became the first Black woman to lead a network
drama in 40 years. Hear that, Gladiators? And while that time-gap is woefully
long, it’s nice to see that Washington helped kicked off the trend of more
female Black leads in contemporary network TV. All hail Olivia Pope!
32. Kathryn Bigelow
In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow really shook up the industry by
becoming the first female winner of the Oscars’ best director category. She
took home the trophy for the war drama The Hurt Locker and, to this day, she
remains the only female best director winner.
33. Kylie Bunbury
Kylie Bunbury stars in the TV show Pitch, about the first
woman to play baseball in the Major Leagues.
34. Lily Gladstone
Lily Gladstone’s Golden Globes win for her role in Killers
of the Flower Moon made her the first Indigenous person to win a Golden Globe
for best actress.
The actress is only the second Native woman the receive any recognition from
the award show. Irene Bedard was nominated in 1995.
Gladstone opened her historic speech in Blackfeet language.
35. Mary Kay Stearns
Mary Kay Stearns was the first pregnant woman on television starring in Mary Kay and Johnny with her real-life husband Johnny Stearns.
36. Marlo Thomas
As shocking as this sounds, there were no shows that
centered on a woman who wasn’t married, living with her parents or both all the
way up until 1966. It was then that Marlo Thomas’ That Girl finally gave
audiences a single, independent woman via aspiring actress Ann Marie (who, for
the record, remained unmarried for the show’s five-year run).
37. Mj Rodriguez
On July 13, 2021, Mj Rodriguez became the first trans woman
to be Emmy-nominated for Lead Actress in a Drama series for her dynamic work on
the FX TV series Pose. Prior to Rodriguez’s nomination, only two other trans
performers had been nominated for Emmys — Laverne Cox for her work in Orange Is
The New Black and Rain Valdez for Razor Tongue.
38. Nichelle Nichols
Nichelle Nichols, with William Shatner, shared the first
interracial kiss on TV’s Star Trek in 1967.
39. Oprah Winfrey
Is there anything Oprah can’t do? In 1986, with The Oprah Winfrey Show, she became the first woman to own and produce her own TV talk show. That show would stretch an astonishing 25 seasons.
Also at the 2024 Emmy Awards, Abbott Elementary star and
creator Quinta Brunson won the award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. The
award made history as it marked the first time a Black woman won in the
category in over 40 years, the last time being when Isabel Sanford won in 1981
for The Jeffersons, per The New York Times.
The writer, lead actress, and creator of Abbott Elementary —
made history during the 2022 Emmy nominations, becoming the first Black woman
to earn three comedy Emmy nods for the beloved ABC series, per Variety.
41. Rita Moreno
Just one of many feathers in the cap of her 70+ year-career,
Rita Moreno became the first Hispanic woman to win an Oscar
42. Sally Struthers
Sally Struthers was the first woman to deal with a
miscarriage on TV in the show All in the Family in 1971.
43. Sandra Oh
How do we love Sandra Oh, let us count the ways! Oh, who are
we kidding? There are far too many to list here. But the fact that she became
the first Asian woman to receive an Emmy nomination for lead drama actress (for
Killing Eve) in 2018 certainly makes the list. As does the fact she won a
Golden Globe for the role in 2019.
44. Shonda Rhimes
We can all agree by now that Shonda Rhimes is a TV genius,
right? What you might not have realized, though, is that in 2017 she became the
first woman to create three hit TV shows with more than 100 episodes each
(Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal).
45. Viola Davis
In 2015, How to Get Away With Murder's Viola Davis became
the first Black woman (ever) to win an Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
And if you haven't watched her powerful acceptance speech yet, what even is
your life?
In 2021, Viola Davis made more history by becoming the most Oscar-nominated Black woman in the academy's history with her 4th nomination for Best Actress for her role as Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
READ:Norah Jones | TAsian American Women Who Revolutionized Entertainment
46. Youn Yuh-Jung
South Korean actress Youn Yuh-Jung's performance as
grandmother Soonja in Lee Isaac Chung's hit 2020 film Minari has earned her a
staggering 54 nominations for best supporting actress, including a BAFTA
nomination, an Academy Award nomination, and a SAG Awards win — making her the
first Asian woman to win a SAG Award in a motion picture category (Sandra Oh is
the only Asian woman to have won a SAG Award in the TV category).
47. Yvette Lee Bowser
Prepare to have your mind blown on two levels. Ready? First
of all, Yvette Lee Bowser became the first Black woman to create a primetime TV
series in 1993 with Living Single (which, hello, obsessed!). Second, she was
only 27 at the time of that impressive achievement.
48. Zoe Saldaña
Zoe Saldaña made history by becoming the first actor to have
four films make over $2 billion at the box office: Avatar, Avengers: Endgame,
Avengers: Infinity War, and most recently, Avatar: The Way of Water, per
People.
49. Alice Guy-Blaché
Alice Guy-Blaché was the first woman to direct a film,
reported to have created her first in 1896. According to Columbia University's
Women Film Pioneers Project, "she directed and produced or supervised
hundred silent films." She also started her own film company, Solax, in
1910.
50. Yuliya Ippolitovna Solntseva
She was a Soviet actress and film director. As an actress, she is known for starring in the silent sci-fi classic Aelita (1924).
She is the first female winner of the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best
Director in the 20th century and the first woman to win a directing prize at
any of the major European film festivals, for the film Chronicle of Flaming
Years (1961), a war drama about Soviet resistance to Nazi occupation in 1941.
51. Lina Wertmüller
She was an Italian film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her 1970s art house films Seven Beauties, The Seduction of Mimi, Love and Anarchy and Swept Away.
Wertmüller was the first female director to be nominated for the Academy Award
for Best Director. She won many awards, including an Academy Honorary Award.
52. Barbara Joan Streisand
She is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer and
director. Over a career spanning more than six decades, Streisand has achieved
success in various areas of the entertainment industry, including the
attainment of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards. Streisand won the Academy
Award for Best Original Song for writing the love theme from A Star Is Born
(1976), the first woman to be honored as a composer.
With the release of Yentl (1983), Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major studio film.
Streisand also received the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, becoming the
first (and for 37 years, the only) woman to win that award.
53. Dorothy Emma Arzner
She was an American film director whose career in Hollywood
spanned from the silent era of the 1920s into the early 1940s. Arzner made a
total of twenty films between 1927 and 1943 and launched the careers of a
number of Hollywood actresses. Arzner was the first woman to join the Directors
Guild of America and the first woman to direct a sound film.
54. Ida Lupino
She was a British-American actress, director, writer and producer. Throughout her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed eight, working primarily in the United States.
With her independent production company, she co-wrote and co-produced several
social-message films and became the first woman to direct a film noir, The
Hitch-Hiker, in 1953.
55. Julie Ethel Dash
She is an American filmmaker, music video and commercial
director, author, and website producer.
After Dash had written and directed several shorts, her 1991 feature Daughters
of the Dust became the first full-length film directed by an African-American
woman to obtain general theatrical release in the United States.
Dash was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement
in the 55th Annual Directors Guild Awards—the first African-American woman
nominated in the category of Primetime Movies Made for Television.
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