Netflix Series ‘Unorthodox,’ Shira Haas Nominated For Emmy Awards

The popular Netflix series “Unorthodox” was nominated for seven Emmy awards in various categories and its lead actress, Shira Haas from Israel, also received an “outstanding lead actress” nod for her role in the show, the organization announced on Tuesday night.

Haas plays Esty, a young Hasidic woman from Brooklyn who runs away to Berlin to escape an arranged marriage and navigate a secular lifestyle. She is the first Israeli actress to receive a nomination in this category, according to the Israeli television program Erev Tov With Guy Pines.

“Unorthodox” was nominated for seven awards including Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Casting For a Limited Series, Movie or Special.

The German-American Netflix series debuted on Netflix in March 2020. It was the first Netflix series to be primarily in Yiddish and was inspired by the 2012 memoir “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots” by Deborah Feldman.

In the show, Haas’s character Esty Shapiro is a 19-year old Jewish woman living unhappily in an arranged marriage among an ultra-Orthodox community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Following a series of difficulties, she flees to Berlin where her estranged mother lives, and begins to abandon the lifestyle she was born into.

“Thank you for all the beautiful messages today. I’m still processing it and trying to find the right words,” Haas posted on her Instagram in response to the nomination. “I am so happy and so lucky to have had the privilege of portraying this character and to be nominated for it. Thank you to everyone who took part in the show and made this happen. Thank you to everyone who shared their love. I feel it all. I’m truly grateful.”

Another video on Instagram posted by her co-star Amit Rahav, who plays Esty’s husband in ‘Unorthodox’, shows the actors first receiving news of the show’s nomination.

The 72th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards are expected to air in the US on Sunday, September 20, 2020. American comedian and television host Jimmy Kimmel will host the ceremony in Los Angeles. It is unclear how exactly the coronavirus pandemic will affect the ceremony.

The nominations were presented on Tuesday by actors Laverne Cox, Josh Gad, Tatiana Maslany, and Leslie Jones during a live, virtual event streamed on the Television Academy’s website.