No show this past season had a breakout moment quite like “Squid Game” did. Just two months after Netflix released its entire nine-episode debut season on September 17, it was announced that the South Korean series about class, inequality and exploitation had become the streamer’s most-watched show of all time. Now, the mega hit has also taken the Emmys by storm, racking up an impressive 14 nominations. One of those is for guest star Lee You-mi, who is recognized for her heartbreaking portrayal of Ji-yeong (aka Player 240) on the show. This marks the career-first bid for the actor, who now hopes to, uh, get the green light all the way to her maiden victory.

The first season of “Squid Game” tells the story of down-on-their-luck people in dire need of money who receive mysterious invitations to join a dangerous life-or-death version of their childhood games in order to win a cash prize of 45.6 billion won (which is around 38 million U.S. dollars). Lee’s Ji-yeong is one of the 456 contestants that are locked into a secret location to play the games. She enlists after being freed from jail for killing her cruel, abusive stepfather and joins Seong Gi-hun’s (Lee Jung-jae) team in the fourth episode, “Stick to the Team.”

That is the first of three installments in which Lee appears. Of those, the actor chose the last one, “Gganbu,” to submit for Emmy consideration — a choice that will come as no surprise to viewers of the show. This episode sees the remaining players partake in a game for which they are told to pair up. That is before they discover that instead of working as a team, they will have to play against their partner in a marble game of their choice, in which the winner gets to move on to the next round while the loser is immediately shot to death.

For the game, Ji-yeong partners with Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon). After learning that only one of them will survive, the two partners opt to wait until the final moment and then play a single round to determine the winner. In the meantime, they discuss their pasts, with Ji-yeong recounting how she was physically abused by her pastor stepfather and how she killed him after he stabbed her mother to death. Deciding that Sae-byeok had more reason to live than she does, since Sae-byeok still has a family to support, Ji-yeong deliberately loses the game, sacrificing herself so Sae-byeok can advance to the next round. As a result, she is shot in the head by a soldier, eliminating her from the games and bringing her arc to a devastating close.

There is no doubt that Lee’s submission packs an emotional punch, but will it give her a leg up on her rivals? Her competition in the race for drama guest actress is certainly strong and made up exclusively of actors who, too, are vying for their inaugural victories. Those are Marcia Gay Harden (“The Morning Show”), Martha Kelly (“Euphoria”), and “Succession” trio Hope Davis, Sanaa Lathan and Harriet Walter. Kelly and Lathan are both rookie contenders themselves, while the other three women all have two additional citations to their names.

The first to land a nom was Harden, who was shortlisted in this very category for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” in 2007, before snagging her second bid for the telefilm “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler” in 2009. That same year, Davis was up for her first Emmy, nominated for her supporting turn in the drama series “In Treatment.” Like Harden, she went on to score her second mention for a telefilm, “The Special Relationship,” in 2010. The last to join the club was Walter, who nabbed her first nomination for “Succession” in 2020 and is also recognized for her guest turn on another show this year, reigning comedy series champ “Ted Lasso.”

What helps Lee is that the Television Academy, like the rest of the world, is clearly here for “Squid Game.” The show is nominated not just for drama series but also for four of Lee’s co-stars: Lee Jung-jae (Best Drama Actor), Jung (Best Drama Supporting Actress), Park Hae-soo (Best Drama Supporting Actor) and Oh Yeong-su (Best Drama Supporting Actor). While voters might have to refresh their memory of the show at this point, as it was released almost an entire year ago, one aspect they probably don’t have to call to mind is Lee’s devastating performance as Ji-yeong. Her portrayal of a woman who believes she no longer has anything to live for in the outside world anchors not just “Gganbu” but arguably the entire series. It would make Lee both an inspired winner and one of the best ways to reward the show as a whole.

This article is a part of Gold Derby’s “Emmy nominee profile” series spotlighting the 2022 acting contenders.

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