Christina Applegate Earns Emmy Nomination for 'Dead to Me' Amid MS Battle

Christina Applegate
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association

The recognition is for her work on the third and final season of the Netflix comedy. 

Christina Applegate just landed an Emmy nomination -- her third for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series -- for the final season of Dead to Me. The recognition comes amid the 51-year-old star's ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis (MS). 

First diagnosed in 2021, the disease made it difficult for her to film the third and final season of the Netflix series. Since the show's release in November 2022, Applegate has said that she's unlikely to ever act onscreen again. But she still plans to do voiceover work or other things behind the scenes. 

Applegate's nominations for the 75th annual Emmy Awards follow recent nods at the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, Critics’ Choice Television Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards, all of which recognized her final turn as Jen Harding, a realtor who is befriended by a woman who killed her husband in a hit-and-run accident at the start of Dead to Me

The Critics’ Choice Television Awards, which were handed on in January, marked her first ceremony with MS. "So this Sunday will be the first awards show I have been to since 2019. And the first since MS. NERVOUS! But grateful to the [Critics Choice] for including me," she wrote on Twitter.

When it came to the SAG Awards, which took place the following month, Applegate said in an interview that it was probably her "last awards show as an actor." She added at the time, "It's kind of a big deal." 

However, it looks like she'll have one more chance to be among her peers and celebrate her acting work now that she's been nominated for the upcoming Emmys, which are slated to be handed out live in September. 

Prior to the 2023 Emmys, Applegate had earned seven nominations, including three for her work as an actress and producer on Dead to Me, as well as two for her titular role on Samantha Who? and another two for playing Jennifer Aniston's sister on Friends. The latter won her one Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2003. 


The 2023 Primetime Emmy Awards air live on Monday, Sept. 18, at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on Fox. In the meantime, stay tuned to ETonline.com for complete Emmys coverage.

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