The Emmy Awards aired on September 14, honoring the television industry’s best series and creatives of the year. But there is more to celebrate for the series and creators named to the newest iteration of The Inclusion List, a project of Stacy L. Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
The Inclusion List uses data regarding on-screen and behind-the-camera personnel to determine the 100 most inclusive broadcast, cable, and streaming series from 2024. Series that were most inclusive across gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+, disability, and age are noted. The website also highlights 7 individuals as the top creators for inclusion across the time frame evaluated and recognizes 5 top companies.
“The Inclusion List was designed to use data to recognize the stories and storytellers whose work reflects a variety of voices and perspectives,” said Smith, Annenberg Inclusion Initiative founder. “In this update to The Inclusion List, the results demonstrate that, indeed, there are series and creators who are embracing casts and characters that reflect the audience. We are eager to celebrate those shows and storytellers.”
The list was formed by scoring 257 broadcast, cable, and streaming seasons from 2024, across 15 indicators on-screen and behind-the-camera. On screen, gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+, disability, and age were evaluated for 2,096 series regulars. Behind the camera, the gender and race/ethnicity of 56,942 individuals working in 10 positions were assessed. Those 10 roles were: Director, Writer, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor, Composer, Costume Designer, Production Designer, Casting Director, and First Assistant Director. In addition to the 257 shows evaluated from 2024, we also evaluated the shows that were the top performers across all years studied. We have evaluated 992 seasons of television content since 2021.
The top 10 most inclusive series in 2024 were: Land of Women; Unprisoned; Sunny; Queenie; Bob Hearts Abishola; House of Payne; Clipped; Assisted Living; Griselda; and Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist.
The Inclusion List also highlights series that were the most inclusive for gender representation, characters from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, LGBTQ+ depictions, portrayals of people with disabilities, and characters age 65 and older. Across these top lists, six series received at least one 2025 Emmy nomination for an on-screen or behind-the-camera role. Those series were Bad Sisters; Only Murders in the Building; Nobody Wants This; Slow Horses; Somebody, Somewhere; and What We Do in the Shadows.
“The newest version of the Inclusion List highlights two ways that creatives have achieved inclusion,” Smith said. “The first is by assembling a cast and crew that reflects multiple identities. The second is by focusing on a particular underrepresented group — whether it is people age 65 and older or people with disabilities — and putting a spotlight on those characters. Importantly, these series are not only popular with viewers, they are some of the critically acclaimed and Emmy-nominated series of the year. In other words, telling inclusive stories is good for business.”
In addition to the most inclusive series, The Inclusion List spotlights the creators who are responsible for bringing these stories to the screen. In 2024, seven series creators were recognized for having at least two series on The Inclusion List of 100 most inclusive shows of 2024. Those creators are: Tyler Perry, Brad Falchuk, Nkeci Okoro Carroll, Ryan Murphy, Dick Wolf, Matt Olmstead, and Tim Minear. These creators are named alongside series creators who launched the most inclusive series from 2021 to 2024. Those creators are: Perry, Issa Rae, Lena Waithe, Mindy Kaling, Gema R. Neira, Ramon Campos, Ava DuVernay, and Larry Wilmore. These individuals had at least two series on The Inclusion List of 150 most inclusive shows across all years examined.
The Inclusion List also recognizes 13 editors whose work appeared most often on the inclusion list across the past four years. These editors are: Pam Marshall, Nina M. Gilberti, Lynarion Hubbard, Angela Latimer, Angel Gamboa Bryant, Andrés Federico González, Andrea Folprecht, Leah Breuer, Sue Federman, Christine Armstrong, Varun Viswanath, Edwin Rivera, and Stephanie Neroes.
Lastly, the Inclusion List recognizes the originators with the most inclusive programming. The most inclusive originator, Netflix, had 22 series in the top 150 Inclusion List from 2021 to 2024. Rounding out the top five are: Hulu, Prime Video, Apple TV+, and HBO Max.
A further look at the summary of results can be found here, while the full Inclusion List and all details are available at inclusionlist.org/series.