Why did D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai have a red hand painted on his face at the Emmys?

The 2024 Emmys are underway, and they’re already generating buzz — in part because of D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai’s red carpet look.

The actor — nominated for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series for his series, “Reservation Dogs” — took to the red carpet with a red handprint on his face. What does the symbol mean?

According to Native Hope — an organization that works to “address the injustice done to Native Americans” — the red handprint “stands for all the missing sisters whose voices are not heard. It stands for the silence of the media and law enforcement in the midst of this crisis.”

According to The National Crime Information Center , there were 5,712 reported missing Native American and Alaskan Native women in 2016.

Woon-A-Tai isn’t the first to wear the symbol on the red carpet. As ELLE pointed out, actress Auli’i Cravalho also wore the symbol at the red carpet premiere of “The Power” last year.

What is ‘Reservation Dogs’ about?

“Reservation Dogs” follows the lives of four Indigenous teens who live on a reservation in Oklahoma.

As Woon-A-Tai told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year, “The writers room was all Indigenous, and they knew that they wanted to tell their stories, and in telling their own stories, they told the stories of a lot of other Native kids out there as well, me being one of them.”

Woon-A-Tai has emphasized the importance of an Indigenous cast and crew telling Indigenous stories. “I think we’re pushing to a time when we don’t need anybody to tell our story for us,” he told ELLE .

He continued, “If you want to make a story regarding Native people, it should definitely be mandatory, in my opinion, to have a Native director, Native writer, and Native casting director.”

D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai’s Emmy nomination

Woon-A-Tai’s 2024 Emmy nomination is the actor’s first nomination. As he told AV Club , it inspired him to take things to the next level.

“It’s inspired me to work harder and harder to see what’s the next level I can get to. It hasn’t changed much else for me,” he said. “It’s cool to be recognized by pretty important people, enough to get a nomination, but I’m mainly inspired to work more and work harder.”

According to the Television Academy , “Reservation Dogs” was nominated for five Emmys this year.