Jeff Hiller Reveals the 1 Thing That's Changed Since Winning His First Emmy for “Somebody Somewhere” (Exclusive)
- - Jeff Hiller Reveals the 1 Thing That's Changed Since Winning His First Emmy for “Somebody Somewhere” (Exclusive)
Liza Esquibias, Ilana KaplanDecember 31, 2025 at 8:30 AM
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Jeff Hiller -
Jeff Hiller is opening up to PEOPLE about the impact that his first-ever Emmy win in September has had on his life
He took home the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Joel in HBO's Somebody Somewhere
Hiller says the experience changed his perspective on winning awards and the way it could alter the future of his career
Jeff Hiller is reflecting on how his perspective on success has shifted throughout his career.
The actor, 49, has had a massively successful 2025, after winning his first Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance in Somebody Somewhere in September. He recently sat down with PEOPLE and shared an update on his life after his huge achievement.
“It wasn't one of my goals to win an award, because I like to set goals that you can work toward,” Hiller explains. “You can't work toward winning an award. In a way, it's just really validating. When I got nominated, it was such a shock. Everyone was surprised. No one had predicted it. And I did all this press where people were like, ‘No, you shouldn't be surprised.’ And I was like, ‘I read your article saying who you predicted, and I wasn't one of them.’ They were like, ‘I got it wrong.’”
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Jeff Hiller accepts the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series award for "Somebody Somewhere" onstage during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards
It wasn’t until his manager emphasized the significance of the Emmys that Hiller reveals he began to value the win more.
“He was like, ‘That's enough. Just getting nominated is so huge,’” the comedian recalls. “But then when I won, he was like, ‘This is amazing. It's so much better. We'll get so many more jobs now,’ which I was like, ‘I didn't realize that.’ I'm just using it as another tool in my arsenal to get more jobs. I'd love to create my own show, and hopefully being an Emmy winner is a way to do that.”
“I have one [idea] that's sort of a hard comedy,” he goes on to tease. “It just depends on which showrunner I can get to want to work on it with me. And one that's more of a dramedy that I'm already working on that I’ll pitch. It's not in the works — it's in the head. But that one's more of a dramedy that would be a fun way to act. But I am funny, so it's never going to be a humorless drama.”
Hiller also published a memoir this year titled Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success. He says it has always been his hope to be able to release another in the future.
“I was just really, really talking to the press people at Simon & Schuster where I was just like, ‘I just want to sell enough that I could write another book,’" he shares. “And they were like, ‘You got it.’ And then I think I have sold enough to write another book, and now I'm like, ‘Well, I don't want to write it yet.’”
He adds: “I’ve got to live some life first before I know what to write. I would like to write another book, but I don't know what it would be yet, but I'm noodling on it. I don't want it to just be some cash grab where I don't say anything. Not that I would turn down cash if anybody has any!"
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Jeff Hiller
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Hiller played Joel in the the HBO drama Somebody Somewhere, which concluded after three seasons in December 2024. He was nominated alongside Bowen Yang, Colman Domingo, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Harrison Ford, Ike Barinholtz and Michael Urie at the 77th annual Emmys earlier this year. When he won, he praised those who helped him achieve the honor in his acceptance speech.
"I feel like I'm going to cry because for the past 25 years I've been like, 'World I want to be an actor, and the world is like, 'Maybe computers,'" he joked. "I just want to say thank you to HBO for putting on a show about sweaty middle-aged people on the same network as the sexy teens of Euphoria.”
"Thank you to my sweet husband and my family for never laughing at me," he continued, "And most of all thank you Bridget Everett, you changed my life and you told so many people to believe in themselves and they do. Thank you."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
