The Studio directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg honored Catherine O’Hara during their acceptance speech for outstanding directorial achievement for a comedy series at the 2026 DGA Awards.
“Honestly, there’s no one we wish we could thank in person at this moment more than we would love to thank Catherine O’Hara,” Rogen said, which led the audience to erupt in applause, as Goldberg added, “We grew up in Canada, and she is and was quite literally our idol since we were children.”
O’Hara portrayed movie executive Patty Leigh in Rogen and Goldberg’s Apple TV comedy. She appeared in all 10 episodes of The Studio‘s hit first season, and notably earned herself a 2025 Emmy nomination for best supporting actress in a comedy series.
The Beetlejuice actress died Jan. 30 at her home in Los Angeles after a brief illness. She was 71.
Rogen cited the two-time Emmy winner’s iconic role in the Home Alone franchise as a moment that made him want to make his own films.
“Home Alone honestly is the movie that made me want to make movies in a lot of ways,” he said. “And I mean, in that movie she’s always yelling, ‘Kevin, Kevin,’ and on set she would always be yelling, ‘Evan, Evan!’ And every time she did it, we were like, ‘It’s like Home Alone.’”
“The best part of her is she showed that you can be an utter genius and also the nicest person in the entire world,” Goldberg continued.
“Every day we worked very hard to make the show good enough to warrant her time and her presence. So, ultimately, we would like to thank the DGA for this, but we would mostly like to thank Catherine O’Hara for being such a wonderful person,” Rogen said to conclude their acceptance speech.
Following O’Hara’s death, The Studio cast, crew and producers paid tribute to their late star, with Apple TV and Lionsgate Television sharing in a joint statement, “We are all heartbroken by the loss of Catherine O’Hara.”
Elsewhere on Saturday night’s awards ceremony, Paul Thomas Anderson won the top prize of outstanding directorial achievement in theatrical feature film for One Battle After Another.
“This is an incredible, incredible honor. We’re going to take it with the love that it’s given and the appreciation of all our comrades in this room,” Anderson said during his acceptance speech, noting “obviously we are up here minus one,” paying tribute to first director Adam Somner, who passed away from cancer in November 2024.
Earlier, Christopher Nolan kicked off the night with his first presidential speech since he was elected DGA president, where he acknowledged “that our members are having very hard times.”
“Tonight is a celebration of extraordinary work and it should be a very joyful one, but I do want to start by just acknowledging that our members are having very hard times. In 2024, our employment in our guild was down about 40 percent, and that was followed by another decline in ’25,” Nolan added. “The amount of money that people spend on our work, on entertainment, is very, very stable. Audiences are invested in us, we have to be sure that we’re able to repay that investment.”
See the full 2026 DGA Awards winners list here.
Kirsten Chuba contributed to this report.
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