Chiwetel Ejiofor, Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey & More Earn SAG Nominations

The 2014 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations were announced bright and early Wednesday morning and nine of our favorite actors, actresses and dramas starring Black leads were nominated. Yeah!

Both Chiwetel Ejiofor and Forest Whitaker scored nods in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for their work in 12 Years a Slave and Lee Daniels’ The Butler respectively.

Their onscreen supporting counterparts, Lupita Nyongo and Oprah Winfrey, were also recognized with nominations in the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role category for their gripping portrayals in 12 Years a Slave and Lee Daniel’s The Butler.

Both dramas received nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture as well.

On the television front, Angela Bassett was the only Black actress to be nominated in the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for her role as Coretta Scott King in Betty & Coretta. While Don Cheadle picked up a nomination in the Outstanding Male Actor in a Comedy Series category for his role as scheming, yet brilliant, consultant Martin ‘Marty’ Kaan in Showtime’s House of Lies.

And last, but certainly not least, newlywed and mommy-to-be Kerry Washington, whose career is on fire this year, earned a nomination for her role as Olivia Pope in Scandal in the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series.

The SAG nominations note the beginning of the 2014 awards season and are often times used to possibly predict both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations to come. Let’s give it up for Black Hollywood winning big already!

Click here to see a complete list of nominees.