The Peabody Awards said Thursday that Lily Tomlin has won the Peabody Career Achievement Award, and Issa Rae the Peabody Trailblazer Award. The honors will be bestowed during a ceremony for the 83rd annual Peabody Awards on June 11 in Los Angeles.
Jessica Williams, who currently stars in the Apple TV+ series Shrinking, has been set to host the ceremony, the first time the event will take place in L.A. A total of 69 nominees are up for awards honoring 2022’s most compelling and empowering stories in the fields of Entertainment, Documentary, News, Arts, Children’s/Youth, Podcast/Radio, Interactive & Immersive and Public Service. Those winners will be revealed May 9.
Other honorary Peabody winners this year include NBC’s Today, which won the organization’s Institutional Award, and Sundance Film Festival senior programmer Shari Frilot received the first-ever Visionary Award.
“Beyond our annual awards recognizing the most compelling stories, Peabody is dedicated to recognizing individuals that inspire and delight us,” Jeffrey Jones, executive director of Peabody said today in a release announcing the news. “Lily Tomlin has made so many people laugh over the decades with her remarkable talent, and Issa Rae has proven herself a profound entertainment storyteller, performer, and force for good. We’re thrilled to recognize Issa and Lily for not only their extraordinary contributions to storytelling, but also for their important role and place for women in comedy and entertainment.”
Tomlin, who has won two Peabodys during her career, has won seven Emmys, two Tonys and a Grammy. She joins Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Cicely Tyson, Dan Rather and Sam Pollard as recent winners of the career honor.
The Trailblazer honor “recognizes visionaries that are impacting our culture and affecting social change through their innovative storytelling,” the Peabodys said. Rae’s work includes winning a Peabody for her HBO series Insecure, with recent credits including a Black Lady Sketch Show and Rap Sh!t, in addition to her work across fields with with HOORAE, Raedio and ColorCreative.
