Charles Melton Says History-Making Emmy Nomination for ‘Beef’ Is ‘Something I Don’t Take Lightly’ (Exclusive)

Charles Melton, a first-time nominee at the 2026 Emmy Awards, tells PEOPLE that his nomination for ‘Beef’ season 2 is “something I don’t take lightly.” In a new interview, he reflects on how life has changed since he filmed the series — he’s a dad! — and how his ‘Riverdale’ “family” showed him love following the news.

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Charles Melton is a first-time nominee at the 2026 Emmy Awards

He was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his role as Austin in season 2 of Beef

Ahead of the awards show on Sept. 14, Melton reflects on how life has changed since he filmed the series — he’s a dad! — and how his Riverdale “family” showed him love after the nomination

A lot has changed since Charles Melton stepped onto the set of Beef last year.

The actor is now a father (he welcomed a daughter with his wife, Camille Summers-Valli, earlier this year) and has filmed two other projects since filming wrapped in Korea in June 2025 on the second installment of Lee Sung Jin’s award-winning anthology series.

“I’m on my third project since I finished Beef,” Melton, 35, tells PEOPLE as he makes lunch on a rare day off in Los Angeles. “A lot of life has happened since I finished that show.”

One new development in his life is that the show earned him his first-ever Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. In the Netflix hit, he plays Austin, a fledgling personal trainer-slash country club worker, whose recent engagement to Ashley (Cailee Spaeny) is thrown off course when the pair witness a vicious fight between their bosses, married couple Josh (Oscar Isaac) and Lindsay (Carey Mulligan).

He’s the first mixed-race Korean American to be nominated in the category. “It’s very cool, as an artist, to represent a lot of different things [for] people that look close to me or like me,” he says.

Melton was in Paris with Summers-Valli and their daughter on the day the nominations were announced. (The family splits their time between L.A. and Paris.) “I was trying not to tune in,” he confesses. “We [were] eight or nine hours ahead, and so maybe about a minute before the online nominations thing came out, I looked to my wife, and I was like, ‘Hey, should we turn it on?’ And we did.”

“It takes a second to hit,” he says of the nomination. “But it’s amazing to me when anybody gets recognized for their work. For me, I think about the crew, truly. I’m just one of 600 artists that came together to make that show what it was. So to be recognized and celebrated, it’s something I don’t take lightly.”

He doesn’t have any real plans for the ceremony, which will take place at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on Monday, Sept. 14. “I think you figure it out on the day. I have such a great team that supports me, and I think it’s exciting to celebrate, but you can’t really overthink it until it’s the day,” he says. “I think to be recognized is enough for me. And if there so happens to be a speech, I don’t know. Not really thinking about it.”

As for who might be on his arm for the evening, Melton plays it coy. “You’re just going to have to wait and see.”

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This year’s Emmy Awards will be the second major awards show that he attends as a nominee, after his leading role in May December secured him a nod at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards. He starred alongside Julianne Moore in the film, which was loosely inspired by the ‘90s Mary Kay Letourneau scandal. His first breakout role happened years earlier playing Reggie Mantle in Riverdale in 2017.

His costars from that show — “my Riverdale family,” as he calls them — were among the first to congratulate him on the day of the Emmy nominations. “They all hit me up. It was great. KJ [Apa], his son is my godson. I see all those guys and everyone’s working, doing their own thing,” Melton says. “Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa], the creator of Riverdale, was one of the first people to reach out to me. He’s an icon.”

“I said this when I was filming Riverdale, people were asking me about it, and I said Riverdale was my Juilliard. And someone asked, what is Beef? And I was like, Beef was me coming home,” he says of getting to film the latter half of the series in Seoul. “I grew up in Korea for five years, and my whole family in Korea — I could never imagine them coming to a film set, and they came, so it was very special.”

That’s an experience that he never would’ve shared with his loved ones without the seven-season CW series, which concluded in 2023. “I’m a believer that for each filming experience, that is an experience of life, which I believe sets you up to [do] the next thing you’re going to do. Each movie or each project represents a chapter of your journal. They all inform each other.”

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Even now, Melton’s focus is on what’s next, but he knows he has a fun night ahead in September. “I’m not going to these award shows looking for my next job. I already am doing my next job. I’m there to celebrate and give thanks. It’s hard to celebrate yourself sometimes.”

“It’s going to be fun. I’m looking forward to it, I really am,” he says, adding, “It’s pretty sick, I can’t lie.”

Beef season 2 is now streaming on Netflix, and the 78th Emmy Awards air live on Monday, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.

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