Mel Brooks, Quinta Brunson Set to Be Honored at This Year’s Peabody Awards
The Peabody Awards will honor actor, comedian, writer, and director Mel Brooks with this year’s Career Achievement Award, while “Abbott Elementary” award-winning writer, producer, actor, and comedian Quinta Brunson will receive the org’s Trailblazer Award. Both Brooks and Brunson were chosen by the Peabody Board of Jurors in a unanimous vote and will be recognized at the 84th Annual Peabody Awards ceremony on June 9 in Los Angeles.
“Mel Brooks is not only one of the most beloved comedians of all time, but he literally set the standard for television comedy from its earliest days. Across TV, film, theater, and recordings, Mr. Brooks is in a league of his own. And Quinta Brunson has emerged as a refreshingly creative force in network television comedy,” said Jeffrey Jones, executive director of Peabody, in a statement. “Peabody is proud to honor Mel and Quinta not only for their extraordinary contributions as storytellers, but particularly for their use of comedy to tell stories that matter, enriching the lives of so many.”
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The Career Achievement Award is given to individuals “whose work and commitment to broadcasting and streaming media have left an indelible mark on the field and in American culture,” the org said, while the Trailblazer Award recognizes “visionaries that are impacting our culture and affecting social change through their innovative storytelling.”
Brooks was chosen for the Career Achievement prize as “a pioneer in spoof comedy and one of the most influential figures in the history of American comedic television, Brooks broke ground through his use of comedy as a form of resistance. Over the course of his distinguished career, he has received two Academy Awards, four Emmys, three Tonys, and three Grammys, amongst other honors.”
Of course, Brooks is known for his works including “The Producers,” “The Twelve Chairs,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Silent Movie,” “High Anxiety,” “History of the World Part I,” “To Be or Not to Be,” “Spaceballs,” “Life Stinks,” “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” and “Dracula: Dead and Loving It.”
He has also received AFI Life Achievement Award, The Kennedy Center Honors, and honorary Oscar and The National Medal of Arts – the highest award given to artists by the United States government.
For the Trailblazer prize, in choosing Brunson for her work on “Abbott Elementary,” Peabody noted that her “work as the series’ showrunner not only reflects Peabody’s mission to honor stories that matter, but also opens doors for the next generation of Black leaders in television.”
Recent Career Achievement Award winners include Rita Moreno, Sam Pollard, Dan Rather, Lily Tomlin, and Cicely Tyson. Brunson is the second recipient of the Trailblazer Award, joining previous honoree Issa Rae.
Last week, the Peabody Awards’ board of jurors revealed nods for arts, children’s/youth, entertainment, interactive & immersive categories, documentary, news, public service and radio/podcast categories for this year’s Peabody Awards.
According to Peabody, the total of 68 nominees were culled from a list of 1,100 entries in all categories; the final nods were chosen by a unanimous vote of 32 jurors.
The 84th annual Peabody Awards will announce winners on May 9, and those honorees will be recognized with a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Sunday, June 9. This reps the Peabody Award’s return to an in-person event for the first time since 2019, and also its first time in L.A. — having previously been held in New York (and virtually over the past four years during the pandemic and Hollywood strikes).
Variety is the media partner for the awards ceremony, which is produced by Bob Bain Productions. Peabody is based at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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