Beyond the Gates’ Karla Mosley on First Daytime Emmy Nomination: ‘I Allowed Myself to Want It’ (Excl)
Karla Mosley just scored her first Daytime Emmy nomination and is in the running for Outstanding Lead Actress for her work as Dani Dupree on Beyond the Gates. She spoke to Soap Opera Digest about the milestone moment in her career.
Karla Mosley Reflects on First Daytime Emmy Nomination
The actress admits that she was so nervous to find out if she’d scored a nomination that “I had my mom and my sister and my partner stationed to watch” when the category was announced on Entertainment Tonight on July 13. When the good news reached her, “Michele [Val Jean, the creator, head writer and show runner of BTG] was the first to text me. We’ve been together since The Bold and the Beautiful [where Val Jean was a writer and Mosley played Maya Avant], so the fact that it came from her was perfect!”
More calls and texts from friends at BTG and across the daytime lineup began pouring in, leaving Mosley with “the biggest perma-grin on my face… I felt overwhelmed by love.”
That joy only blossomed further when the full list of nominations came out, and BTG racked up 15 nods in its first year of eligibility. “We all worked so hard, and in some ways, this was not the little engine, but that big steam train that could,” she enthuses. “Everyone puts in not just time, but care and heart. As the nominations were coming out, we were all together, screaming and hugging each other in the hair and makeup room. It was so exciting.”
When it comes to her own nomination, the recognition is that much sweeter because she is sharing it with her co-star Tamara Tunie (Anita). Declares Mosley, “I don’t know that I would have accepted a nomination without her being nominated as well. She is so much a part of my journey on this show. I respect her immensely, I’ve learned from and I just feel honored to be standing with her in this category. It kind of elevates my own sense of who I am as an artist.”
Mosley’s first nomination is a personal milestone, but it is not lost on her that 2026 marks the first time two Black actresses have been nominated together in the Lead Actress. “It wasn’t until this morning that I kind of stepped back and realized that,” she says. “The history of this moment is not going unnoticed on any of us. We’ve been a part of history in so many different ways on the show, and this is just another one. I feel very proud to be a part of it.”
Karla Mosley’s Road to the Daytime Emmys
Long before Mosley was Dani, she was Christina on Guiding Light. That’s where she beganher soap career in 2008 — and where she first worked with Lawrence Saint-Victor as Remy. Later, the pair were reunited as co-stars on B&B, where he continues to play Carter and she played Maya, a groundbreaking transgender character.
Saint-Victor also got his first nomination this year, in the Supporting Actor category. “I’ve put in a lot of work for almost 20 years now, which is really wild to think about,” Mosley notes. “I was texting with Lawrence, who’s my brother in all of this, and the fact that we’re both nominated for the first time in the same year is this very weird synchronicity.”
Her former B&B boss, Brad Bell, was among those reaching out to Mosley with congratulations when the Lead Actress contenders were announced. “I said to him, ‘It feels like a continuation of the work that we did there — obviously building on it in a much bigger way with Beyond the Gates [the first soap with a cast of predominantly Black actors], but certainly a continuation of all that we built then. To be a part of groundbreaking stories not once but twice just very divine.”
What Karla Mosley Submitted For The Daytime Emmys
She can breathe a sigh of relief knowing she’s nominated, but admits, “I had a lot of anxiety putting the reel [the scenes submitted for judging] together.” And it was through that process that she realized, “This is a big practice in receiving — believing and receiving — for me… I allowed myself to want it.”
Where her reel was concerned, “Once I got into the project, it became fun. I thankfully had such wonderful material that I was able to both tell a story and show a wide range of what I can do. I started with the golf club in Bill’s [Timon Kyle Durrett] office and then I got done at the wedding, but then I had a funny scene where she’s talking about Ashley [Jen Jacob] with Andre [Sean Freeman] at Uptown and that sort of witty banter and then the scene where Chelsea [RhonniRose Mantilla] comes out to her and then I put in when Dani is doing the mugshot photo shoot. I was able to make it flow in a fun way.”
With the hard part behind her, she can look forward to the ceremony, which will take place on October 30, 2026. “The beauty of the Emmys is that it’s sort of like prom for all of us,” she smiles. You get to see all your friends from different shows. I’m really looking forward to celebrating our accomplishments — certainly the accomplishments of Beyond the Gates, but also the accomplishments and strides of daytime over these this last year and a half [since the show premiered]. I think Beyond the Gates and the energy that we’ve brought to the genre has been a big part of that. So, I’m excited to be with all of our friends and make new friends and introduce new friends to old friends — and I’m excited for my mom to be there, too.”
Bringing Mom as a plus-one was a no-brainer. Mosley says, “She’s been my cheerleader from day one and she certainly earned it, driving me to play rehearsals, getting me down to NYU. She certainly deserves to be there — almost more than me!”
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