The creative arts Emmy Awards are set to be handed out, with nominees including Pedro Pascal, Melanie Lynskey and Barack and Michelle Obama.

Pascal is nominated for best actor in a drama for The Last of Us, and is also up for best guest actor in a comedy series for hosting Saturday Night Live and for his narration of a CNN documentary on Patagonia.

New Zealand-born Lynskey, nominated for best actress in a drama for Yellowjackets, is up for best guest actress in a drama for her one-episode appearance on Pascal’s The Last of Us.

That series and Succession are the two top overall Emmy nominees.

All of the dozen nominees in Lynskey’s category and best guest actor in a drama come from the two HBO shows.

The Saturday and Sunday ceremonies are a precursor to the main Emmy ceremony on January 15, with “black-ish” star Anthony Anderson as host.

Like the main telecast, the creative arts ceremonies arrive after a four-month delay because of Hollywood’s writers’ and actors’ strikes.

Almost 100 trophies will be handed out on the weekend in a pair of marathon sessions that are generally a chance for less famous players – from hairdressers to stunt performers – to have their moment at the podium.

But a handful of awards annually claim major names among their nominees.

Among them this year is Barack Obama, who can repeat as best narrator, this time for adding his voice to the Netflix documentary series Working: What We Do All Day.

He’s in a star-studded category that also includes Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett and Pascal. (The former US president previously won for narrating a Netflix series on national parks.)

Michelle Obama is also up for an Emmy alongside Oprah Winfrey.

Each is nominated for best hosted non-fiction series or special for their Netflix show The Light We Carry.

It would be Michelle Obama’s first, while Winfrey would be adding a second prime-time Emmy on top of her 18 daytime Emmys.

Both Working and The Light We Carry come from the Obamas’ production company, Higher Ground.

-AAP