'Grey's Anatomy' Team Celebrate Sandra Oh's Historic Emmy Nomination: 'Well Deserved'

Even though Sandra Oh hasn't been back on Grey's Anatomy since leaving the show in 2014, her former co-stars are still celebrating her historic Emmy moment on Thursday.

The Killing Eve star became the first Asian woman to be nominated in a lead actress category by the Television Academy for her stunning turn as MI-5 agent Eve Polastri. Oh, who is Korean-Canadian, reacted to her history-making moment, telling ET in a statement, "I share this moment with my community."

Previously, Oh received five straight nominations from 2005 to 2009 in the supporting actress in a drama category for playing Dr. Cristina Yang on Grey's, though she never won.

Grey's star Justin Chambers celebrated Oh's achievement with a simple tweet. 

Actress Stefania Spampinato, who joined the show several years after Oh left, also praised the former Grey's star, calling her an "absolute idol."

Showrunner Krista Vernoff shared an enthusiastic (and NSFW) message following Oh's nomination. "Sandra Oh! Sandra Oh! Sandra Oh!!!!" Vernoff tweeted. "I mean. For f*ck’s sake. This is everything. This is so incredibly well deserved."

Meanwhile, Grey's creator Shonda Rhimes retweeted Ava DuVernay's social media post celebrating Oh breaking through the Emmy glass ceiling. "2018. Damn. Congrats to #SandraOh. And saluting all the Asian actresses overlooked for decades. #Emmys," DuVernay tweeted.

Rhimes' production company, Shondaland, also wrote a sweet message to Oh, along with a GIF from an old Grey's moment with Oh and Ellen Pompeo's characters happily dancing.

"Our hearts are also bursting with pride and excitement for Sandra Oh, making history as the first woman of Asian descent to be nominated for Lead Actress in a Drama Series!" the tweet read.

Pompeo was a little late to the party but made sure to congratulate her former co-star and onscreen best friend. "I was not on my phone yesterday and clearly missed ALOT!!! Congratulations @IamSandraOh," she tweeted. "This is beyond well deserved and your history making is incredibly moving. Can't wait to hear your speech!! Which will have us in tears and laughing at the same time no I'm sure."

And Katherine Heigl expressed her congratulations hours later. "I felt an absolute swelling of pride yesterday when the Emmy nominations were announced and my old co-star and friend @IamSandraOh was on the list for a much deserved best actress nom for her incredible work on one of my new favorite shows @killingeve," she wrote. "Congrats my old friend!" 

Oh earned the first lead actress Emmy nomination of her career for her role as MI-5 officer Eve Polastri in the critically acclaimed series, Killing Eve, in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category. She will be competing against last year's Emmy winner, Elisabeth Moss, Claire Foy, Tatiana Maslany, Keri Russell and Evan Rachel Wood.

As one of just a handful of visible Asian actors working in film and television, Oh was candid when she spoke with ET in January about the importance of playing her part in showing that people who looked like her are capable of subverting stereotypes. 

"I feel acutely aware of how important it is and I absolutely want to be a part of it in the best way possible," Oh said at the time. "The best way possible that I know how is to find the most interesting material and to do my best work for it. It’s too important to not care about it or to not try and be out of the box in some sort of way."

"The central voice of the show is a woman. The lead characters are women," she continued. "The people producing are women. There is still a lot more work to do in diversity in front and behind the camera, but to be actively involved in creating something... Where can I go and see myself in some way?”

The 70th Emmy Awards, co-hosted by Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost and Michael Che, will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, Sept. 17, starting at 5 p.m. PT on NBC.

Check out the full list of nominees and follow ET’s ongoing Emmy coverage here.

RELATED CONTENT: