Makeup artist Emily Walsh went from growing up in a small Aussie town to winning an Emmy Award
Historical drama series Shōgun was easily one of biggest hits to come out of 2024.
The series swept at the Emmy Awards this year, taking home a total of 18 trophies.
Among the stars who took to the stage to accept an Emmy for their work on the show was 34-year-old Aussie Emily Walsh.
The homegrown makeup artist and her team won the Outstanding Period or Fantasy/Sci-Fi Makeup (Non-Prosthetic) award – a moment she tells 9honey Style had her in shock.
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Emily Walsh won a 2024 Emmy Award for her work on Shōgun. Supplied
But before she cracked the industry and became an Emmy Award-winning makeup artist, Walsh grew up in a small Aussie town, dreaming of working in film.
The now 34-year-old was born in January 1990 in Cootamundra Hospital, located in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales.
Walsh grew up with dual Australian and Canadian citizenship thanks to her mother Karen Walsh, who was born in Canada and worked as a teacher at TAFE NSW for years.
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Growing up, the Cootamundra local always wanted to be in the industry – but she originally had her sights set on a different Hollywood job.
"I was always interested in working in film and thought I wanted to act, until I saw a behind the scenes clip of the makeup artist on Pirates of the Caribbean and realised makeup didn't just have to be about beauty but also making fun characters and giving them a back story just with makeup," she writes to 9Honey while working in Canada on a new television project.
Walsh (third from right) accepting the award earlier this month. Supplied
Decided on pursuing a career in film, Walsh found a TAFE NSW course she could undertake in Cootamundra while finishing her final two years of high school.
The makeup artist graduated in 2007 with a combined hair, beauty and makeup course – a course Walsh credits with helping get her towards the goal of working in television.
Her beauty and makeup teacher encouraged her to further her education.
That was when Walsh relocated from her small Aussie town to the big city, studying at Sydney's Napolean Perdis Makeup Academy and going on to work in freelance.
With years of Aussie study under her belt, the next step was pursuing a career overseas.
Walsh jetted to Canada – or the "Hollywood North", as Walsh says it's been nicknamed as Canada is just as busy, "if not often more than Hollywood itself."
"It's the reason I stayed here in Vancouver!" she says.
Walsh working on the set of Shogun during the pandemic. Supplied
The TAFE NSW graduate enrolled at the Vancouver Film School and never looked back.
As for her 'I made it' moment in film, that came early on in her career when she was "blown away" the first time she stepped onto a large sound stage.
But things only got bigger from there for the homegrown creative, with the highlight of her career so far still to come.
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A few years ago Walsh heard from a friend and coworker about an opportunity to work on a new series shooting in Canada.
The project was Shōgun – the wildly popular adaptation of James Clavell's 1975 novel.
Walsh worked on the makeup for the TV series with department head Rebecca Lee, creating incredible looks to bring the 17th century Japan period to life.
Walsh worked on the hair and makeup for the series Shōgun. AP
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The team worked on the series during the global COVID-19 pandemic from September 2021 until the end of April 2022, a factor Walsh says made it all "extra challenging".
Two years on and Walsh's work has paid off with an award win at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 8 for Shōgun's eight episode, The Abyss of Life.
The Aussie joined her coworkers on stage to accept the honour. But there was surprising thought going through her mind in the career-making moment...
"At first, I was just in shock then just trying not to trip when we walked onto to stage," she admits.
"It all seems a blur now, but I remember holding on to the girls on stage and we were shaking - we were in such disbelief!" she recalls, adding it still feels "very surreal".
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