The full list of ‘EGOT’ winners: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award recipients

Just 19 people in history have achieved ‘EGOT’ status by winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony during their career - and that number won’t grow at the 2024 Academy Awards. None of the nominees at this month’s Oscars are a statuette away from completing the set.

However, actor Danielle Brooks has become an ‘EGOT nominee’. Named among this year’s contenders for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Color Purple, Brooks joins a group of nearly 100 artists who have received at least one nomination for each of the four major performing-arts awards.

How did the term ‘EGOT’ come about?

Actor Philip Michael Thomas is credited with coining the acronym in a 1984 interview. Talking to the Associated Press, the Miami Vice star revealed he had set himself the goal of claiming each of the ‘EGOT’ awards, which recognise outstanding achievement in the worlds of TV, music, film and Broadway theatre, respectively.

Thomas even took to wearing an ‘EGOT’ medallion, albeit he later claimed in an interview with People magazine that the letters actually stood for “energy, growth, opportunity and talent”. Though a winner of a People’s Choice award, the 74-year-old has never received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar or Tony; indeed, he has never been nominated.

TV show’s plot grows ‘EGOT’ exposure

While the term has been around for 40 years, ‘EGOT’ didn’t earn its current prominence in show business parlance until 2009, when it began to feature in a recurring subplot in the comedy TV series 30 Rock.

In the NBC show’s fourth season, the fictional movie star Tracy Jordan (played by Tracy Morgan) encounters a medallion bearing the letters ‘EGOT’ as he looks for a present for his wife in a jewellery store. When the shop assistant explains what the acronym stands for, Tracy buys the medallion and sets about trying to do the awards quadruple, declaring: “That’s a good goal for a talented crazy person.”

Who has won an ‘EGOT’?

Of the 19 winners of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, songwriter and playwright Robert Lopez stands alone as the only individual to have clinched a ‘double EGOT’ by receiving each award twice.

The most recent addition to the ‘EGOT’ club was British musician Elton John, who clinched a career ‘grand slam’ when he won Outstanding Live Variety Special at the delayed 2023 Primetime Emmys in January. The 76-year-old had previously won two Oscars, five Grammys and a Tony.

Non-competitive ‘EGOT’ winners

Meanwhile, six artists - Barbra Streisand, Liza Minelli, James Earl Jones, Harry Belafonte, Quincy Jones and Frank Marshall - have managed what is known as a ‘non-competitive EGOT’. This means that they have received awards at each of the Emmys, Grammys, Oscars and Tonys, but needed at least one honorary accolade - such as a lifetime-achievement prize - to complete a clean sweep.

2024 Oscars: date, start time, how to watch

Held at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre, the 96th Academy Awards are to take place at 7pm ET/4pm PT on Sunday 10 March. Viewers in the US can watch the show, which is to be hosted by the comedian Jimmy Kimmel, on ABC.