Authors are in the writing and directing races at this year’s Emmys, as are veteran pilots and episode directors. Female directors had a large share in the nominations for drama series, documentaries and variety shows.

As always, the nominees in the writing and directing categories for the annual Emmy derby are a bellwether for the creative community in terms of where they see warmth and excellence when it comes to television shows. It is a creative popularity poll that is sometimes at odds with the popular vote cast by viewers and consumers in the United States and beyond. Lucia Aniello (“Hacks”), Vince Gilligan (“Pluribus”), Steven Conrad (“DTF St. Louis”), Lee Sun Jin (“Beef”) and Brad Ingelsby (“Task”) are the five heavy hitters who earned nominations for both writing and directing in series categories.

In the field of comedy series, the writing nominations were dominated by auteur forces who are on both sides of the camera on their shows. The comedy series director nominees, on the other hand, skewed toward experienced directors and previous nominees. Documentary/nonfiction majors include Mariska Hargitay for her HBO documentary “My Mom Jayne” and Lawrence Kasdan for his study of Martin Short, Netflix’s “Marty, Life is Short.”

Among drama series, Salli Richardson Whitfield marked a milestone in the Emmy record books by becoming the first black woman to receive two directing nominations in the same category in the same year. Richardson Whitfield’s reach is demonstrated by his nominations for HBO’s period drama “The Gilded Age” and HBO’s “Task,” the earthy crime film starring Mark Ruffalo.

Richardson Whitfield will compete against Hannah M. Culpepper for Hulu’s “Paradise.” “The Pitt” star Noah Wyle earned a directing nomination for his work behind the lens on the episode “12:00 PM.” Highly decorated “Breaking Bad” creator Gilligan is nominated for the pilot for Apple TV’s “Pluribus.” And Saul Metzstein is nominated for the “Scars” installment of Apple TV’s “Slow Horses.”

Among comedy directors, the list includes familiar names: Lucia Aniello (“Hacks”), Randall Einhorn (“Abbott Elementary”), Mary Lou Belli (“The Ms. Pat Show”), Hiro Murai (“Widow’s Bay”) and Christopher Storer (“The Bear”). HBO’s quirky black comedy “The Chair Company” is represented with a mention for Andrew DeYoung.

Netflix’s “Beef” took two of the four nominations for directing a limited series. One went to showrunner/creator Lee Sung Jin, the other to Jake Schreier. Jason Bateman is in the mix for Netflix crime drama “Black Rabbit,” while showrunner Steven Conrad is for HBO’s “DTF St. Louis.”

Liz Patrick of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” and Yvonne De Mare of CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” were nominated in the variety show category, which now covers late-night variety shows. Andy Fisher is up for his job on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

The life of Mel Brooks, the trials of Sean Combs and the work of Martin Scorsese were among the topics that drew documentary directing nominations for Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio (“Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!”), Alexandria Stapleton (“Sean Combs: The Reckoning”) and Rebecca Miller (“Mr. Scorsese”).

The list of shows that earned nominations for reality directing was close to the list of top series nominated in the category. Bertram van Munster (“The Amazing Race”), Cian O’Clery (“Love on the Spectrum”), Nick Murray (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”), Anna Moulaison (“Top Chef”) and Ben Archard (“The Traitors”).

Among the tribe of scribes, four of the six comedy series writing nominees went to those who are also front and center as stars: Quinta Brunson of “Abbott Elementary”; Tim Robinson for “The Chair Company” (with Zach Kanin), Lisa Kudrow (with co-creator Michael Patrick King) for HBO’s “The Comeback” and Paul W. Downs (with Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky) for HBO Max’s “Hacks.” Katie Dippold, creator and showrunner of Apple TV’s “Widow’s Bay” and Anthony King of Prime Video’s “Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat” took the other two offers.

For the writing of drama series, the showrunners called the shots. “The Pitt” earned two nominations, one for Kirsten Pierre-Geyfman and showrunner R. Scott Gemmill and another for Valerie Chu. Gilligan of “Pluribus,” Will Smith of Apple TV’s “Slow Horses,” Brad Ingelsby of “Task” and Debora Cahn (with Peter Ackerman) of Netflix’s “The Diplomat” are all in the running.

Megan Gallagher is a newcomer to the limited series field with a writing nomination for Peacock’s “All Her Fault.” Lee Sun Jin of “Beef” and Conrad of “DTF St. Louis” are contenders as are Gate Rotter and Daniel Pearle for Netflix’s “The Beast in Me” and Mike Makowsky for Netflix’s “Death By Lightning.”

Offers to write variety series went to staff at HBO’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.” Comedians Chris Fleming, Nikki Glaser and Wanda Sykes earned Emmy bids for variety writing for their specials “Live at the Palace” (HBO), “Good Girl” (Hulu) and “Legacy” (Netflix). Also in the mix is ​​the staff of Disney+’s “The Muppet Show” and ABC’s Academy Awards telecast.

For telling the story of “The American Revolution” as the nation celebrates its 250th birthday, Geoffrey C. Ward, a longtime Ken Burns collaborator, earned the 10th Emmy nomination of his career in the nonfiction program category. “Daily Show” correspondent Jordan Klepper and others are nominated for the Comedy Central special “Jordan Klepper Fingers The Pulse: Give The Man A Prize.” And Apple TV’s “The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy” earned a nomination for writers David Reilly and Christine Rose.

(Pictured: Mariska Hargitay, Quinta Brunson and Tim Robinson)