Catherine O’Hara was posthumously awarded an Actor Award on Sunday for her performance in The Studio.

The Schitt’s Creek star died in January at the age of 71 following a brief illness, having made her final public appearance at the 2025 Emmy Awards in September.

The star and creator of The Studio Seth Rogen went on stage to accept the best actress in a comedy award on O’Hara’s behalf, in front of a visibly emotional Hollywood crowd.

On the Apple TV show, O’Hara played studio exec turned producer powerhouse Patty Leigh, in a role that strove for film quality before commercial success, in the face of Rogen’s character Matt Remick’s swerve towards the former.

Rogen had prepared a speech to accept O’Hara’s posthumous award and was audibly moved as he told the audience: ‘I was asked to assume the very sad honour of accepting this award on O’Hara’s behalf.’

The 43-year-old said he knew O’Hara would have been ‘honoured’ to have been in the same category as stars Jenna Ortega, Jean Smart, Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Wiig at the Actor Awards, formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

‘She was such big fans of all of yours,’ he said, before sharing his recent reflections on working with O’Hara on The Studio.

‘Something I’ve just been marvelling at over the last few weeks was really her ability to be generous and kind and gracious while never ever minimising her own talents, and her own ability to contribute to the work that we were doing,’ he said.

The camera moved to O’Hara’s fellow nominee and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice co-star Ortega at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in LA, as she wiped away tears.

‘She knew she could destroy and she wanted to destroy every day on set,’ Rogen continued.

‘I haven’t said this to the other actors, because I haven’t wanted them to get ideas, but pretty much every evening before she had a shooting day on our show, she would email me and [co-creator Evan Goldberg] an email that always was pretty similar, that said, “Hello, I hope you’ll consider the following”, and then there would be a completely rewritten version of the scene that she was in.’

Saturday Night Live alum Wiig laughed in the gathered crowd as Rogen went on to say that O’Hara’s notes would make a scene better ‘100 percent of the time’.

He continued: ‘She really showed that you can be a genius and be kind, and one of those things does not have to come at the expense of the other in any way, shape or form.

‘If you have people in your lives who don’t know her work – if you have kids in your lives or people that are out of touch or stupid or something – just show them O’Hara dancing to Harry Belafonte in Beetlejuice. 

‘Show them O’Hara hurting her knee in Best in Show and doing that amazing thing where she hobbles around. And tell the people as they’re laughing that that’s Catherine O’Hara, and we’re lucky that we got to live in a world where she so genuinely got to share her talents with us.’

The Studio is available to stream on Apple TV.

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Gone but never forgotten.

Rob Reiner, Catherine O’Hara and Diane Keaton were some of the many celebrities included in Sunday’s SAG Actor Awards 2026 In Memoriam segment.

The tribute kicked off with a photo of “Dawson’s Creek” star James Van Der Beek — who died on Feb. 11 at the age of 48 following a battle with cancer — appearing on the big screen.

A clip also played of “Grey’s Anatomy” star Eric Dane saying, “Don’t waste one single minute.” Dane tragically passed away on Feb. 19 at 53, less than a year after announcing he was diagnosed with ALS.

As for O’Hara, she was remembered with a series of clips from her long career, which included projects like “Home Alone” and “Schitt’s Creek.”

“When it all comes together, and you make a good movie, it’s good forever,” she said in a clip from “The Studio,” which brought O’Hara the first-ever SAG-AFTRA posthumous award for outstanding female actress in a comedy series earlier in the night.

O’Hara died from a pulmonary embolism in Los Angeles on Jan. 30. She was 71.

Other big names honored Sunday night included Reiner, Keaton, Gene Hackman, Val Kilmer and Robert Redford.

Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were murdered and found dead at their Brentwood home on Dec. 14. The “When Harry Met Sally” director was 78, and his wife was 70.

Keaton died from pneumonia on Oct. 11. The beloved “Annie Hall” star was 79.

Additional notable celebrities remembered during the SAG Actor Awards 2026 included Michelle Trachtenberg, Peter Greene, Graham Greene, Robert Carradine, Brigitte Bardot, James Ransone, Michael Madsen, Loni Anderson, George Wendt, Jonathan Joss, Loretta Swit, Diane Ladd, Julian McMahon and Malcolm-Jamal Warner.

Sarah Paulson introduced the emotional In Memoriam segment with a touching speech before the montage began.

“Actors make up a family of souls bonded by a challenging pursuit, by valuing our creative spirit and often brought close by our mutual support and affection,” she began.

“I am proud to be in the family of actors in this room and all over the world,” the actress added. “It is a tremendous privilege to work and to share such rich times with so many gifted people.”

Paulson went on to describe the celebrities that Hollywood has lost over the past year as “true giants” who were “teachers,” “co-workers,” “inspirations” and “friends.”

“All of us have been lifted by them,” she concluded. “We are happier, wiser, made just a bit more expansive by their shared spirit, and we must remember how lucky we are to have been changed by them, and we have been.”