With his Emmy win Sunday night, Benj Pasek entered an exclusive club that has only 21 entertainers as members.
The composer, who grew up in Ardmore and graduated from the Friends’ Central School in Wynnewood, has now earned all four major awards in show business. As the recipient of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, he’s an EGOT winner — an honor that puts him in company with Audrey Hepburn and Elton John.
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Pasek and his songwriting partner Justin Paul achieved the rare entertainment grand slam with their Emmy for outstanding original music and lyrics for their work on “Only Murders in the Building.” The pair prevailed with the memorable patter song “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” They shared the Emmy win with collaborators Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, though only Pasek and Paul earned the EGOT.
Pasek offered few words on the victory on his social media — apart from “gobsmacked” and “ummm” — but Paul spoke on their behalf after the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony, which precedes the televised Emmy awards show on Sept. 15.
“It’s obviously thrilling and very wild to think about,” Paul said. “I think that getting to do it alongside two of our musical heroes, who gave us our very first job in television, is what makes it most meaningful. And getting to do it with a collaboration that was probably one of the most joyful that we’ve ever had in our careers, on a TV show that is one of our favorite(s) in the history of television shows, on a show that is so joyful to work on, is really what makes it all so very meaningful.”
Pasek and Paul started their EGOT journey in 2017 with an Oscar win for best original song for “City of Stars” from “La La Land.” They earned a Tony later that year for best original score for the musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” which also gave them a Grammy in 2018 for best musical theater album. The duo picked up an additional Grammy for their work on the soundtrack to “The Greatest Showman” and another Tony for producing “A Strange Loop.”
They had previously been nominated for an Emmy in 2018 for their music in “A Christmas Story Live!” but lost to “Saturday Night Live.”
Pasek and Paul’s feat is historic for another reason. The pair have achieved an EGOT in the shortest time span, over a seven-and-a-half-year period. At 39, they are also the youngest EGOT winners alongside composer Robert Lopez and John Legend — though technically, Lopez edges them all out since he completed his awards set just one week after his 39th birthday.
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