The Pitt won two competitive awards Saturday at the first Easterseals Disability Arts & Culture Awards, held at The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. HBO's hospital drama took Best Scripted Series and Best Achievement in a Casting Ensemble at the inaugural DARCYS ceremony.

The awards program has rebranded from the Media Access Awards, founded in 1979. Easterseals Southern California and Film Independent co-produced the event, which recognizes disability representation across film, television and media. Comedian and cerebral palsy advocate Tina Friml hosted.

What did the first DARCYS class look like?

The competitive winners spanned features, documentaries and digital work:

• Best Feature: Lauren Meyering and Mackenzie Breeden's project, with featured talent Lillian Carrier and Matthew Schwab
• Best Performance in a Feature: Anna Sargent, Take Me Home
• Best Documentary: The Haunting of Pennhurst, directed by Mike Attie, Katarina Poljak and Nathan R. Stenberg
• Best Scripted Series: The Pitt
• Best Performance in a Scripted Series: Daniel Monks, All Her Fault
• Best Unscripted Series: Renegades, created by Day Al-Mohamed
• Best Achievement in Casting Ensemble: The Pitt
• Best Social Creator: Cassidy Huff, @CassHuff

Two honorary awards anchored the night. Facts of Life star Geri Jewell received the inaugural DARCYS Legacy Award at age 70. Vincent Rutley took the Christopher Reeve Emerging Talent Award, noting onstage that the ceremony fell on his 41st birthday.

Film Independent President Juan Devis, who took the post in April after acting president Brenda Robinson, addressed the program's history. Robinson had led the organization following Josh Welsh's passing in January 2025. Devis told Deadline: "What we have been fighting for, for 42 years, is access and representation and pushing for the entire ecosystem to understand the value of what we bring." He added that the Easterseals partnership has spanned more than a decade.

How did The Pitt sweep its categories?

Casting director Cathy Sandrich Gelfond accepted the ensemble award alongside featured cast members Tal Anderson, Taylor Dearden, Jessica "Limer" Flores, Christopher Thornton and Diana Elizabeth Jordan. Sandrich credited creators John Wells, R. Scott Gemmill and Noah Wyle with committing to underrepresented communities on television.

"It was an enormous thrill for all of us to cast a disabled actor in a role that had not originally been conceived or written as a character with a disability," Sandrich said. She said the production changed a character's gender to secure the right casting, and that writers created roles specifically for disabled actors.

Anderson thanked Easterseals, HBO Max and Warner Bros. "Authentic representation is very, very important," Anderson said. "And The Pitt has done such an amazing, spectacular job when it comes to authentic stories and representation."

What funding numbers surfaced onstage?

Renegades series producer Amanda Upson delivered the night's most concrete industry appeal. The five-episode PBS docuseries, hosted by musician and disability rights advocate Lachi, highlights historical figures with disabilities. Upson said the project grew into a vision shared by more than 50 disabled filmmakers.

"We prove that empowering disabled talent behind the camera yields nuanced storytelling that outperforms traditional programming. Please check out their work and hire them," Upson said. She cited approximately $45 million in funding cuts under the current administration and called on studios, streamers and foundations to close the gap.

"In the face of near-invisible onscreen representation in this onslaught of systematic erasure, we need allies," Upson said. "Studios and foundations, it is your turn to show up and invest mightily in us."

What did the host and honorees say?

Friml opened by calling the gathering a "truly mass disabling event" and offered her own reading of the DARCYS acronym: "Yeah, you're a good person for watching this." She referenced The Pitt on healthcare: "I'm still on a payment plan with Doc McStuffins, and that ended six years ago." Her in-memoriam segment eulogized disability tropes instead of people, including "Characters That Would Rather Die Than Be Disabled," "The Miracle Cure," "Cripping Up" and "Teary Eyes."

Jewell recalled meeting Norman Lear in 1980 at the second annual Media Access Awards, where producer Fern Field introduced them after Lear saw her stand-up routine. "He said, 'You're real funny, kid, but you're way before your time.' I said, 'So wait a couple months.' He waited two months, and then he cast me on The Facts of Life," Jewell said.

Attendees included Marlee Matlin, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Lisa Whelchel, John Ortiz, Marissa Bode, Scoot McNairy, Abby Elliott, Jamie Brewer and Matthew Reeve.