Why people think Donald Glover turned up in "whiteface" to this year's Emmy Awards.

A mysterious “whiteface” man was sitting amongst Hollywood’s elite at the 2018 Emmy Awards.

Fans of the television show, Atlanta, immediately recognised the mystery persona as “Teddy Perkins”.

The Emmy-nominated – and many believed snubbed – TV series is the brain child of Donald Glover, who also goes by the stage name Childish Gambino, and is the musician responsible for the controversial song and music video This Is America.

Um… Teddy Perkins is sitting in the front row. #Emmys2018 pic.twitter.com/Sofat5OceS

— Ben Travers (@BenTTravers) September 18, 2018

The show follows a Princeton dropout who returns to his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, where he becomes the manager for his rapper cousin.

In season two, episode six (conveniently titled Teddy Perkins), a character goes to a mansion to buy a piano which is owned by the eccentric, oddball Perkins, who is played by Glover in whiteface.

Although from the outside it appears as if the character has bleached his face, he blames his complexion on an unnamed illness.

Although he only appears in one episode, he clearly made an impression.

But why was Teddy Perkins at the Emmys?

While initially fans believed that Glover himself had resurrected his character for the awards show, according to People, this couldn’t have been the case.

Reporters from the publication state that both the actor, and the Perkins-impersonator, were spotted in their seats at the same time – so this rules out Glover entirely.

Yo — Donald Glover has me shook ????#Emmys pic.twitter.com/aZGApxYWKP

— Timōthy (@thehalfrican06) September 18, 2018

Some fans also speculated that had Atlanta won the award for Outstanding Comedy Series or Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, Perkins would have possibly made an appearance on stage.

Nevertheless, out of the 16 Emmy nominations given to the show, five of them which were for the Teddy Perkins episode alone, Atlanta won the prize for three of them – Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Kat Williams, Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour) and Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation.

This didn’t stop fans from posting on social media, when Bill Hader – who beat Glover for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – hugged the Perkins character.

Teddy Perkins also loves Bill Hader. pic.twitter.com/YO30LnibPc

— Gilbert Cruz (@gilbertcruz) September 18, 2018

So if not Donald Glover, who was Teddy Perkins?

As Vulture reports, other suspects also include Glover’s co-star Lakeith Stanfield, who plays Darius Epps, and is the character who tries to buy the piano from Perkins.

However, this theory runs into a hurdle as Stanfield walked the red carpet moments before the ceremony began and the makeup job makes this outfit change difficult to accomplish in such a tight timeframe.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

✊???? @zegnaofficial @alessandrosartoriofficial

A post shared by Lakeith Stanfield (@lakeithstanfield3) on Sep 17, 2018 at 5:48pm PDT

This opens up the investigation to literally anyone else… helpful we know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, can the real Teddy Perkins, please stand up?

Either way, a lot of people were confused and expressed their theories accordingly:

I would like to take this moment to scream “WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN A TEDDY PERKINS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH” at the TV Academy pic.twitter.com/1zV1NLZADp

— ︽✵︽ ashley ︽✵︽ (@AshleyEsqueda) September 18, 2018

DONALD GLOVER WAS READY TO ACCEPT BEST ACTOR AS TEDDY PERKINS AND WE DIDN’T GET THAT MOMENT AND I WILL NEVER NOT BE MAD ABOUT IT

— Darrian Wright (@imdarrian) September 18, 2018

Teddy Perkins will haunt this awards show reminding everyone one of the best seasons of anything ever got no wins tonight

— Darren Franich (@DarrenFranich) September 18, 2018

The only thing more intense than Teddy Perkins being in the front row of the Emmys is trying to explain to someone who doesn’t watch Atlanta who Teddy Perkins is.

— Ben Schwartz (@rejectedjokes) September 18, 2018

Teddy Perkins has risen from the dead pic.twitter.com/5AzPDniis3

— Jack Leslie (@jackleslie07) September 18, 2018

What did you think of the surprise character reference? Tell us in a comment.

Speaking of the Emmys, here are some of the best dressed celebrities from the night.