South African worldbuilder Rick Treweek’s Uncanny Alley: A New Day has won Outstanding Emerging Media Program at the 78th Creative Arts Emmys, beating projects from Blumhouse and the world of Fallout. What began as a strange virtual refuge during lockdown is now officially Emmy-winning entertainment.
The win is larger than an awards-night underdog story. Uncanny Alley began as one South African creator’s attempt to build somewhere people could gather during lockdown and grew into a hybrid of theatre, gaming, virtual worlds and live performance. Its Emmy demonstrates that independent South African worldbuilding can compete at the highest international level without first becoming more conventional.
Eleven days ago, when Rick Treweek was still an Emmy nominee, there was one line in the story that felt difficult to improve on.
South Africa does not wait for perfect conditions. We build under load-shedding skies and still send a city across the ocean.
A weird alley built during lockdown had made it all the way to Los Angeles.
Now it has an Emmy.
On Saturday, 5 September, Uncanny Alley: A New Day won Outstanding Emerging Media Program at the 78th Creative Arts Emmy Awards inside Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater, turning one of South Africa’s stranger creative success stories into something considerably bigger.
Treweek walked onto the Emmy stage alongside the Ferryman Collective team to collect the award.
“This one is for home,” he says.
Then came a sentence that probably explains the journey better than any polished innovation-speak could.
“South Africa does not wait for perfect conditions. We build under load-shedding skies and still send a city across the ocean.”
That city is not real.
At least not in the conventional sense.
The Alley Beat Blumhouse and Fallout
Uncanny Alley: A New Day was one of only three nominees for Outstanding Emerging Media Program.
The other two were Blumhouse Enhanced Cinema, involving NBCUniversal, Blumhouse, Meta and Nexus Studios, and The World of Fallout, connected to Amazon MGM Studios, Kilter Films, Magnopus and Bethesda Game Studios.
That made the category unusually revealing.
On paper, the South African-connected project was entering a field surrounded by enormous entertainment companies, globally recognised intellectual property and deep technology infrastructure.
It won anyway.
And that matters beyond the satisfaction of an underdog story.
Uncanny Alley did not succeed by imitating the entertainment formats those companies had already mastered. It succeeded partly because it behaves unlike almost anything that fits comfortably into a traditional television category.
It is theatre.
It is virtual reality.
It behaves like a game.
Its audience becomes part of the cast.
And the stage exists inside VRChat.
The Television Academy’s own rules for Outstanding Emerging Media Program centre immersion and audience engagement, including experiences where participants’ actions can directly influence what unfolds. A New Day fits almost suspiciously well into that definition. (Television Academy)
There Is No Back Row in This Theatre
Put on a headset and you do not watch Uncanny Alley: A New Day from a seat.
You arrive as a detainee.
Adaptive Learning Industries, the fictional corporation ruling the city, is preparing a so-called New Day update capable of erasing the memories of its citizens.
A hacker named Gh0st breaks the audience out.
From there, participants move through the city alongside performers, avoid capture and eventually face a choice: leave Uncanny Alley behind or remain and fight for it.
Two professional actors can perform as many as 15 characters in real time.
The audience talks to them.
They answer.
Someone might hesitate where the creators expected them to run. Someone might become unexpectedly attached to a character. Someone else might do exactly what people always do when placed inside carefully constructed interactive worlds: something the creators never planned for.
So the actors adapt.
That instability is part of the work.
No two performances are exactly the same.
It is one reason simply describing A New Day as “VR content” misses the interesting part. The technology creates the room. The theatre happens because humans are inside it.
The Strange Project Survived Long Enough to Become Important
For anyone who read Viranova’s first story about Treweek, the beginning is familiar.
There was no grand entertainment franchise behind Uncanny Alley.
Treweek started building the universe in Johannesburg in 2020, when South Africa’s first severe COVID-19 restrictions had turned physical gathering into something dangerous or impossible.
His answer was a cyberpunk corner of VRChat where people could occupy the same space again.
Not physically.
But together.
The project accumulated characters, mythology and narrative experiments rather than moving neatly towards some predetermined commercial destination.
Its first narrative experience, The Search for Gh0st, reached Venice VR Expanded in 2021 and later won the Spirit of Raindance Award.
Then Ferryman Collective entered the story.
The Los Angeles-based immersive theatre company brought something Treweek’s universe had never fully possessed: professional performers inhabiting its characters live.
“Ferryman brought something to the Alley I could not have built on my own: live performance,” Treweek previously said.
“The most extraordinary part of this for me has been watching actors step inside characters I had drawn and lived with for years, and give them a voice and a body in real time.”
Instead of forcing that theatrical idea into the existing virtual world, the collaborators built again.
Virtual Worlds Company created more than 30 environments for A New Day, including the technical work needed for the production to operate on standalone Meta Quest hardware.
Stephen Butchko and Deirdre V. Lyons of Ferryman developed the theatrical experience, while Christopher Lane Davis, also known as Screaming Color, contributed animation, effects, music, sound and technical show control.
The result debuted in competition at Venice Immersive in 2024.
Then the awards started accumulating.
The Fanheart3 XR Fan Experience Award in Venice.
Best Interactive/Performance at the XRMust Awards.
An XR Immersive Award at Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Film Festival.
Appearances across SXSW, NewImages, Raindance, AWE and SIGGRAPH.
The Emmy was not an industry suddenly discovering an unknown project.
It was the largest recognition yet of something the immersive world had been watching become increasingly difficult to ignore.
Meanwhile, Gh0st Became Physical
There is an almost absurd symmetry to what else Treweek was doing during Emmy week.
Two nights before the Los Angeles ceremony, CONTINUUM ’26 opened at Diriyah Art Futures in Saudi Arabia.
Treweek is one of the mentor-artists attached to the exhibition, which explores new media through immersive installations, moving image, virtual reality, mixed reality and other technological forms. (Saudi Press Agency)
His contribution, Gh0st Out The Shell, takes the digital character Gh0st and complicates the divide between physical and virtual identity.
Most notably, Gh0st has been cast in bronze.
A character born inside a virtual universe has become a physical sculpture at almost the exact moment the virtual production surrounding her has received one of entertainment’s most recognisable physical trophies.
“I cast Gh0st in bronze for the exhibition, so she arrived in the real world at the same time she was up for awards at the Emmys, which is quite cool,” Treweek says.
Quite cool may be underselling it.
For years, virtual reality has been accompanied by grand predictions about the collapse of boundaries between our digital and physical lives.
Treweek’s work makes the idea smaller, stranger and more human.
Draw a character.
Build her a world.
Let actors inhabit that world.
Let strangers stand beside them.
Then cast the character in metal.
Take the world to the Emmys.
An Emmy Does Not Make the Experiment Less Weird
The easiest thing to do after an award of this scale would be to retrofit inevitability onto the story.
To look backwards and pretend the path was obvious.
It was not.
Treweek has spoken openly about wondering whether some of his ideas were simply too strange for everybody else.
“My biggest struggle’s always been my conditioning that my stuff is too weird and no one will like it, so it’s only for me,” he previously said.
Eventually, he arrived at the opposite conclusion.
His weird side projects were often the things creating the biggest opportunities.
There is an important difference between that lesson and the usual advice to “think outside the box”.
Uncanny Alley did not become successful because somebody deliberately engineered an unconventional product.
It began because Treweek wanted to make a world.
Then he kept making it.
The interesting part survived.
The project remained cyberpunk, theatrical, interactive, technologically awkward and difficult to explain in a sentence.
Global recognition eventually moved towards it.
Not the other way around.
His Mom Heard First
For all the technology surrounding the story, Treweek’s first call after the Emmy was reassuringly analogue.
His mother.
It was the middle of the night in South Africa.
“And then everyone in Kokstad knew,” he laughs.
Treweek grew up around Kokstad and now lives in Kommetjie, near Cape Town.
At the Governors Gala after the ceremony, another small South African coincidence appeared: Treweek met Marcus Hebbelmann, a fellow Deep South resident who was part of Survivor’s Emmy-nominated camera team.
“The whole event was remarkable, especially the Governors Gala afterwards,” Treweek says.
“It was incredible just being in the room with so much talent and creativity.”
The room matters.
But so does how he got there.
A creator in Johannesburg built somewhere for people to meet when nobody could meet.
That place developed a history.
Other artists entered it.
Actors gave its characters bodies.
Audiences were allowed to interfere with the story.
Festivals began paying attention.
Then television’s establishment decided that whatever this thing was, it belonged inside the Emmys.
And then it won.
What Happens After an Emmy?
Treweek is already thinking beyond A New Day.
There are ideas around toys.
Games for Steam.
360-degree dome experiences.
More ways for Uncanny Alley to escape whatever container it occupied before.
Which feels appropriate.
The project has spent six years refusing to remain one thing.
A lockdown gathering place became a fictional universe.
The fictional universe became theatre.
The theatre entered film and immersive festivals.
A virtual character became bronze.
And now a project performed inside VRChat has an Emmy.
There is, however, one immediate real-world problem.
“I’ve got to figure out how to fly with this trophy,” Treweek says.
“It’s rather heavy.”
For something that began in a world without physical weight, that feels like a particularly good problem to have.
Reporting basis: Based on Viranova’s earlier original reporting and press material with Rick Treweek about the creation of Uncanny Alley, combined with post-awards material supplied around the Emmy win and independent verification against the Television Academy, Ferryman Collective, La Biennale di Venezia, Kaohsiung Film Festival, SXSW and Diriyah Art Futures. The Television Academy confirms that night one of the 78th Emmy Awards took place at the Peacock Theater on 5 September, while contemporaneous winners lists confirm Uncanny Alley: A New Day won Outstanding Emerging Media Program. Production credits were checked against La Biennale rather than relying on broader promotional descriptions: Stephen Butchko and Rick Treweek are credited as directors and main creators, Butchko as screenwriter, Treweek as art director and lead designer, and Christopher Lane Davis/Screaming Color for music and sound.
Story index Key points, people & topics
Key points & topics
- South African worldbuilder Rick Treweek’s Uncanny Alley: A New Day has won Outstanding Emerging Media Program at the 78th Creative Arts Emmys, beating projects from Blumhouse and the world of Fallout. What began as a strange...
- Eleven days after Viranova wrote about the strange South African VR world heading to the Emmys, Uncanny Alley: A New Day has won. Rick Treweek’s lockdown-born universe beat projects backed by Blumhouse, Meta, Amazon, Bethesda...
Frequently asked Answers from the desk
Did Rick Treweek win an Emmy?
Yes. Uncanny Alley: A New Day won Outstanding Emerging Media Program during night one of the 78th Emmy Awards on 5 September 2026.
What is Uncanny Alley: A New Day?
It is a live immersive theatre production performed inside VRChat that combines virtual-world design, theatre, gaming and real-time audience participation.
Who created Uncanny Alley?
The original Uncanny Alley universe was created by South African worldbuilder Rick Treweek, also known as MetaRick.
Who made Uncanny Alley: A New Day?
The production was created through a collaboration between Ferryman Collective and Rick Treweek’s Virtual Worlds Company.
What did Uncanny Alley beat at the Emmys?
It won against Blumhouse Enhanced Cinema and The World of Fallout.
What Emmy category did Uncanny Alley win?
Outstanding Emerging Media Program.
When did Uncanny Alley win its Emmy?
The award was presented on Saturday 5 September 2026 during the first night of the Creative Arts Emmy ceremonies.
Where were the Creative Arts Emmys held?
At the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles.
Is Uncanny Alley a game?
Not exactly. It combines elements of games with live theatre virtual reality and interactive storytelling.
How many actors perform in Uncanny Alley: A New Day?
Ferryman Collective says two live actors portray 15 characters during the experience.
How we reported this Sources, verification & accountability
- Reporting type
- News
- Verification
- Official source
- Reporter / responsible desk
- Viranova Visual Desk
- Primary evidence
- Based on Viranova’s earlier original reporting and press material with Rick Treweek about the creation of Uncanny Alley, combined with post-awards material supplied around the Emmy win and independent verification against the Television Academy, Ferryman Collective, La Biennale di Venezia, Kaohsiung Film Festival, SXSW and Diriyah Art Futures. The Television Academy confirms that night one of the 78th Emmy Awards took place at the Peacock Theater on 5 September, while contemporaneous winners lists confirm Uncanny Alley: A New Day won Outstanding Emerging Media Program. Production credits were checked against La Biennale rather than relying on broader promotional descriptions: Stephen Butchko and Rick Treweek are credited as directors and main creators, Butchko as screenwriter, Treweek as art director and lead designer, and Christopher Lane Davis/Screaming Color for music and sound.
- Additional verification
- Uncanny Alley: A New Day is a collaboration between Ferryman Collective and Rick Treweek’s South African Virtual Worlds Company, performed live inside VRChat. Ferryman describes a world containing more than 30 environments in which two live actors portray 15 characters and interact directly with audience members. The project premiered in competition at Venice Immersive in 2024 and won the Fanheart3 XR Fan Experience Award. It subsequently received first place for Best Interactive Performance at XRMust and the XR Immersive Award at the 2025 Kaohsiung Film Festival, while appearing at SXSW and other international immersive showcases. CONTINUUM ’26 opened at Diriyah Art Futures on 3 September 2026, with Treweek and Louis-Philippe Demers serving as mentor-artists for the programme. Post-Emmy reporting identifies Treweek’s exhibited work as Gh0st Out The Shell, combining physical sculpture with VR and including a bronze version of the Uncanny Alley character Gh0st.
- Image
- Rick Treweek · Supplied by Plot Twist
- Primary source
- Television Academy — 78th Emmy Awards Night One
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Filed by Viranova Visual Desk for the Artists & Creatives desk · Los Angeles, California, United States / Kommetjie, South Africa. Published 07 Sept 2026.
Sources
Primary material
Viranova obtained, attended or witnessed this directly.
- Night one of the 78th Emmy Awards took place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on 5 September 2026 Television Academy accessed 7 September 2026
- The Outstanding Emerging Media Program nominees were Uncanny Alley: A New Day, Blumhouse Enhanced Cinema and The World of Fallout Television Academy accessed 7 September 2026
- Television Academy described Uncanny Alley: A New Day as an artist-led production blending theatre cinema gaming and social VR with audiences interacting directly with live actors Television Academy accessed 7 September 2026
- Uncanny Alley: A New Day contains more than 30 virtual environments and uses two live actors to portray 15 characters in real time Ferryman Collective accessed 7 September 2026
- La Biennale credits Stephen Butchko and Rick Treweek as directors and main creators of Uncanny Alley: A New Day, Stephen Butchko as screenwriter and Rick Treweek as art director and lead designer La Biennale di Venezia accessed 7 September 2026
- Christopher Lane Davis AKA Screaming Color is credited for music and sound on Uncanny Alley: A New Day La Biennale di Venezia accessed 7 September 2026
- Uncanny Alley appeared in Venice VR Expanded in 2021 La Biennale di Venezia accessed 7 September 2026
- The Uncanny Alley narrative arc associated with The Search for Gh0st won the Spirit of Raindance Award in 2022 Uncanny Alley accessed 7 September 2026
- Uncanny Alley: A New Day won the Fanheart3 XR Fan Experience Award at the 81st Venice International Film Festival La Biennale di Venezia accessed 7 September 2026
- Uncanny Alley: A New Day received first place for Best Interactive Performance and second place for Best Sound Design at the 2024 XRMust Awards Kaohsiung Film Festival accessed 7 September 2026
- Uncanny Alley: A New Day won the XR Immersive Award at the 2025 Kaohsiung Film Festival Kaohsiung Film Festival accessed 7 September 2026
- Uncanny Alley: A New Day appeared in the XR Experience Spotlight at SXSW 2025 SXSW accessed 7 September 2026
- CONTINUUM 26 opened at Diriyah Art Futures on 3 September 2026 and was developed under mentor-artists Rick Treweek and Louis-Philippe Demers Saudi Press Agency / Diriyah Art Futures accessed 7 September 2026
Secondary material
Reported first by another publication or organisation, and credited here.
- Uncanny Alley: A New Day won Outstanding Emerging Media Program at the 78th Emmy Awards TVLine accessed 7 September 2026
- Rick Treweek presented Gh0st Out The Shell at CONTINUUM 26 and cast the digital character Gh0st in bronze The National accessed 7 September 2026
- Rick Treweek says he is exploring toys Steam games and 360-degree dome experiences as possible future extensions of Uncanny Alley The National accessed 7 September 2026
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Two considered South African culture reads a week. No feed to chase, no noise between them.
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