LOS ANGELES — After winning the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series award for his performance as Ted Lasso at the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards, Jason Sudeikis shouted out his hometown and the influence it had on the show.

“Much what we talked about, [executive producers] Bill [Lawrence] and Joe [Kelly] and Brendan [Hunt] and I early on was that the collective wisdom of the character and the show was a culmination of the people creating it,” Sudeikis said. “Being someone that had a lot of influence on that, Kansas City is part of my soul.”

The humble Sudeikis said he doesn’t consider himself as the person who put Kansas City on the map and gave nods to musician and actress Janelle Monáe, musician Charlie Parker and actor Don Cheadle.

Tributes to Kansas City can be seen in various Easter eggs throughout the series, which also won the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, and the coach who inspired Ted Lasso is from Kansas.

“It’s where I’m from, it’s where I was raised. It’s where my folks live and where a lot of good and bad things have happened to me and many other people,” Sudeikis said. “So it had to be in there. Just like the experiences that other people brought from their hometowns. This one we have stemming from Kansas City. From back home.”

Sudeikis grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, and attended Shawnee Mission West High School and Fort Scott Community College.