Of all the feel-good stories this Emmy season, none feels better than the long-overdue recognition for “Reservation Dogs,” the FX coming-of-age comedy that nabbed four nominations for its third and final season after its first two failed breakthroughs. One of those nominations went to D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, the 22-year-old Canadian actor who plays protagonist Bear, a member of the namesake group of Native teens in Okern, Oklahoma.

Bear begins the series devastated by the recent suicide of his best friend, Daniel (Dalton Cramer), and hatches a plan with the rest of the Dogs to leave home and move to California. He ends the show with the blessing of his dubiously qualified spiritual guide, William Knifeman (Dallas Goldtooth), who is at peace with himself and values his community. Woon-A-Tai spoke with Variety about growing up on the set, working with showrunner Sterlin Harjo, and what lessons he’s learned from a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

You were just a teenager when you first got cast, right?

Exactly. I was 18, almost 19. It was right before the pandemic. I got an audition for a self-tape that was four pages long. Just those four pages made me feel connected to Bear. I hadn’t even read the script yet.