California Institute of the Arts alums Alyssa Dressman Lehner and Clara Plestis captured Emmy Awards at the 76th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards held Saturday, Sept. 7. The 76th Creative Arts Emmy Awards were held over two nights, Sept. 7-8 at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

Lehner (Film/Video MFA 2001) took home the Emmy Award for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Program. Lehner received the honor for her work as editor on NBC’s popular singing competition show, “The Voice.”

This marks Lehner’s first Emmy Award, though she was previously nominated for her editing work on “The Voice” in 2021. Her editing career spans music videos and some of reality TV’s biggest hits, including “Dancing with the Stars,” “MasterChef,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” and “The Bachelor.”

Lehner’s Emmy-winning work on “The Voice” came during the show’s 25th season, which featured a star-studded coaching panel including John Legend, Reba McEntire, Chance the Rapper and the debut of Dan + Shay. Hosted by Carson Daly, “The Voice” showcases talented singers who compete under the mentorship of these musical icons.

Calartian Plestis (Music MFA 2019) captured her first Emmy as an executive producer on “Dick Van Dyke 98 Years of Magic” (CBS, Smart Dog Media and White Label Productions in association with CBS), which nabbed the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded).

Plestis shared an Instagram post about the “magical night,” celebrating alongside fellow team members of Smart Dog Media, where she serves as director of development. She has also been on the discovery and development team for Fox’s “The Masked Singer” where she has worked for 12 seasons.

Outside of television work, Pletis is a classically trained vocalist with an MFA from The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts. Her primary focus is jazz but Pletis also enjoys singing in opera, art songs, musical theater, pop and cabaret styles.