Songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul Achieve EGOT Status With Emmys Win

The prestigious EGOT club just gained two new members: Songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

The duo, who already have an Oscar for “La La Land” and a Tony and Grammy award for “Dear Evan Hansen,” secured their EGOT with an Emmy win for “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” from “Only Murders in the Building” (co-written with Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman) won for best song.

Speaking backstage after the win, Paul said, “It’s obviously thrilling and very wild to think about getting to do it alongside two of our heroes who gave us our very first job in television, makes it most meaningful.” He continued, “Getting to do it with a collaboration that was one of the most joyful that we’ve ever had in our careers on a TV show that was is one of our favorite history of television shows, on a show that is so joyful to work on.” Paul added, “What makes it all so very new? It’s one of those things that you could actually say without equivocation, was great. We had a wonderful time. The show was wonderful. So it’s just remarkable things.”

Speaking with Variety for Making a Scene, the show’s co-creator said, “It came to me in the shower. I literally just thought, ‘Oh, which of the Pickwick triplets did it?’” Hoffman recalls. “The constable character, played by Steve in the play, was on a mission to uncover which of these little baby triplets could have killed their mother — which is preposterous, but delightfully preposterous in my mind.”

In writing the song, Pasek said, “Our job was to try to write something that is as difficult to sing as possible, and that it really should trip the tongue and that should be something really, really hard to do in one take. That works to our advantage in terms of the plot, because really the question is, can this character pull it off? And for several episodes, he can’t. It gives us something to really root for over the course of the season.”

Pasek and Paul became the 20th and 21st members of the elusive group. The EGOT club also includes the likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Viola Davis, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend and more.