Melissa McCarthy and Dave Chappelle are Emmy winners, earning trophies for their appearances on Saturday Night Live.

Chappelle and McCarthy were announced as best guest actor and actress on a comedy series at Sunday's creative arts awards, the precursor to the main Emmy Awards ceremony next weekend.

Chappelle hosted the first SNL episode to follow last November's presidential election and McCarthy played host on another episode and gave a manic impersonation of then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

With slicked back hair and wearing ill-fitting suits, McCarthy played Spicer as an enraged man who attacked the media, craved the praise of his boss and rode a motorised podium.

Spicer quit his post as White House communications director in July after six months of stormy encounters with the media that, along with McCarthy's sketches, turned him into a figure of ridicule.

Also on Sunday, the guest actor winners for a drama were Gerald McRaney for his role on This Is Us - his first Emmy award, coming at age 70 - and Alexis Bledel for The Handmaid's Tale.

Both were on hand to accept their awards, while Chappelle and McCarthy skipped the event.

NBC's Saturday Night Live went into television's Emmy awards this year with 22 nominations, reflecting the renewed popularity of the satirical sketch show and its most-watched season in 23 years.

Alec Baldwin also is in the running next week for an Emmy for his impressions of US President Donald Trump, while the show's Kate McKinnon has been nominated for her roles as losing Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton and Trump White House aide Kellyanne Conway.

Awards for the major Emmy categories, including best TV comedy and drama series, will be handed out on September 17 in a televised ceremony hosted by comedian Stephen Colbert.