For sixty-nine years, the Emmys have celebrated television by giving out awards to countless shows, actors, writers, and directors. After all those years, it’s hard to believe there’s still history left to be made. On Sunday, however, two new people became Emmys “firsts”.
Donald Glover, everyone’s favorite actor/rapper/musician/writer/comedian/director, took home two golden trophies last night: one for acting and one for directing. With both awards for his comedy show about our very own Atlanta, Glover made Emmys history as the first black man to win the award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. Really, is there anything this man can’t do?
The second history-making moment of the night happened with the award for Best Comedy Writer. For Aziz Ansari’s hilariously relatable Netflix show, Master of None, Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe won for writing a Thanksgiving episode about coming out. This win made Lena Waithe the first black woman to win the comedy writing category. Her acceptance speech was definitely one of the best of the night, as she told her fellow LGBTQ fans that “the world would not be as beautiful as it is if we were not in it.”
Photo: Blairali / Wikipedia
While no one else officially made history at the 2017 Emmys, Sterling K. Brown’s win for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series made him the first black man to win that major category since 1998. Many people were angered that his acceptance speech got cut short and his mic was turned off. Thankfully, he got to finish his speech backstage, but that doesn’t justify the fact that his speech got cut off when others’ didn’t. Still, it was definitely a well-deserved win. If you haven’t seen him play Randall in the breakout drama This Is Us, you’re missing out.
Overall, it was a great night for everyone in TV. Stephen Colbert was a hilarious host, a lot of people got the awards they deserved, and we’ll just try to forget that Sean Spicer showed up…
Thumbnail Photo Credit: Bill Ingalls / NASA