Leia Granger | Life and Culture Editor
On the 17th of September the world’s most famous and well known actors and actresses attended the 69th annual Primetime Emmy Awards. Although this night made history with the amount of awards won by Netflix and Hulu, it also became memorable with the amount of awards granted to the diverse community of actors and actresses.
The actor Sterling K.Brown was awarded with outstanding lead actor, being the first black man to win this prestigious award in 20 years, granted to him for his amazing performance in the drama series ‘This Is Us’.
As well as this, actor Riz Ahmed was the first ever South Asian man to win an emmy thanks to his memorable role in ‘The Night Of’. Before the win from Riz Ahmed, Archie Panjabi was the only other South Asian actor to ever win an emmy for her role in ‘The Good Wife’ in 2000.
The diversity in the award winners ranges to the first ever black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing; Lena Waithe won alongside Aziz Ansari, both claiming the award for ‘Best writing for a comedy series’ for the Netflix original ‘Master Of None’. Naturally, in her acceptance speech Waithe made sure to thank the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual and queer community making it clear that anyone is able to accomplish their dreams and being different is what makes us unique.
“The things that make us different, those are our superpowers. Every day when you walk out the door and put on your imaginary cape and go out there and conquer the world… the world would not be as beautiful as it is if we weren’t in it.”
The drama series ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and the limited series ‘Big Little Lies’ made history themselves by bringing recognition to strong women and strong topics which are usually avoided during these events.
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ won five awards, including the highly prestigious Outstanding Drama Series. The biggest acclaim for the successful show came for the author of the book (which the show is adapted from) Margaret Atwood.
Atwood made it clear to the audience that woman are strong and can conquer anything they set their minds to. It was shown clearly that the show was full of strong female actors, especially through the performance given by Elisabeth Moss, who won Best Actress.
As well as the impressive win from ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, the limited series ‘Big Little Liars’ definitely proved the strength of empowered from women. This was shown through the many wins for the show but was highlighted when Nicole Kidman won best actress and decided to dedicate her acceptance speech to bring awareness to domestic violence. This topic is one of the main themes within the limited series and the acknowledgement that Kidman brought within her speech emboldened how common domestic violence really is.
“By acknowledging me with this award it shines a light on it even more”.
The night of the 69th annual Primetime Emmy Awards was an all round success, but made a poignant triumph for the ethnic community. Especially notable in today’s society, many people are discarded without any sympathy, but on the 17th of September this was all forgotten for one night as people from all races, genders and backgrounds were given their own share of the limelight.
