Black Women in TV Won Big at the 2022 Emmys
Last night's Emmy Awards became a historical moment as black women in Hollywood made wins at the prestigious television awards.
Quinta Brunson, Zendaya, Lizzo and Sheryl Lee Ralph swept multiple awards at the event hosted on Sunday at Los Angeles's Microsoft Theater.
For Sheryl Lee Ralph, known for her role as kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard on ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.”, her win as the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series was the major win of the evening.
Sheryl Lee Ralph is only the second Black woman to win in her category, decades after Sister Sister star Jackeé Harry won for her portrayal of Sandra Clark on NBC’s “227" in 1987.
Singer Lizzo also won her first ever Emmy Award for Best Competition Series for her Prime Video Show Lizzo's Watch Out For the Big Grrrls, which shows her searching for "confident, badass women" to join her backup dance crew on her next world tour.
Zendaya won her second Emmy award for her starring role in Euphoria with her first Emmy being one she got in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I want to say thank you to everyone who has ever shared their story with me and I want anyone who has ever loved a Rue or feels like they are a Rue, I want them to know I am so grateful for your stories and I carry them with me and I carry them with her," Zendaya said.
The singer-dancer-actress portrayed Rue, a troubled girl, on HBO's hit drama Euphoria.
Breakout writer and creator of Abbott Elementary, Quinta Brunson, also took home her first ever Emmy Award for Best Writing In a Comedy Series for the pilot episode of the show.
"To have only had a few episodes [air] and just for it to be an abundance of love, conversation, and just enjoyment of the show is just so, like, I don't know. I am just so happy, so overwhelmed," Quinta said. “It was weird to feel like I had to pull back from Twitter because of too much positivity. I was like, ‘I don’t know what to do with so many nice messages and nice comments...[but] there’s so much more for people to see that I hope they enjoy.
The Emmys saw a marked increase in the level of diversity seen in this year's nominations as compared to last year.
There are 25 non-white nominees this year as against 41 last year and inclusive TV shows like Bridgerton and Blackish which many expected to be part of this year's nominations were excluded.
Document Women earlier published the full list of all the women nominated here.