Watch: Viola Davis, Uzo Aduba & Regina King Take Home Big Honors & Make Major History at 2015 Primetime Emmy’s

Posted September 21, 2015

ViolaEmmys

In case you were under a rock on Sunday night, some of our fave ladies took home major honors at the Primetime Emmy’s. Two-time Academy Award nominee Viola Davis made history as the first black woman EVER to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series .

She received the honor for her role as  criminal law professor and defense attorney Annalise Keating on ABC’s ‘How to Get Away with Murder’. The award comes one year after many had hoped that Kerry Washington would land the award for her stellar work as Olivia Pope on ‘Scandal’ but did not win.

Other ladies in the category with Viola were Taraji P. Henson who was nominated for her role of Cookie Lyon on ‘Empire’, Claire Danes for ‘Homeland’, Tatiana Maslany for ‘Orphan Black‘, Elizabeth Moss for ‘Mad Men’ and Robin Wright for ‘House of Cards’.

Debbie Allen became the first black woman in 1982 to be nominated in the drama lead actress category and since her nomination over 30 years ago, only six other black women have been nominated for drama lead actress with Viola being the first to take it home. This is also the first year that two black women were nominated simultaneously in the same category for the Emmy’s.

Viola used her speech as an opportunity to advise Hollywood to wake up and be more proactive when it comes to African American’s on television and called for more roles to be created. Watch her moving speech below.

Elsewhere at the Emmy’s–for the second consecutive year, Uzo Aduba of ‘Orange Is The New Black’ won last night for her performance as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on the hit Netflix series—this time for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (she won in 2014 for Guest Actress in a Comedy Series).

That’s not all, Regina King won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her critically acclaimed performance as Aliyah Shadeed on ABC’s ‘American Crime’.

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