Sheryl Lee Ralph won her first Emmy on Monday night, opening her acceptance speech by belting “Endangered Species,” a song by Dianne Reeves.
“I am an endangered species,” sang Ralph, who is also a Broadway performer, “but I sing no victim’s song. I am a woman, I am an artist, and I know where my voice belongs.”
Ralph won an Emmy for best supporting actress in a comedy for her role as Barbara Howard, a no-nonsense kindergarten teacher, in “Abbott Elementary.” Ralph, 65, who has been a screen actress since the 1970s and has performed on Broadway since the 1980s, was full of emotion as she accepted her award — which followed her first-ever nomination.
“To anyone who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream wasn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t come true,” Ralph said, “I am here to tell you that this is what believing looks like. This is what striving looks like. And don’t you ever, ever give up on you.”
Ralph is only the second Black woman to win the best supporting actress comedy award, according to Warner Bros., one of the studios behind the show. The first was Jackée Harry, who won in 1987 for her role in the NBC sitcom “227.”
When Ralph was nominated in July, she discussed the fact that it was her first Emmy nod in a decades-long career, saying, “So many people can say, ‘Why hasn’t this happened before?’ You know what? Everything happens in divine timing. It was supposed to happen just this way, with this show. Every show that I’ve done has led me to this moment.”
Source: Television - nytimes.com
