Quinta Brunson and actors from `The Bear' secure honors
“The Bear” was making a meal out of the early awards at Monday night's Emmys, while Quinta Brunson scored an emotional and historic win for “Abbott Elementary.”
“The Bear,” the FX dramedy about a squabbling family and a struggling restaurant at the center of the life of a chef, won best actor in a comedy for Jeremy Allen White, best supporting actress in a comedy for Ayo Edebiri and best supporting actor in a comedy for Ebon-Moss Bachrach. All three were firsttime nominees.
“This is a show about family and found family and real family,” Edebiri said from the stage as she accepted the first trophy of the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Brunson won best actress in a comedy at the Emmy Awards for the show she created, “Abbott Elementary,” becoming the first Black woman to win the award in more than 40 years and the first from a network show to win it in more than a decade.
“I love making `Abbott Elementary' so much and
I am so happy to be able to live my dream and act out comedy,” Brunson said during her acceptance on the Fox telecast, fighting back tears.
Other early winners included Matthew Macfadyen for “Succession” and Jennifer Coolidge for “The White Lotus.”
Brunson had won a writing Emmy for her mockumentary about a predominantly Black and chronically underfunded grade school in Philadelphia, but this is her first for acting. Isabel Sanford of “The Jeffersons” was the only previous Black woman to win the category in 1981.
The first hour of the show held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day saw three Black women win major awards: Brunson, Edebiri and Niecy Nash-Betts, who won best supporting actress in a limited series for “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.”
On the Netflix show, Nash-Betts played a neighbor of the serial killer whose complaints to authorities about his behavior go unheeded.
“I accept this award on behalf of every Black and brown woman who has gone unheard and overpoliced,” she said.