Niecy Nash-Betts won her first Emmy Award on Monday night, for playing concerned but largely ignored neighbor Glenda Cleveland in the terrifying Netflix limited series, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.”
Read her speech in full below:
“I’m a winner, baby!
Thank you to the Most High for this divine moment. Thank you Ryan Murphy for seeing me. Evan Peters, I love you. Netflix. Every single person who voted for me, thank you. And my better half who picked me up when I was gutted from this work, thank you. And you know who I want to thank? I want to thank me – for believing in me and doing what they said I could not do. And I want to say to myself in front of all these beautiful people, ‘Go on girl with your bad self. You did that.’
Finally, I accept this award on behalf of every Black and Brown woman who has gone unheard yet overpoliced. Like Glenda Cleveland. Like Sandra Bland. Like Breonna Taylor. As an artist, my job is to speak truth to power, and baby, I’ma do it ’til the day I die. Mama, I won!”
Nash-Betts had previously been nominated for Emmy Awards four times, including twice in the best supporting actress in a comedy series category for “Getting On” as well as for best lead actress in a limited series or movie for 2019’s “When They See Us.”