In a historic evening at the 2015 Emmy Awards on Sunday, Viola Davis became the first African-American woman to win an Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for her role as defense lawyer Annalise Keating in "How to Get Away With Murder."
"The only thing that separates women of color from anyone is opportunity," said Davis in an emotional acceptance speech, expressing gratitude to Shonda Rhimes, Halle Berry and fellow nominee "Empire's" Taraji P. Henson, among others, according to Deadline.
The award show was one for the history books as HBO's "Game of Thrones" took home ten Emmys at Sunday night's ceremonies, the most any series has ever won in a single year. The fantasy-drama series went on to grab its 11th award as Peter Dinklage won the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series category and yet another win for Best Drama towards the end of the night for a total of 12 wins this year, Time reported.
An teary-eyed Uzo Aduba won the Emmy for the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category for her role as Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren on "Orange Is The New Black." She won an award last year for the same role in the Comedy category, making history by becoming the first person since Ed Asner to win awards in both categories for playing the same character, according to The Washington Post.
On a night of many firsts, Allison Janney grabbed the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, her second award for her work on the CBS comedy "Mom," and her seventh Emmy over all, tying with with Ed Asner for most performance Emmy wins, according to E!.
