Lena Waithe Wrote A New Piece Of History At The Emmys

master of none co-written by lena waithe in black on white

Lena Waithe and Aziz Ansari took home the Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series award for “Atlantic”.

Lena Waithe just wrote history after becoming the first black female writer to receive an Emmy for a Comedy Series. She won the Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series award for “Thanksgiving”, the Master of None series episode written with Aziz Ansari for the Netflix original.

Donald Glover also wrote history with his winning the Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series the first black director to win a comedy direction Emmy. He received the award for “B.A.N”, which was an experimental and stand-alone episode in the comedy series Atlanta from FX.

Glover also received a second Emmy award on the same night, that of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

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Congrats @DonaldGlover on your Emmy win for Outstanding Directing for A Comedy Series #atlantafx #Emmys pic.twitter.com/IiJ9K988yz

— FXNetworks (@FXNetworks) September 18, 2017

Lena Waithe and Aziz Ansari Generated a Roar with Their Acceptance Speech

Waithe and Ansari, who is also the series creator, were met with a standing ovation following the announcement of their “Thanksgiving” winning the Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series award.

This episode was inspired by the personal experiences of Lena Waithe. It follows her character, Denise, as she discovers her sexuality over the course of her life and the way in which she finally reveals it to her mother.

Grateful.

A post shared by Lena Waithe (@lenawaithe) on Sep 18, 2017 at 1:05am PDT

Waithe joked as she started her acceptance speech that she “needed a second”, a very emotionally charged moment. The first African American woman to win this award, Waithe thanked her mother for having ‘inspired the story’, and also Ansari, for having ‘pushed her’ to co-write the episode.

This also deferred his time at the mic to his co-writer, that thanked Netflix and Universal for their having created “a beautiful playground” on which they could work. Waithe also sent a shout out to Alano Mayo, her girlfriend, and the LGBTQIA community, which she called “her family”.

Lena Waithe concluded her speech with a thank you to the public: “And to everybody out there who showed us so much love with this episode, thank you for embracing a little Indian boy from South Carolina and a little queer black girl from the South Side of Chicago. We appreciate it more than you could ever know.”

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