Maya Rudolph makes history as second Black woman to win back-to-back Emmys
This makes the actress the second Black woman and fourth Black person to win back-to-back Emmys.
Over the weekend Maya Rudolph nabbed her second voice-over Emmy for her role as Connie The Hormone Monstress in Big Mouth and also managed to sashay her way into the history books at the same time.
In 2020, the Saturday Night Live fan favorite won guest comedy actress for portraying former senator turned Vice President Kamala Harris. Now she’s won yet another award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance, which she also won last year.
This was her third Emmy overall and the actress has become the second Black woman in five years and the fourth Black person to win twice consecutively in the same category according to Variety.
“Rudolph beat Jessica Walter, who secured a posthumous nod for her work on FX’s Archer, Stacey Abrams for her work on Black-ish, Julie Andrews for her work as Lady Whistledown on Bridgerton, Central Park’s Tituss Burgess and Stanley Tucci and Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane,” Deadline reports.
Variety goes on to explain the significance of her win, explaining, “Bill Cosby was the first to achieve this, with consecutive lead drama actor wins for “I Spy” in 1966, 1967, and 1968. Charles S. Dutton became the second, winning a guest drama actor statue in 2002 for “The Practice” and then the same race in 2003 for “Without A Trace.”
As for women in the industry, prolific actress turned director Regina King was the first woman to pull off this back-to-back feat, winning the supporting limited series/TV movie actress race first in 2015 and then again in 2016, both times for her role in American Crime.
“I feel really honored to be a part of something like that,” Rudolph told reporters via Zoom backstage on Sunday. “I feel really honored that I’m part of a legacy. … It’s wild to be part of any group of anybody or anything, and I think it’s especially sweet for somebody like me, who just really feels like I am very much my own person and my own thing. I’m just doing only what I know how to do, so it feels really good to be acknowledged in that way.”
When speaking specifically about her second SNL Emmy for portraying a number of characters, including a return to her role as Beyoncé in the Season 46 episode she hosted, she gushed about what her stint on the show has meant to her and her career.
“This one feels particularly sweet and like an enormous personal achievement just because ‘Saturday Night Live’ is genuinely something that I dreamt up since I was a kid and loved as a kid and watched my parents watching growing up and then it became a part of my life,” Rudolph said.
“It holds such a special place in my heart, and it’s the first place where I really found my people in work and created a work family. And I feel really proud that it’s for something that I love so much. It’s just wild to love something and then be recognized for it. That’s even better than you imagine because I think that when you love something so much, that is the reward. So, it’s nice when people recognize something that you’re already happy about.”
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