Wow! The 69th Emmy Awards has not disappointed! And now we’ve seen a truly special first! Lena Waithe, 33, just became the first African American woman to get an Emmy for writing in a comedy series for her work on Master of None! “My LGBTQ family, I see each and every one of you. The things that make us different — those are our superpowers,” Waithe said when accepting her award. So moving! In honor of Lena’s achievement, let’s take a closer look at this rising Hollywood star! Here’s 5 things you need to know about Lena! Take at look back the most memorable moments from the 2017 Emmys right here!
1) She is a Chicago native. At age 7, she began talking about becoming a TV writer and found incredible encouragement from her single mother and grandmother. She attended Evanston Township High School and Columbia College Chicago where she found another source of support in playwright Michael Fry. All the while, she honed her acting abilities. From there, she headed to Hollywood and she hit the ground running!
2) Her first TV writing job was on the Fox series Bones. But in no time she was branching out in other shows including Nickelodeon’s Hows to Rock and the satire Dear White People.
3) Besides her TV writing she also explored directing and producing. She wrote and directed a short film titled “Save Me,” which was shown at numerous film festivals. She also had a hand in writing the web series “Hello Cupid” and the YouTube series “Twenties,” which was optioned by BET in 2014.
4) Her big break was getting cast as Denise in Master of None. According to Lena, Aziz Ansari, 34, and Alan Yang had originally written that character as a straight white woman. But somehow she won them all over, forcing them rewrite her character so it better resembled her.
5) Now’s she’s made history. Lena won her Emmy for her writing on the series’ “Thanksgiving” episode in the second season. But even before she won, she had made history. She was also the first African American woman to be nominated in that category.
"The things that make us different, those are our superpowers." Lena Waithe. She made history as the 1st Black Woman to win a writing #Emmy pic.twitter.com/RB1jUN3Z1h
— COMMON (@common) September 18, 2017
HollywoodLifers, are you as moved by Lena’s win as we are? Let us know below!