Lena Waithe's Emmy Speech Will Make You Cry

Photo credit: Hearst Communications, Inc. All rights reserved
Photo credit: Hearst Communications, Inc. All rights reserved

From Cosmopolitan

Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe took home a well-deserved Emmy Sunday night for writing one of the most moving episodes of television this year: “Thanksgiving” from Master of None. The episode stars Waithe’s character, Denise, through the years as she has multiple Thanksgiving dinners with her family, from the ‘90s until the present, and as she comes out to her family.

After they accepted the trophy, Ansari let Waithe take the spotlight for an incredibly passionate, beautiful speech. It was a call to the LGBT community to “conquer the world,” and given how incredibly personal “Thanksgiving” was, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Waithe is now the first black woman to win the Emmy for best writing in a comedy series, according to the Los Angeles Times. Read the full transcript of her speech below:

“I’ve got to thank God or else I wouldn't be standing here. I want to thank my mother for inspiring the story and allowing me to share it with the world. I love you Mom.

Thank you Aziz for pushing me to co-write this, bro, now we’re standing here, I love you forever. Thank you and Alan for creating the show Master of None where we can tell stories like this. Thank you Netflix and Universal for creating a beautiful playground for us to play on and shine, Ted and Cindy, we love you. Melina are you magic, Angela, are you a legend, Kym, you are a force, thank you for making this episode so special. To my girlfriend, I love you more than life itself, Alana. My team, my chosen family, I love you all.

And last but certainly not least my LGBQTIA family, I see each and every one of you. The things that make us different, those are our superpowers. Every day you walk out the door and put on your imaginary cape and go out there and conquer the world, because the world would not be as beautiful as it is if we weren't in it. And for everybody out there that showed us so much love for this episode, thank you for embracing us, 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. Thank you Academy for this. We love you all, God bless you all.”

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