Uzo Aduba has scored her first Emmy.
The Orange Is the New Black actress topped five other women — co-stars Laverne Cox and Natasha Lyonne included — for the Emmy for outstanding guest actress in a comedy during Saturday's Creative Arts Emmys.
Aduba gives her celebrated Netflix series its first acting kudo at the Emmys.
"I don’t know how to say how incredibly impressed I am to be a part of this show day in, day out," said a teary-eyed Aduba from the podium.
"I just can't even believe it. I'm speechless," she told The Hollywood Reporter after she received the news of her nomination. "We worked on this show and spent time together really just trying to tell a great story and invest in each other's performances. It just feels good to know that people love the show as much as we love making it."
In June, she wrote a guest column in THR, where she pleaded Emmy voters to recognize shows with diverse casts. Evidently it proved successful, as Orange casting director Jennifer Euston took home the first trophy of the night for outstanding casting in a comedy series.
The thirty-three year-old initially read for sporty track star Janae, but show creator Jenji Kohan had a different role in mind for her: Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren.
"Jenji has this foresight and this vision,” explains Euston. “She can see she was great for the part.” Adds Kohan: "It's so fascinating to talk to this incredibly sane, bright woman and watch her transform."
Aduba made sure to thank both Kohan and Euston during her acceptance speech "for opening that door that day in August and letting me through. Thank you for opening the door for so many new artists."
Orange Is the New Black's impact on this year's Emmy race was already significant going into Creative Arts and next Monday's regular primetime telecast. After Netflix chose to submit the hour-long as a comedy, skirting the considerably more competitive drama race, the series raked in 12 nominations. That put it only one mention behind the streamer's pioneering original, House of Cards.
Other kudos have been less aggressive in honoring in the show — though it has scored several key noms and victories. It nabbed a solitary Golden Globe nomination for star Taylor Schilling (also an Emmy nominee for her work), a Peabody Award and three Critics Choice Television Awards.
During THR's recent Emmy roundtable for comedy showrunners, Kohan seriously underestimated her series' fortune during awards this year. “I f— myself during awards season," she said. "My shows are all weird hybrids.”
Orange is also nominated for best comedy during the live Emmy telecast, where it stands to be the first hour-long to win the category since Ally McBeal in 1999.
For the full list of tonight's Creative Arts Emmys winners, click here.
