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Home • News

Lena Waithe Is The First Black Woman To Win An Emmy For Comedy Writing

Waithe's win and powerful speech made Sunday night an evening we will never forget. 
Lena Waithe Is The First Black Woman To Win An Emmy For Comedy Writing
Antoine Antoniol/
By Sydney Scott · Updated October 26, 2020
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Lena Waithe just made history as the first Black woman to take home the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series at the 2017 Emmys. 

Waithe and Master of None creator and co-star Aziz Ansari were nominated for the show’s season two episode “Thanksgiving.”

Speaking to Vulture about the episode, Waithe explained, “This is probably the most autobiographical thing I’ve ever written…The whole story about me seeing an Indian family and thinking they were black was real. The O.J. talk at the dinner table, that was my grandmother — God rest her soul — she was obsessed with it. That’s what I did as a kid: I used to ear-hustle all the time! My mom, my aunt, my grandmother, my older sister, the neighbor who’s also a black woman — it was literally just black women talking all the time and I was a student.”

Taking the stage to accept her award, Waithe gave a special shoutout to the LGBT community, “And, to my LGBTQIA family, I see each and every one of you. The things that make us different…those are our super powers. Every day when you walk out the door and put on your imaginary cape, go out there and conquer the world because the world would not be as beautiful as it is without us in it.”

Waithe is currently set to write and produce the upcoming movie The Chi with Dope‘s Rick Famuyiwa attached to direct. 

TOPICS:  Lena Waithe