Ayo Edebiri honored her parents onstage at the 2023 Emmy Awards on Sunday night, thanking them for their support as she accepted the trophy for best supporting actress in a comedy series. The award is her first win and nomination.
“I’m so incredibly grateful for this for so many reasons,” she told the crowd.
Edebiri received the Emmy for her performance as Sydney Adamu in FX’s The Bear. Though the show released its second season in June 2023, the win recognizes her performance in season one, released 2022. The Bear‘s second season rolled out just after the 2023 Emmys‘ eligibility deadline.
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“This show is about family, and found family and real family, and my parents are here tonight,” Edebiri continued. “I’m making them sit kind of far away from me because I’m a bad kid, but I love you guys so much. Thank you so much for loving me and letting me feel beautiful and Black and proud of all of that.”
She finished her speech by adding that it’s “probably not a dream to immigrate to this country and have your child be like, ‘I want to do improv!’ Thank you so much for this, it means the world.”
The Bear earned eight total nominations at the 2023 Emmy Awards, including for best comedy series, best writing and best directing alongside acting nods for Edebiri’s co-stars Jeremy Allen White and Ebon Moss-Bachrach and guest actors Jon Bernthal and Oliver Platt.
Edebiri beat Alex Borstein (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Janelle James (Abbott Elementary), Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary), Juno Temple (Ted Lasso), Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso) and Jessica Williams (Shrinking) for the award.
The 2023 Primetime Emmy Awards were originally set to air Sept. 18 but were pushed to January following the writers and actors strikes last summer. See the full winners list here.
