At the 2024 Emmys on Monday night, Niecy Nash was awarded for best supporting actress in a limited series for her role as Glenda Cleveland in “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.”
And she sure gave an acceptance speech.
“I’m a winner, baby!” she declared as she took the stage. “Thank you to the most high for this divine moment. Thank you, Ryan Murphy, for seeing me. Evan Peters, I love you. Netflix. Every single person who voted for me. Thank you. My better half, who picked me up when I was gutted from this work. Thank you.”
And Nash, she went on to thank herself.
“I want to thank me, for believing in me and doing what they said I could not do. I want to say to myself in front of all you beautiful people, ‘Go, girl, with your bad self. You did that.’”
Nash added: “Finally, I accept this award on behalf of every Black and brown woman who has gone unheard, yet overpoliced, like Glenda Cleveland, like Sandra Bland, like Breonna Taylor! My job is to speak truth to power and I’m (going to) do it to the day I die.”
Ayo Edebiri and Quinta Brunson also won prestigious awards.
Backstage, Nash continued to share words of encouragement while in the press room at the Emmys. “I’m the only one who knows what it costs me. I’m the only one who knows how many nights I cried because I couldn’t be seen for a certain type of role. I’m the one who knows what it’s like to go through divorce on camera and still have to pull up and show out and you still got to go home — you’ve still got children and a whole life,” she said.
“So, I’m proud of myself. I’m proud that I did something that people said I could not do, because I believed in me,” the actress continued. “And sometimes people don’t believe in themselves. And I hope my speech was a delicious invitation for people to do just that. … And that’s why it’s not called mama-esteem, them-esteem, us-esteem. It’s called self-esteem because nobody got to believe it but you.”
