The on the red carpet at the Emmys might have grabbed most of the headlines, but history was also being made when writer Quinta Brunson becoming the first solo Black woman to win the Emmy for for her work on Abbott Elementary.
She is only the second Black woman to get the award in its history after Lena Waithe's win as part of a team in 2017.
Brunson had before winning the award by becoming the first Black woman nominated in three comedy categories in the same year, and the youngest Black woman ever nominated as an actress in comedy.
Brunson went up to receive the award to a standing ovation. However, there was with comedian and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel coming under fire for continuing with a gag and pretending that he was unconscious while Brunson gave her acceptance speech.
Backstage after accepting her award, Brunson went on to say that the Kimmel bit "didn't bother me that much". She also added that Kimmel was an early supporter of her work and Abbott Elementary.
TV writing has traditionally been a very white-dominated field. A published in late 2017 found that in the US, 91 percent of showrunners were white, and only 5.1 percent were Black. They examined 234 series and found two-thirds didn’t employ any Black writers.
As a report in found in 2020, even those Black writers who were employed on TV shows faced discrimination in their roles and found themselves stuck in junior positions longer than their white colleagues.
The report concluded: “For real, lasting change to occur, writers say, the industry needs to diversify at every level. The University of California at Los Angeles’s latest , released in February, analyzed 11 major studios and found that 93 percent of all senior executive positions were held by white people and 80 percent by men. Working conditions must improve for Black writers to rise from assistant to showrunner positions.”
Brunson however seems to be leading the change. She is both creator and showrunner of Abbott Elementary, as well as writing and starring in the show.
She didn’t have a traditional start when it came to writing for TV, gaining fame for creating an Instagram series Girl Who Has Never Been on a Nice Date. This lead to her work for Buzzfeed before she went on to act in a number of shows and then created the hit series that made her an Emmy award winner.
Brunson wasn’t the only winner from the show she created. Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph took home the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy for playing the teacher Barbara Howard.
“To anyone who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream wasn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t come true, I am here to tell you that this is what believing looks like, this is what striving looks like. And don’t you ever, ever give up on you,” Ralph said. "And don't you ever, ever give up on you, because if you get a Quinta Brunson in your corner, if you get a husband like mine in your corner, if you get children like mine in your corner, and if you've got friends like everybody who voted for me, cheered for me, loved me … Thank you!"
Ralph’s win was also momentous because she became only the second Black woman to win in the category.
Brunson however has shown that she is about more than just the wins for Abbott Elementary, a mockumentary about teachers at an underfunded public school. The writer/actress revealed that earlier this year the production team and the broadcasting network had agreed to take a portion of their marketing budget and .
“It’s about being able to make those kinds of decisions that really excite me, things that can really materially help people,” she said.
Saman Shad is a freelance writer.
