Niecy Nash-Betts Delivers the Emmys Speech to End All Emmys Speeches

Niecy Nash-Betts delivered an amazing speech at the (delayed) 2023 Emmy Awards tonight when she took took home the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Accepting the trophy for her work in Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, she gave short but emotional tributes to her partner, Jessica Betts, and Black and brown women who’ve “gone unheard yet overpoliced,” such as Glenda Cleveland (who she portrayed on Dahmer), Sandra Bland, and Breonna Taylor.

She also made sure to thank herself: “Go on girl with your bad self. You did that.”

Although host Anthony Anderson established a new timer system for this year’s Emmy acceptance speeches (as in, his mother stands up in the audience and tells you when your time is up), Nash-Betts delivered one hell of a victory lap without running out of time.

Nash-Betts has earned previous Emmy nominations for projects like When They See Us and Getting On. This marks her first win, but we sure hope it isn’t her last.

Read her full acceptance speech below.

I’m a winner, baby!

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. And my better half who picked me up when I was gutted from this work, thank you. And you know who I want to thank? I want to thank me—for believing in me and doing what they said I could not do. And I want to say to myself in front of all these beautiful people, “Go on girl with your bad self. You did that.”

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. As an artist, my job is to speak truth to power, and baby, I’ma do it ’til the day I die.

Mama, I won!

Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she’s listening to Lorde right now.