Taraji P. Henson became the first black woman to win a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama on Sunday evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Hollywood.
Her role as “Cookie Lyon” on Fox’s runaway hit Empire has spawned massive fanfare and will probably secure her more awards in the future.
“Thank you, Fox. You’re bold, you took a shot, you took a risk,” she said during her Sunday evening acceptance speech. “This just means that I’m touching lives, and thats why I got into acting.”
Watch Taraji’s acceptance speech below:
This historic win sets the stage for Henson’s potential forthcoming Best Actress Emmy nominiation — of which she remarked last week in a Los Angeles Press Conference, “I gotta win! I gotta win for history!”
That win, should it happen, would make Henson the first African-American woman to snag the honor.
If the show’s popularity and Cookie Lion’s tenacity is any measure, more historic firsts are in the actress’s future.
