Donald Glover makes history at the Emmys

The Stone Mountain-native took home awards for acting and directing for his series Atlanta
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Donald Glover Emmy win Atlanta

Photograph by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

When Donald Glover stepped up to the podium to accept the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series at last night’s 69th annual Primetime Emmy Awards, he thanked the Television Academy first. Then he thanked his parents. Then he thanked the City of Atlanta.

Along with the lead actor award for his role in Atlanta—the FX series that Glover created, stars in, directs, and writes—he also earned a trophy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, of which he is the first black man ever to win. During his acceptance speech for that award, he largely gave thanks to Hiro Morai, who directed 7 episodes of Atlanta‘s 10-episode first season. “He taught me everything about directing,” Glover said.

During his lead actor acceptance speech, he also quietly announced that he and his partner Michelle were expecting their second child.

Another Atlanta native, RuPaul, also took home a trophy for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program during the Creative Arts Emmys, which were presented a week prior to last night’s Primetime ceremony. Series RuPaul’s Drag Race lost the Outstanding Reality-Competition Program award to The Voice, but the performer had audiences cracking up by playing the Emmy statuette herself during a pretaped segment with Emmy host Stephen Colbert.

Drag Race also picked up awards for costumes and editing in the reality categories. Locally filmed Stranger Things earned wins for sound editing, single-camera editing for drama, casting for a drama series, main title design, and main title theme song.

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