Maya Rudolph won her sixth career Emmy on Saturday night, taking the trophy for best character voice-over for her work on Big Mouth at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, while Angela Bassett won her first for her narration of the National Geographic show Queens.
The former and future Saturday Night Live star Rudolph is up for three more Emmys.
Her voice-over work as the Hormone Monstress on the Netflix animated show Big Mouth has earned her four of her Emmys.
“I’m really proud to be a part of this show,” she said. “It humanizes being human.”
She got emotional when she talked about the privilege that she gets to do what she loves in her life.
“It’s making me cry because I’m very menopausal,” Rudolph said.
She won on the first of the two-night Creative Arts Emmys, which honor behind-the-scenes artistic and technical achievement in television and are a precursor to the main Emmys ceremony, hosted by Dan and Eugene Levy, that will air at 8 pm EST September 15 on ABC.
Bassett appeared to collect her trophy for best narrator, a category that is usually star studded but where the winner, like Barack Obama last year, rarely shows.
“Oh my god, wow, my first Emmy,” an emotional Bassett said. “I couldn’t be more thrilled and more grateful.”
Bassett was attracted to the wildlife documentary project because of the all female-led production team, a rarity in the medium, she said backstage.
“It just touched my heart,” she said. “So I said yes.” Bassett is a two-time Oscar nominee who won an honorary Academy Award earlier this year.
Rudolph won two Emmys when she was a cast member on the show, and was nominated for two more for her work as host of the sketch institution last season. Those will be awarded Sunday.
She will be returning this fall to play Vice President Kamala Harris on the 50th season of SNL in the weeks leading up to the election.
“I feel like I am connected somehow to an incredible time in this country and an excitement that I haven’t felt in a long time,” she said backstage on Saturday.
She is also nominated at the main Emmys ceremony for best actress in a comedy for her Apple TV+ series Loot. (PTI)
