The 2017 Academy Awards was a night of firsts for Viola Davis, Mahershala Ali and black Hollywood actors. Get into their history making wins inside…
This Black History Month just got that much sweeter with historical wins at last night's 2017 Academy Awards.
FENCES star Viola Davis won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, making her the first African-American woman to win an Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award for acting.
Viola’s the 23rd person in history to win the “triple crown” for acting, joining an elite group of actors!
After winning the Oscar, the "How To Get Away With Murder" star told E!, "It's wonderful, glorious. I felt like a princess. I never feel like a princess you know except for my husband [Julius Tennan] when I got married I felt like a princess. It was just you know a culmination of dreaming big and your dreams being bigger than your circumstances."
EGOT crown holder Whoopi Goldberg is also in this elite group of triple crowns, but she won her Tony Award for co-producing the Broadway musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie," not acting in it. She also nabbed her Emmy for a hosting gig for Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel.
This just further proves that a successful film and TV career can co-exist as Viola is also a bonafide EMMY winner for her role in "How To Get Away With Murder."
It was also a night of firsts for actor Mahershala Ali:
The Moonlight actor (and new dad) nabbed Best Supporting Actor making him the first Muslim actor to win the award.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the “Luke Cage” star opened up about how he started opening up to different religions and beliefs outside of Christianity – the religion he was taught to believe growing up – and how his mother reacted his life change.
He says his journey started when he went with his wife Amatus and her mom to a mosque in Philadelphia back when they were in college.
And get this….
Moonlight became the lowest budget film in history to win Best Picture. The coming-of age independent film was created on a small budget of $1.5 million. By the way, they're the first all-black cast to ever win the Best Picture category!
Ans then there's this, which you may have noticed: This Academy Awards ceremony made history with the most black winners…ever.
Mahershala was the first black actor to be awarded an award of the night. “O.J.: Made in America” producer Ezra Edelman became the night’s second black winner for Best Documentary Feature. Moonlight director Barry Jenkins then scooped up the Best Adapted Screenplay award for the screenplay he co-wrote with Tarell Alvin McCraney, whom he shares the win with. Then, Viola scored the Best Supporting Actress award.
While Moonlight won the night’s biggest award, Best Picture, none of the producers (who get the actual award) were black.
Looks like inclusion is slowly making its way into Tinseltown.
Photos: Getty
