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The 68th Emmy Awards proved both a victorious night for diversity on all fronts and a reminder of how much more work needs to be done.
This year marked one of the most inclusive ceremonies ever, with Mr. Robot 's Rami Malek becoming the first non-white Best Actor in a Drama in 18 years , alongside Master of None 's co-creators Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang picking up an award for Best Writing in a Comedy Series.
Yang himself took the opportunity both to instil an inspiring message to fellow Asian Americans, and encouragement to get into the filmmaking industry, alongside a sobering reminder of how little inclusivity Hollywood has offered in the past; particularly in its long history of racist Asian stereotypes.
"There’s 17 million Asian Americans in this country," Yang stated. "And 17 million Italian Americans. They have The Godfather , Goodfellas , Rocky , and The Sopranos . We’ve got Long Duk Dong. So we have a long way to go. But I know we can get there, I believe in us, it’s just gonna take a lot of hard work. Asian parents out there, if you can do me a favor: Just a couple of you, get your kids cameras instead of violins, we’ll all be good."
Jeffrey Tambor also used his win for his role as transgender character Maura Plefferman in Transparent to make an impassioned plea for better inclusion of transgender acting talent onscreen . "I just hope there are more opportunities for transgender talent," he stated. "I would very much like to be the last cisgender male playing a transgender female. I think we are there now."
Emmy Awards 2016 winnersShow all 30 1 /30Emmy Awards 2016 winners Julia Louis-Dreyfus (C), winner of the Best Actress in a Comedy Series Award, as well as Outstanding Comedy Series Award for 'Veep', poses with the cast in the press room during the 68th annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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Cast & crew of "Game of Thrones", winners of Best Drama Series, pose in the press room during the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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Actress Sarah Paulson, winner of Best Actress in a Mini-Series or Movie for The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, poses in the press room during the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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Actor Jeffrey Tambor, winner of Best Actor in a Comedy Series for 'Transparent', poses in the press room during the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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Actress Kate McKinnon accepts Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for 'Saturday Night Live' onstage during the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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Actress Regina King, winner of Best Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series or Movie for "American Crime", poses in the press room during the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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(L-R) Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos winners of the Outstanding Documentary for "Making a Murderer"
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RuPaul winner of the Outstanding Host For A Reality Show Or Reality-Competition Program
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Actor Hank winner of the Outstanding Guest Actor in Drama Series
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The team from "Jim: The James Foley Story", Peter Kunhardt, Sheila Nevins, Jacqueline Glover, Eva Lipman, George Kunhardt, Teddy Kunhardt receiving award for Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking
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Joe Celli, David Korins, Jason Howard winners of the Outstanding Production Design For A Variety
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Cast from Born This Way, winners of Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program
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Aziz Ansari (R) and Alan Yang, winners of the Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series Award for 'Master of None', pose in the press room during the 68th annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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'Archer' was a winner of the Outstanding Animated Program
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TV personality Anthony Bourdain, winner of Outstanding Informational Series Or Special
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Directors Thomas Kail (L) and Alex Rudzinski accept Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special for 'Grease: Live' during the 68th Emmy Awards show at the Microsoft Theatre in downtown Los Angeles
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Tina Fey and Amy Poehler received award for the Outstanding Guest Actress in Comedy Series
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Carson Daly (3-L) and Mark Burnett (4-R) and crew, winners for Best Reality-Competition Program Award for 'The Voice', pose in the press room during the 68th annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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Rami Malek winner of the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama
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(L-R) Writers Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander, writer/producer Ryan Murphy, actor John Travolta and production team accept Outstanding Limited Series for 'The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story' onstage during the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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Actress Tatiana Maslany, winner of Best Actress in a Drama Series for "Orphan Black", poses in the press room during the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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Director Susanne Bier, winner of Best Directing for a Mini-Series or Movie for "The Night Manager", poses in the press room during the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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Actor Sterling K. Brown poses backstage with his award for Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Limited Series Or Movie for FX Network's " The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles
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Cast and crew of Robot Chicken, winner of Outstanding Short Form Animated Program (Robot Chicken)
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Actor Peter Scolari, winner of Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for 'Girls,' attends the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Governors Ball at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
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Comedian Patton Oswalt, winner of Best Writing for a Variety Special for Patton Oswalt: Talking for Clapping
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Costume designers Lou Eyrich, Marisa Aboitiz and Helen Huang, winners of Outstanding Costumes For A Contemporary Series, Limited Series Or Movie
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Actor Louie Anderson winner of the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role on the FX series "Baskets"
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Actors Keegan-Michael Key (L) and Jordan Peele, winners of Best Variety Sketch Series for "Key & Peele"
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Jill Soloway poses with her award for Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series for "Transparent" backstage at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles
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Game of Thrones and American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson proved the biggest winners of the night , with the former breaking records with the highest number of wins for any fictional series .
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