Sterling K. Brown made history at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, January 7. The This Is Us star, 41, became the first-ever black actor to win in the best actor in a TV drama category, and he made sure to thank the NBC series’ creator Dan Fogelman.
“Throughout the majority of my career, I’ve benefited from colorblind casting, which means, ‘Hey, let’s throw a brother in there. That’s always really cool,’” Brown said on stage at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills as he accepted the award. “But Dan Fogelman, you wrote a role for a black man that can only be played by a black man. So what I appreciate so much about this is that I’m being seen for who I am and being appreciated for who I am, and it makes it that much more difficult to dismiss me or dismiss anybody who looks like me. So thank you, Dan.”
This was the actor’s first win at the Globes. He was previously nominated in 2017 for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries for his role as prosecutor Christopher Darden in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.
Brown told Us Weekly exclusively at Sunday’s awards show that he had a busy day before arriving on the red carpet. “I woke up and I ran seven miles, and then I watched some NFL,” he said. “Jacksonville vs. New Orleans. I don’t even know who won because then I had to get dressed!”
The Army Wives alum bested Jason Bateman (Ozark), Freddie Highmore (The Good Doctor), Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) and Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan) in the TV drama category. He previously won an Emmy for his This Is Us role as Randall Pearson at the 2017 ceremony, making him the first black actor to win Best Actor in a Drama Series since 1998.
