Sheryl Lee Ralph, a Uniondale native and graduate of Uniondale High School, won Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, September 12. The 65-year-old actress was awarded for her role as kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard on Abbott Elementary, an ABC sitcom about a fictional Philadelphia school. She is the first Black woman to win Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 35 years.

 

Ralph’s career has spanned more than four decades with notable roles on television, film, and stage including the 1980’s sitcom It’s a Living, the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, for which she received a Tony Award nomination, and her Independent Spirit Award-winning role in the 1990 drama film To Sleep with Anger. 

 

The audience gave her as a standing ovation as she began her inspiring acceptance speech with a powerful acapella rendition of Dianne Reeves’s "Endangered Species."