Angela Bassett Wins First Emmy Award in Four-Decade Career

This has been a long time coming!

Angela Bassett earned her first-ever Emmy Award at the 2024 Creative Arts Emmys this past week. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this was the legendary actress’ ninth Emmy nomination, which included a 2023 nomination for her narration work on Good Night Oppy. Bassett, who’s had an illustrious four-decade career in the industry, earned her first Emmy for her work on National Geographic’s Queens, a seven-part series that chronicles the stories of animal matriarchies across the globe. 

“It feels good; really, really good. Thank you to National Geographic, Wild Star Film, and all the directors – all women – who brought this incredible story, this incredible docuseries centered on the ferocious and magnificent things in the animal kingdom. I couldn’t be more thrilled and more grateful,” Bassett said during her acceptance speech at the Emmy Awards.

Initially, Bassett turned down the project, citing her hectic work schedule with “9-1-1” and wanting to spend time with her family. One of the highest-paid actresses in television history, Bassett said the project’s sizzle reel sealed the deal for her. 

“It was summertime. It was hiatus [for 9-1-1]. It had been a long season. I was looking forward to going on vacation, spending time with the family, and downtime from work because it’s a continuous roller coaster. But they came back around and sent me the sizzle reel and I said, ‘OK, let me put my full attention on this for a moment and see what the project is exactly.’ Once I did that, it didn’t pass me by,” explained Bassett. 

Angela Bassett on winning her first #Emmy for narrating Nat Geo’s “Queens” pic.twitter.com/2AAetAOGaH

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) September 8, 2024

Now, her work has paid off, and Bassett credits the all-women production team for making the project a huge success. 

“Of course, it’s not work that you do alone, even though it’s a narration, but there’s a whole team that pursued me and believed in me, fought for me, and worked with me to tell this amazing story of females in the wild kingdom, led by an all-female led production team, a first in wildlife documentary filmmaking. So that was pretty inspiring to me in and of itself,” Bassett told reporters.