American actress Jean Smart took home the Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series at the 74th Television Academy Awards for her role in Hacks. The awards were handed out on Monday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
The actress, who turns 71 on Tuesday, won the award for the second consecutive year. Jean had also won last year's Lead Actress Emmy for her performance on the HBO Max series. The other nominees for the category were Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary), Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Kaley Cuoco (The Flight Attendant), Issa Rae (Insecure), and Elle Fanning (The Great).
"Thank you for a second time honoring this show," Jeans said while accepting her award onstage, adding, "As we all know, season two of a show is kind of a litmus test… The crew went above, above, above, and beyond."
Hacks explores the relationship between legendary Las Vegas comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and young but down-on-luck comedy writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder). After its debut last year, the critically acclaimed show returned for a second season on May 12 and explored how Deborah and Ava continue working together as they take the comedian’s standup act on a national tour across the country.
"It's at least as funny as the first season," Jean had told the media during that time, "I'm thrilled. Second seasons are notoriously dicey because everyone’s kind of expecting you to prove yourself if the first season was a hit, but boy, did they come up with the goods, the writers. It's really great."
Apart from Jean and Hannah, the returning cast consisted of other Emmy acting nominees Carl Clemons-Hopkins as Deborah's COO Marcus, Jane Adams as Ava's mother Nina, Christopher McDonald as casino owner Marty Ghilain, and Kaitlin Olson as Deborah's daughter.