The team of Ali Wong and Steven Yeun walked away with best actress and actor awards in a limited anthology series for Netflix’s Beef Sunday night.
It was the first Golden Globes nomination and win for the both of them.
Wong played Amy Lau, a hard driving businesswoman in the series about road rage and the relationship between the multiple characters. She gets into an accident with Yeun who played Danny Cho, setting off an explosive chain of events.
Both Wong and Yeun had a long walk from near the rear of the theater with both seemingly genuinely surprised by the win. At one point, Wong seemed to ask her fellow celebrities the best way to get to the stage.
“I really need to thank Sunny (Lee Sung Jin) for creating such a beautiful show,” she began, “and inviting me to be a part of it. The friendship I made with you and Steven (Yeun), Jake (Schreier, director) and the rest of the cast and crew is really the best thing that came out of Beef. I need to thank the father of my children and my best friend, Justin, for all of your love and support. It’s because of you that I’m able to be a working mother.”
The announcement of Yeun’s victory made for a rare double win for Asian Americans.
“The story I usually tell of myself is one of Isolation and separateness and then you come up here and have this moment and you can only think about everyone else. And that feels like the plot of Frozen,” he said to laughter. “Shout out to my daughter Ruthie, family movie night. I’m just so thankful. I’m just the recipient of a long line of compassion, love, protection, goodwill. I appreciate this. Joanna, I love you. You are my strength.”
Wong is a stand-up comedian and actress from San Francisco. She gained fame with her Netflix comedy specials.
Yeun became a cult hero for his role of Glenn Rhee in The Walking Dead. He earned an Academy Award nomination playing the father in Minari, the first Asian American actor to do so.
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