The actress Uzo Aduba has been rewarded for her breakout role as the prisoner Crazy Eyes in Orange Is the New Black with an Emmy Award.
She scooped the gong for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which honour technical and other achievements.
During an emotional acceptance speech, she thanked her mother, who she said came to the United States from Nigeria “to make a better life for her family”.
She also thanked producers and others for a show “that lets everyone be represented in such a beautiful way”.
Orange Is the New Black picked up two other gongs on Saturday night, for casting and picture editing.
Jimmy Fallon was honoured as Best Guest Comedy Actor for his turn on NBC's Saturday Night Live.
On the drama side, guest-acting honours went to Joe Morton for his role in ABC's Scandal, and the former The West Wing actress Allison Janney for her appearance in Showtime's Masters of Sex.
Janney thanked the producers, co-stars and writers on the series, then added one more unsung hero. She said that “the crew guy who got me a shot of bourbon” before her first love scene “was extraordinarily important to me”.
Zach Galifianakis's interview with President Barack Obama on the actor and comedian's Between Two Ferns show on the Funny or Die website won the Emmy for best short-format, live-action entertainment programme.
Awards in the major acting, writing and directing categories will be handed out at the main Emmy ceremony next Monday.
Janney has a shot at another award for her role in the CBS sitcom Mom. The biggest awards winner on Saturday was NBC's Saturday Night Live, with five trophies. Fox's Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, a 21st-century update of the 1980s Carl Sagan series Cosmos, earned four.
The cable dramas Game of Thrones and True Detective, and PBS' Sherlock: His Last Vow also picked up four honours each.
In the battle of the networks, HBO led the way with 15 creative-arts Emmys, followed by NBC with 10, PBS with eight, Fox and Netflix with seven each, CBS with six and ABC with five.
