Daytime Emmys 2022: ‘The Young and The Restless’ Star Mishael Morgan Makes History With Win

Mishael Morgan had a historic moment at the 49th annual Daytime Emmy Awards. The Young and the Restless star, 35, won Best Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama Series: Actress on June 24, becoming the first Black woman to win in the category. This was Morgan’s third nomination and first win in the Lead Actress category.

“I’m so proud of this generation,” Morgan said during her acceptance speech. “…I am being honored regardless of the color of my skin …for being the best at what I do.” Following her win, she told Soap Central, “It felt surreal. I kept replaying it in my head, and then it took me a second to realize, ‘No, that’s not the voice in my head. They actually said my name.’”

Morgan said the storyline of her Emmy-winning character impacted her deeply.”It’s funny because I started thinking about it a little more, and I was thinking about my dad a lot today, and this was so connected to him in a lot of ways. My dad didn’t meet his mom until he was 21. He was raised by her for a few years, but I think around the time he was eight, he ended up in Trinidad, and he didn’t meet her again until he was 21,” Morgan explained.

“And I remembered that when I was prepping the scenes and everything, and then, with everything going on, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is so much my dad’s story,’ and so, it meant so much to me in a lot of [ways], and that was the whole journey on the tape that I had; it was Amanda meeting her mother for the first time, then meeting her grandfather for the first time, who was not her, well, it was her biggest fan, but Amanda was not his biggest fan.”

“And then, you know, kind of breaking down with Devon [Bryton James], saying that she doesn’t know if she’s doing right by her father, and finally coming full circle and hoping that her father is proud of the work that she did,” she added. After taking a chance to reflect, Morgan became emotional, saying, “Playing two characters [Amanda and previously her twin sister, Hilary] and coming on the show was a challenge, but it was one that I was excited to take on, and I’m glad that it paid off.” 

“It was really hard thinking about how I was going to play a strong Black woman in a different way and not make her seem the same and make her seem fresh and different and have connections with these same people that I’ve been working with five, six years prior. But it was exciting, and it reminded me why we do this,” the actress told Soap Central. “We love to play, and we love to tell stories, and we love to become new people and transcend and send our messages out into the world.”

CBS broadcasted the 49th annual Daytime Emmy Awards live from Pasadena Civic Center on June 24 from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET. The ceremony was live-streamed and is also available to watch on-demand via Paramount+.