'Modern Family' Star Celebrates First Win at 2022 Tony Awards

Jesse Tyler Ferguson hit a new career milestone on Sunday with his first-ever Tony Award. The actor is best known for portraying Mitchell Pritchett on ABC's Modern Family, but he has a distinguished career on the stage as well. He was recognized for this year's Best Performance by a Featured Actor in Take Me Out on Broadway.

"To stand in front of this community that I admire and love so much, just means so much to me... I can't believe I get to do this for a living," Ferguson said in his acceptance speech on Sunday, according to a report by Entertainment Tonight. He played the character Mason Marzac in this year's new production of Take Me Out, Which was originally written by Richard Greenberg and premiered off-Broadway in 2002. The play was originally scheduled to open in April of 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it did not begin until April 4, 2022.

Take Me Out is a drama about a Major League Baseball Team. It is about a player named Darren Lemming who comes out as gay, to the shock of his teammates. Ferguson plays an openly gay man with no interest in baseball until Darren comes out. He seeks him out in the hopes of striking up a friendship or a relationship.

The play also deals with issues of racism, classism and toxic masculinity in the world of sports. It has been lauded for its portrayal of homophobia in a sphere where it might be taken for granted or written off. The play won the Tony Award for Best Play and Best Direction of a Play in a previous run. Ferguson told ET that he believes its message is just as important now as when it was written two decades ago.

"When I saw this play, it was very timely. But I thought, 'Probably in two years it won't be anymore,'" he said. "And here we are [20] years later, and racism and homophobia are still very relevant." Fergus said that he hopes to see more progress in the world of organized sports specifically. He said: "We haven't had anyone on the level of the character in this play [come out]. I know they exist. I wish there was more visibility in sports."

Ferguson was raised in New Mexico and moved to New York City after high school to attend The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. In an Instagram post this spring, he said that stage acting in NYC was one of his childhood dreams. However, Ferguson will be back on screen soon in Elizabeth Banks' new movie Cocaine Bear. The movie is scheduled to premiere on Feb. 24, 2023.