“Squid Game” actor Lee Jung-jae made history at the Emmys on Monday as the first actor to win Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for a non-English-speaking role.
Jung-jae, who plays Seong Gi-hun, aka Player 456, became the first Asian and South Korean actor to win in the category.
The actor thanked the show’s director, Hwang Dong-hyuk, for “making realistic problems we all face come to life.”
You can watch his acceptance speech, spoken in both English and Korean, below.
It was a historic night for “Squid Game,” which has a second season with Netflix on the way, as it was the first non-English-language drama to be nominated for Outstanding Drama Series.
The show, which was nominated 14 times on Monday, wound up losing to “Succession” in the category.
Dong-hyuk, however, took home the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.
“Squid Game” made history as the first Netflix show to have more than 100 million viewers in the first month of its release. Actor O Yeong-Su won a Golden Globe Award for supporting actor in a television series earlier this year.
