“If by some fluke you win, / a poem might give it a less boring spin.”
That’s how Betty Gilpin ’08 began her acceptance speech at the 2026 Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 6. The Fordham Theatre grad won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her turn as Sarah Westcott Warren on the Apple TV horror-comedy Widow’s Bay.
Known for her comedic flair and vulnerability on such series as GLOW, Mrs. Davis, and Nurse Jackie, Gilpin chose self-deprecating yet emotional rhyming couplets in lieu of a more traditional acceptance speech. Her performance left the audience at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater laughing, cheering, and visibly moved.
A ‘Manic Poem’ Steals the Show
She poked fun at her own career path and industry—“Look, my family has nurses, a priest, and a teacher. / I’m a spray-tanned, narcissistic society leecher,” she said. But she also revealed the heart behind her humor: her deep appreciation for her fellow creative artists.
“Rhyming’s a vulnerability cloak. / What we do means so much to me. / That part’s not a joke.”
The win marks Gilpin’s first Emmy victory following three previous nominations for her breakout role as wrestler Debbie “Liberty Belle” Eagan on Netflix’s GLOW.
That she chose to recite what she later called a “manic poem”—written in a last-minute scramble just in case she won—wasn’t so off-brand for Gilpin, whose debut essay collection, All the Women in My Brain, was published in 2022. In it, she shares how her Fordham Theatre training and the bonds she formed in the program helped her cultivate an “ocean of weird” and realize that acting “wasn’t just sequined escape; it was naked examination.”
Championing Artistry Over AI
Near the end of her poem-speech, Gilpin teared up as she referenced her parents, actors Jack Gilpin and Ann McDonough, then drew cheers as she delivered a not-so-subtle call for human artistry over AI, something the actor has a history of speaking out against.
“Our business is stupid, but actors are the bomb / From Martindale to Milioti, my dad and my mom. / To be cringe and elitist, which you’re free to find fault in / Let’s all lean toward Sam Shepard and less toward Sam Altman.”
Reflecting on the success of Widow’s Bay, Gilpin shared with Variety, “Honestly, something so original and niche and strange and human having success in the mainstream—it gives me hope, honestly, that we’re not totally lost in our industry.”
Watch the full speech below.
