Forget Barbara Howard, Sheryl Lee Ralph has a few life lessons to teach.
As the Abbott Elementary star continues to rack up awards for her performance on the hit ABC sitcom, she’s also serving as a source of inspiration with the encouraging words she doles out.
Take, for example, her 2022 Emmys acceptance speech after winning the award for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. The victory made her the second Black actress in history to win the category and, upon her arrival at the podium, the 66-year-old celebrated the momentous feat by belting out a few lines from Dianne Reeves‘ “Endangered Species.”
“I am a woman, I am an artist,” she sang, as the crowd jumped to its feet. “And I know where my voice belongs.”
The impromptu performance has reverberated across Hollywood and beyond. As she explained to E! News in October, “It has changed everything. People talk about the overnight of it all.”
The actress continued, “I have traveled to different countries and people open their arms, they talk to me about what it meant when I won. They say to me how I moved them with my speech.”
