by
Samantha Ofole-Prince
Photos by Royalty Image

Jessica Pimentel, Danielle Brooks, Lorraine Toussaint, Adrienne C. Moore

Uzo Aduba, Eddie Redmayne and the comedy-drama “Orange is the New Black” are first time SAG winners.

SAG-AFTRA today presented its coveted Actor® statuettes for the outstanding motion picture and primetime television performances of 2014.

The annual ceremony, which was held at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center honored first time nominees Uzo Aduba, Eddie Redmayne with individual awards.

A shocked and surprised Aduba took home the first award of the evening for leading female actor in a comedy category for the comedy-drama “Orange is the New Black,” which is set in a women’s prison. The series also earned another award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series.

Uzo Aduba

“My heart literally stopped beating when I heard my name called,” Aduba told Blackflix’s Samantha Ofole-Prince backstage. “It was an incredibly humbling experience.”

Viola Davis won best female actor in a drama series for “How to Get Away With Murder” and graciously thanked the show’s creator and producer for thinking a “sexualised, messy, mysterious woman could be a 49-year-old, dark-skinned, African-American woman who looks like me.” This is Davis’ second Screen Actors Guild award. She previously received an award at the 18th annual Screen Actors Guild for the movie “The Help.”

Viola Davis

The award for a motion picture cast performance went to “Birdman”, while Patricia Arquette, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy and J.K. Simmons won statuettes for performances in motion pictures.

Carrie Fisher presented her mother Debbie Reynolds with the union's highest honor, the 51st Annual Life Achievement Award.  There was also an “In Memoriam” tribute to the members lost in the past year from Ruby Dee to Robin Williams during the two-hour live telecast.

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