Cherry Hill’s Cristin Milioti scores first Emmy for ‘The Penguin’
Before she found fame with "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Wolf of Wall Street," the actress was performing at Cherry Hill High School East where she caught the acting bug.
Cherry Hill native Cristin Milioti scored her first Emmy for best leading actress in a limited series, on Sunday.
The Penguin star, who played the Gotham crime world’s deceptively cunning Sofia Falcone, said the role was a “bright spot.”
“I’m so profoundly grateful,” said Milioti, who shared she wrote her acceptance speech during a recent therapy session. “I loved making this show, and I love playing Sofia so much.”
Milioti, who donned a custom red Danielle Frankel gown, beat out Disclaimer‘s Cate Blanchett, Siren’s Meghann Fahy, Black Mirror’s Rashida Jones, and Dying for Sex’s Michelle Williams for the honor.
The Penguin, streaming on HBO Max, starred Colin Farrell in the title role, received a total of 24 Emmy nominations, second to Severance, which had 27. The spin-off series of Matt Reeves’ The Batman took home nine Emmys.
Among the series’ other wins are outstanding contemporary costumes, hairstyling, makeup, music composition, sound editing, visual effects, and other honors at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards held earlier this month.
Before her first Emmy nomination and win at this year’s ceremony, Milioti was previously nominated for a Tony Award for her leading role in the hit Broadway musical Once. While she didn’t win that one, she did receive a Grammy for best musical theater album in 2013.
Mioloti’s other early appearances include the long-running sitcom How I Met Your Mother and a showy part in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, where she played he first wife of Leonard DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort.
“I’ve been very lucky,” Milioti told The Inquirer in a 2014 interview while filming How I Met Your Mother. “I’ve always paid my rent with acting. Like theater that no one saw. I was very lucky ...”
As long-time fans of the South Jersey actress may know, her performances at Cherry Hill High School East were what sparked her eventual climb up the Hollywood ranks.