Olivia Colman pays emotional tribute to her late father as she scoops Emmy for Netflix’s The Crown role

Olivia Colman paid a sweet tribute to her late father who died during the pandemic as she won an Emmy for her incredible performance as the Queen in The Crown.

On Sunday, September 19, Olivia Colman broke down as she won the  Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy for her performance in Netflix's The Crown.

Accepting the award in London, the actress said,  “Thank you very much, I’d have put money on that not happening. I don’t know what to say—thank you very much for this, this is amazing."

She then spoke about her love for the cast and crew of the hit show. "And what a lovely end to the most extraordinary journey with this lovely family. I loved every second of it and I can’t wait to see what happens next," said Olivia. 

The actor's parting words are a sweet nod to Season 5 of The Crown as she hands over the reins to a new generation of actors, including Imelda Staunton who is playing the Queen.

Olivia then became overcome with emotion as she added, “I’ll be quick as I’m very teary. I wish my dad was here to see this. I lost my daddy during Covid, he would have loved all of this.”

It is unknown if Olivia's father Keith Colman died after contracting the virus, but the actress had described him in previous interviews as 'frail.' Olivia told the Daily Mail's Weekend magazine in January 2021, "He’s a lovely man. He’s getting on of course – he’s relatively frail compared to the young man I remember, and that’s upsetting. But he’s a very nice Daddy." 

Olivia finished her speech by saying, “Also, Michaela Coel, f**k yeah!"

This was a reference to Michaela Coel’s triumphant win of Emmy for Best Writing in a Television Limited Series or Movie, for her work on BBC and HBO’s I May Destroy You. 

Michaela was the first Black woman to ever win the award and made a powerful acceptance speech, that concluded with Michaela saying, “I dedicate this story to every single survivor of sexual assault.”

Fellow nominees for this award included Emma Corrin, Elisabeth Moss, Uzo Aduba, Jurnee Smollett, and Mj Rodriguez.

Emma Corrin also starred as Princess Diana in The Crown alongside Olivia. Although they were both competing for the same award there seemed to be no hard feelings as Emma cheered and applauded her co-star's win.

Gillian Anderson, who starred in The Crown as Margaret Thatcher, also won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a drama series. Tobias Menzies also won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor and Josh O'Connor won for Best Actor.

In total the cast and crew of The Crown took home a total of 11 Emmy wins.