Niecy Nash-Betts Won't Let Hollywood Put Her in Box

Niecy Nash-Betts Credit - Philip Cheung—The New York Times/Redux

When Niecy Nash-Betts won her first-ever Primetime Emmy Award in January 2024 for her role in Netflix’s 2022 true-crime drama Dahmer, she made sure to thank someone who had supported her every step of the way: herself.

“I want to thank me,” she said in her acceptance speech. “For believing in me and doing what they said I could not do.”

Looking back on that moment, Nash-Betts, 54, reflects on how she has kept the faith as a Black—and, as of 2020, out queer—woman in the entertainment business, over the course of 30 years and counting. “My best piece of advice is to not get weary in well doing,” she says. “When you are going through the ups and downs of this industry, the parts that bring you sorrow or grief or pain, you have a right to feel what you feel. Just don't stay there too long. You got to get up and, as my grandmother would say, ‘Don't look like what you're going through.’ There is always something you can do to move the ball further down the field.”

Thanks to her breakout role in Comedy Central’s long-running cop parody Reno 911! and continued success in series like TV Land’s The Soul Man and Ryan Murphy’s satirical murder mystery Scream Queens, the first two decades of Nash-Betts’ career earned her a reputation as a “Queen of Comedy.”

The ability to make people laugh was a talent she first leaned into after her 17-year-old brother, Michael Ensley, was shot and killed at his California high school in 1993. “I didn't know comedy was a gift until my only brother was murdered and I watched my mother crumble emotionally,” she says. “I asked myself, ‘How can I help her in this space?’ And the only thing I knew was that I was funny. That’s when I realized that you can actually alter the way people feel by being funny.”

Despite this flair for humor, her work didn’t start receiving widespread awards buzz until she was given a chance to prove to Hollywood's powers that be that she could break out of her industry-imposed box. “People always want to leave you where they meet you,” she says. “When I was trying to get serious parts, they didn't want to have anything to do with me. They were like, ‘We know what you do. You're the funny girl.’ But I knew I could do more.”

Playing nurse Denise “Didi” Ortley, the voice of reason in HBO’s offbeat hospital farce Getting On, allowed Nash-Betts to showcase a mix of comedy and drama that ultimately earned her back-to-back Emmy nominations in 2015 and 2016. “What has been good for me is to surround myself with a team of people that see me like I see myself,” she says. “So when you're reading scripts, if it doesn't say ‘middle-aged Black woman’ in the description, that doesn't mean you can’t be submitted. It’s about thinking outside the box.”

Following an additional Emmy nod in 2019 for her role in Ava DuVernay’s Central Park Five-inspired miniseries When They See Us, Nash-Betts finally secured a win for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her portrayal in Dahmer of Glenda Cleveland, a real-life neighbor of Jeffrey Dahmer’s who was continually rebuffed by police when trying to report the notorious serial killer’s crimes. In the same speech in which she thanked herself, Nash-Betts paid tribute to women of color like Cleveland who have “gone unheard yet overpoliced.”

“At that moment, on that day, I needed to acknowledge something that was very important to me,” she says. “Glenda Cleveland’s story was one that took place in the ‘80s. And here we are in 2025 still dealing with these things in a similar capacity. [As an actor], I would love to be a part of doing more than making you feel something on a Wednesday night when you’re channel surfing. I want to take on the responsibility of calling things out, of holding the right people accountable, and of putting forward a call to action.”

With dreams of earning an EGOT in her sights, Nash-Betts plans on having plenty of other opportunities to continue to “speak truth to power,” as she put it on that Emmys stage last year. “I still have some things left to do,” she says.

Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com.