'Baby Reindeer's Richard Gadd wins Emmy for Lead Actor in a Limited Series

In a great year for queer actors at the Emmys, Richard Gadd has taken one of the night's biggest awards.

Gadd, who created and starred in the show Baby Reindeer, loosely based on his own experiences, won the Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Movie or Limited Series, beating out fellow queer actors Matt Bomer, Tom Hollander, and Andrew Scott. Jon Hamm was also nominated.

This was Gadd's first nomination. He was also nominated tonight for Outstanding Writing, which he won.

Gadd thanked his parents in his speech, and said that the thing he's most grateful for is that they "never ever told me what I needed to do with my life, and they never ever told me what I needed to be. And I think that's the greatest gift a parent can give their child. They always said, 'Follow your heart, and the rest will fall into place,' and I think it's good advice. Follow your heart and the rest will fall into place."

Baby Reindeer, which told the story of a struggling comedian named Donny Dunn who meets a woman in a pub who starts stalking him, was one of the most talked-about series of the year, and also earned Emmy nominations for actors Jessica Gunning, Nava Mau, and Tom Goodman-Hill.

Gunning plays Martha Scott, the woman who stalks Donny, Mau plays Teri, a trans woman and therapist who Donny dates, and Goodman-Hill plays Darrien O'Connor, a television writer who takes Donny under his wing.

The show was up for a total of 11 Emmys.