Jean Smart is pictured winning at the 2025 Golden Globes on January 5, 2025. Photo:
CBS
Cheers to the newest best actress in a comedy series!
Hacks star Jean Smart took home the prize for best performance by a female actor in a television series – musical or comedy at the 2025 Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 5. The honor was presented by Mindy Kaling and Kate Hudson.
“Oh, my goodness, thank you so much. I never thought I’d be so happy to be called a hack,” Smart, 73, joked as she accepted the prize. “But no, I mean, I have the most brilliant showrunners. I have a cast and crew that were sent from heaven, especially my costar, Hannah Einbinder. We have Ava and without Ava there would be no Deborah. And also our brilliant cast, the rest of our cast and crew and everybody at Max and Universal for unbelievable support over the years.”
Teasing what’s to come for the acclaimed comedy, Smart added: “We’re in the middle of season four and we’re still having a ball. So thank you all so much for supporting this show and loving the show. Love you guys. Thank you.”
On Hacks, Smart plays comedian Deborah Vance, who is often at odds with Ava (Einbinder) as they navigate a generational gap while revamping her career. The role landed Smart the Golden Globe in 2021 and she was also nominated last year.
Smart admitted that she wanted to be believable as a comic when she took on the role on the hit Max series.
Jean Smart on season 3 episode 6 of Hacks. Jake Giles Netter/Max
“When I read the script, I said, ‘This is everything I could possibly want for my next job,’ ” she explained to The Hollywood Reporter in June. “But I needed to be sure that real stand-ups could believe I was a comic.”
“I had never been a comedian, so they were the real litmus test. And I passed, I think!” she added.
Though Smart walked away with the prize, the other nominees in the category included Kristen Bell (Nobody Wants This), Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary), Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building) and Kathryn Hahn (Agatha All Along).
Kristen Bell as Joanne in episode 110 of ‘Nobody Wants This’. SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX
Bell, 44, stars as sex podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell), who falls for newly single rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) despite the naysayers in Nobody Wants This. The actress opened up about what she hoped viewers took away from the hit Netflix show in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in November.
“I hoped people would walk away and think weeks later about: Is love really this story we’ve been told about finding your puzzle piece, or is it something way more nuanced than that?” she explained. “Is it a choice that you have to continually make because you’re up against it all the time?”
“And I think the latter, and I think the show did a good job of saying you can start off with connection and chemistry, but there’s a lot that’s going to stand in your way and you just have to decide what you’re willing to compromise on, depending on how badly you want it,” she added.
In addition to Bell, the show and Brody received nominations at the Golden Globes.
Quinta Brunson on ‘Abbott Elementary’. Disney/Gilles Mingasson
In addition to creating, writing and executive producing the series, Brunson stars as Philadelphia school teacher Janine Teagues on Abbott Elementary.
The 34-year-old actress previously opened up about Janine’s evolution over the course of the last three seasons.
“When the show first started, a lot of people were like, ‘Oh my god, the budget is so bad, Janine’s hair looks so bad. It’s like, ‘It looks bad on purpose,’” Brunson explained on Hot Ones in February. “She’s a girl who doesn’t quite know what to do with her hair and wardrobe yet, but she’s proud of herself regardless.”
“That’s what I want people to take away with that kind of character,” she added. “Everybody’s not perfect or knows how to do it all. Janine’s a character now who has started to watch some YouTube videos and she’s like, ‘That’s how I maintain my curls.’ And then she went, ‘Maybe not that shirt with that skirt.’”
“That’s fun, it’s a way for us to show her brain on the outside of her head,” she concluded. “And it’s important to really have those things for all characters, but especially a young Black girl character.”
Abbott Elementary also scored a nom for best television series – musical or comedy at the Golden Globes.
From left: Jeremy Allen White as Carmen and Ayo Edebiri as Sydney Adamu in ‘The Bear’. Chuck Hodes/FX
Edebiri won the Golden Globe for her role as chef Sydney Adamu on The Bear at last year’s ceremony. The actress, 29, said she was able to pull from her real-life experience when working on The Bear.
“I worked in restaurants for five or six years in New York,” Edebiri shared with Today in January. “I’ve worked in restaurants a lot in my life. Never in the kitchen, but waitstaff or hosting, reservations, and my first job was being a dishwasher. I understood, I think, the rhythm of how people spoke and the feeling of being in a kitchen, but never from the chef’s vantage point.”
Edebiri also trained with her costar Jeremy Allen White at the Institute of Culinary Education in Pasadena, California, as well as in the kitchen of several Michelin-starred restaurants in preparation for the role.
In addition to Edebiri, The Bear and White as well as her costars Liza Colón-Zayas and Ebon Moss-Bachrach also scored nominations at the Golden Globes.
From left: Selena Gomez and Jesse Williams in ‘Only Murders in the Building’. Patrick Harbron/Hulu
In Only Murders in the Building, Gomez stars opposite Steve Martin and Martin Short as Mabel Mora, who teams up with Martin’s Charles-Haden Savage and Short’s Oliver Putnam to solve the true crime mysteries happening in their NYC building.
The 32-year-old actress recently opened up about embracing Mabel on the hit Hulu series. “I feel like I’ve been able to gradually become Mabel and to grow with her,” she told Numéro in September. “She is a part of me now. I’m just enjoying the process.”
Only Murders In the Building, as well as Short and Martin all received nominations at the Golden Globes.
Kathryn Hahn in ‘Agatha All Along’. Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel
Hahn brings to life the wicked witch Agatha Harkness on the Disney+ series Agatha All Along.
The actress, 51, admitted the role — which was first portrayed on WandaVision — came as a surprise to her on the Dinner’s On Me Podcast last month.
“I didn’t really know Marvel,” she explained. “That just wasn’t my milieu. My kids loved it, so I’d see it through them and I always knew that they got these incredible actors.”
She added: “When they asked me to do The Witch in WandaVision, I mean, that was ridiculous.”
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See PEOPLE’s full coverage of the 82nd annual Golden Globes as they’re broadcasting live from the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on CBS and Paramount+.
