Comedian, show creator, and queen of viral comedy, Quinta Brunson went from Black Women in Hollywood Guest to honoree in only a brief span of two years – a remarkable feat that isn’t lost on the actress.

Accepting her award from Donald Glover, wearing a green/yellow custom Hanifa high slit gown, Brunson jokingly thanked him for wearing his best leisure attire to the ceremony, before revealing what a priceless supporter he had been early in her profession.

“In 2020, I went to my first-ever ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood luncheon. Pre-pandemic and pre-racial reckoning, most of my worries were minor on the time,” she said, recalling being a guest just two years ago. “I used to be invited to go to this incredible luncheon that I planned on sneaking into. Like, wow,” she laughed.

Brunson said her only worry was that the affair, like so many others she had attended in Hollywood before, can be stuffy, awkward, and pretend. Naturally, the comedian says she quickly found those concerns to be unfounded.

“Because the day went on, my worry was rendered pointless. I actually didn’t want the luncheon to finish. The luncheon energized me,” she continued. “The heat you are feeling from a room of a bunch of Black women – I soon learned, that might be the one Hollywood event where I’d ever really feel that sort of warmth again. So, thanks ESSENCE for putting 200 Black women in the identical room and recharging us all.”

“To be within the presence of Nia, Chanté, and Aunjanue is a little bit bit beyond me. It’s a little bit bit an excessive amount of. I’ve needed to pinch myself multiple times. Nia is a testament to beauty, talent, grace, and longevity on this industry. Chanté is a contemporary stunner who literally blows me away each time she’s onscreen – I actually have DM’d you about this,” she said in an aside to Adams. “You’re taking my breath away, truly.”

“And, Aunjanue is a dynamo, whom I can only imagine to be half nearly as good as someday,” she continued. “I need to have the talent that’s in your right pinky in my whole body. You’re uncontrolled, it’s really not okay,” she told Ellis.

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 24: Honoree Quinta Brunson accepts an award onstage in the course of the 2022 fifteenth Annual ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood Awards Luncheon at Beverly Wilshire, A 4 Seasons Hotel on March 24, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Wealthy Polk/Getty Images for ESSENCE)

Brunson noted the vital role fellow Black women have played in her life – from her mother and aunts, to her teachers and choir directors, right down to random women that pay her kind compliments. She says all that she does is an effort to point out them in the sunshine by which she has all the time appreciated them.

“I understand that receiving his honor signifies that I’m a representation of all of them, and I don’t take that frivolously,” she said. “I hope that I’m and may proceed to make each certainly one of them proud. One among the explanations I created three Black women characters on Abbott Elementary was because I used to be excited to point out our work dynamics and the way at the top of the day, normally, we will still operate at our greatest in sisterhood, understanding, and love.”

Black Women in Hollywood is on the market to view via Essence Studios.

The 2022 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards is sponsored by Coca-Cola, Ford, Disney’s Onyx Collective, SmartWater and Warner Brothers Television Group