Jill Soloway, the Chicago native who created “Transparent,” won an Emmy on Sunday for directing the acclaimed Amazon series.
An alumna of Lane Tech and the Annoyance Theatre, Soloway was honored for the series depicting a family’s reaction when the patriarch (Jeffrey Tambor) realizes he should be a woman.
In her acceptance speech for the best directing on a comedy series Emmy, Soloway first thanked an unnamed female deity. “Goddess first,” she said. “Amazon second.”
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She also gave shout-outs to her show’s stars and producers as well as her family, singling out her own father, a psychiatrist who came out as transgender and is now her “mapa.” Soloway grew up near Bridgeport in South Commons before the family moved to the Gold Coast.
She also made a pitch for laws protecting the civil rights of transgender people, plugging the website of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “It is legal in the majority of U.S. states to refuse to rent to trans people,” she said.
Minutes later, Tambor won the best comedy actor Emmy for his “Transparent” role. In January, Tambor won a Golden Globe for “Transparent,” which also was named best comedy series.
The show’s second season will debut Dec. 4.
Other winners with Chicago roots:
• Continuing a winning streak that has run through all four seasons of “Veep,” Northwestern grad Julia Louis-Dreyfus claimed another Emmy as best comedy actress.
• The pride of Wilmette, Bill Murray, was named best supporting actor in a limited series or movie for his “Olive Kitteridge” work. Ever unreliable, he was a no-show to pick up the award, his second Emmy and his first since a 1977 writing award for “Saturday Night Live.”
