"Orange Is The New Black" Wins SAG Award For Outstanding Performance by a Comedy Series Again... And Its Stars Talk Diversity

The 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards was presented in Los Angeles, California on Saturday, January 30, 2016. Presented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the award, also known as the Actor, is presented to recognize excellence in film and primetime television.

For the second year in a row, the Netflix series "Orange is the New Black" won the Outstanding Performance by a Comedy Series. The show is noted for the diversity in its cast, which includes Jackie Cruz, Diane Guerrero, HOLA Awards honoree Selenis Leyva, Jessica Pimentel, HOLA Awards honoree Dascha Polanco, and Elizabeth Rodríguez. When accepting the award, "OITNB" star Laura Prepon mentioned it, referring to her castmates beside her and saying, "Look at this stage, this is what we talk about when we talk about diversity."

SAG Award winner
Selenis Leyva.

Backstage, several members of the cast, including Catherine Curtin, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Samira Wiley, and Adrienne C. Moore spoke on diversity in the arts. Laverne Cox opined that the show has revolutionized television. When asked about the lack of diversity in this year's (and last year's) acting nominations for the Academy Awards, Selenis Leyva added, "The problem starts before the Academy Awards. The problem starts in the writing rooms, in the studios. The producers, and directors, and casting people need to open up their eyes that this is a different world we are living in, and diversity is not just black and white. Diversity is universal, and it is a lot more than what we are focusing on. It's religions, it's sexuality, so it doesn't start at the Academy Awards.... [it] starts before that."

To see the "OITNB" stars talk about diversity, click below (the question starts at about 02:00 of the video).



To find out more about the 22nd Annual SAG Awards, click here.