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Jordan Peele Made History With His First Oscar Win

Here's why his win for Best Original Screenplay is a big deal

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Keisha Hatchett

History was made during the 90th Academy Awards on Sunday night when Jordan Peele took home his first Oscar for Get Out. He is the fourth African American to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay and first to take home the coveted trophy. Previous nominees include John Singleton for Boyz n the Hood in 1991, Spike Lee for Do the Right Thing in 1989, and Suzanne de Passe for Lady Sings the Blues in 1972.

During his emotional acceptance speech, Peele revealed that he had trouble finishing the script because he didn't think it would get made.

"This means so much to me," he said. "I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible. I thought it wasn't going to work. I thought no one would ever make this movie. But I kept coming back to it, because I knew if someone let me make this movie, that people would hear it and people would see it."

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Peele went on to dedicate the award to those who "raised my voice and let me make this movie" as well as the Get Out cast and crew, his mom and the people who went to see the film in theaters.

"My mother, who taught me to love even in the face of hate, and to everybody who went and saw this movie, everybody who bought a ticket, who told somebody to buy a ticket, thank you. I love you. For shouting out at the theater, for shouting out at the screen. Let's keep going," he added.

Peele is also nominated for Best Director and Best Picture. Here's how his close friend and Key & Peele co-star Keegan-Michael Key reacted to his big win.

Peele also reacted to his historic Oscar win on Twitter.


Additional reporting by Liz Raferty.