Ryan Murphy Honors His "Fearless" Heroes in Emotional 2023 Golden Globes Speech

As for Nash-Betts, he praised her coming out journey and for finding her wife Jessica Betts. "Niecy Nash chose love not fear," he said. And now, "she's had the biggest year of her entire career." 

He went on to reflect on his own experience. "When I was a young person at home in the 70s," Murphy recalled, "I never ever saw a person like me getting an award... It's hard being an LGBTQ kid in America." 

For the kids watching tonight, he said, "there is a way forward," advising them to use his five friends as their "North stars."

Previous recipients of the coveted award include Ellen DeGeneres and Norman Lear.

"Ryan Murphy not only continues to enthrall audiences with his work on some of the most thrilling and exciting series of the century but also continues to inspire all with his work off the screen," Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Helen Hoehne previously said. "His work and storytelling ability throughout different film and television genres have led to highly acclaimed achievements and awards."

At the Jan. 10 show, Murphy was also nominated for Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for his thriller Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Going into the night, Murphy had one win for The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story and four other nominations. This year, he was up against Black Bird, Pam and Tommy, The Dropout and The White Lotus: Sicily.

Though he's received incredible recognition for his work, getting here was not easy feat.

"Those early years were very, very, very hard," he told the New York Times in October, "because I would want to write gay characters or women, other marginalized groups, and straight men wearing Dockers in power would say, ‘No, people don't want to see that.'"

As Murphy has persisted on with creating greater representation in television, his goal has been to "take the people that in another person's work would have been the sidekicks, the misfits, the marginalized people you laugh at, and to center the story around them."

Keep scrolling to find out the 2023 Golden Globes winners.