Tamara Tunie thanked her mother as she accepted her first Emmy, telling her she’d been “on this journey with me every single step of the way.”
Tunie’s 92-year-old mother crossed the country to watch her daughter win. At 67, Tunie dedicated the award to Evelyn Hawkins Tunie, whose support had followed her across “states, countries and oceans.”
Tunie won Outstanding Lead Performer in a Daytime Drama Series: Actress on Oct. 30, 2026, at the 53rd Daytime Emmy Awards at the Hollywood Palladium. Her role as Anita Dupree on CBS’s Beyond the Gates brought her back to soaps after 17 years away and earned her first Emmy nomination.
Accepting the award, Tunie said she “would not be who I am as an actor or a woman without her love, support, encouragement and mere presence.” She accepted on her mother’s behalf and told her, “I love you, mommy!”
Evelyn built a career of her own while raising her family. Once her children were in school, she attended mortuary school and became a funeral director in 1968. She worked alongside Tunie’s father at the Tunie Funeral Home in Homestead, Pennsylvania, where Tunie and her siblings grew up in the home above the business.
Beginning with Cicely Tyson on The Guiding Light, Tunie also paid tribute to the Black actresses “who paved the way.” Beyond the Gates is the first network daytime soap centered on a primarily Black family since Generations. The series won 4 Emmys and has been renewed through 2027–28.