Moonlight's Mahershala Ali Wins Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and Our Hearts for His Tribute to His Wife and Baby

The 2017 ceremony took place Sunday, Feb. 26

By Corinne Heller Feb 27, 2017 1:59 AMTags

Mahershala Ali won the award for Actor in a Supporting Role at the 2017 Oscars Sunday for his performance in Moonlight, marking the star's first Oscar win and nomination and making history by becoming the first Muslim actor to win one.

What he also won was our hearts, with a sweet onstage tribute to his wife and newborn baby daughter.

Amatus Sami-Karim gave birth to the couple's first childBari Najma Ali, on Wednesday.

"I just want to thank my wife, who was in her third trimester during award season," he said during his acceptance speech.

"We just had a daughter four days ago," he said, drawing applause. "So I just wanna thank her for being such a soldier through this process and help and really carrying me through it all."

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Oscars 2017 Red Carpet Arrivals
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
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A24 Films

The actor beat fellow nominees Jeff Bridges for Hell or High Water, Lucas Hedges for Manchester by the Sea, Dev Patel for Lion and Michael Shannon for Nocturnal Animals.

Moonlight depicts the coming-of-age story of a black man growing up in Miami during the War on Drugs era. Naomie Harris plays his mother, a drug addict. The movie was also nominated for Best Picture.

Ali, who grew up in Oakland, California, also stars in another 2017 Oscar-nominated film—Hidden Figures.

Ali made his onscreen acting debut in 2001 playing Dr. Trey Sanders on Crossing Jordan. He later starred on shows such as The 4400, Treme, Alphas, Netflix's House of Cars, in which he plays Remy Danton, and the streaming service's Marvel series Luke Cake, in which he plays Cottonmouth.

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