Mahershala Ali’s year has gotten even bigger after winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor earlier today.

Ali won the award for his role in Moonlight which has gotten widespread praise amongst his peers and critics alike. He is now the first Muslim actor to have won an Oscar after being the first to be nominated for one.

Watch his acceptance speech below.

The year has been a big one for Ali, who not only welcomed his first child into the world earlier this week, but has his him take on more prominent roles in his acting career as well as a proponent for diversity in America.

Besides playing the role of Cottonmouth in the hit Netflix-Marvel series Luke Cage, a video of Ali’s speech during the SAG Awards went viral as he shared a personal account of being a Muslim son to a ordained Christian minister of a mother. It came shortly after President Trump’s “muslim ban” was put into place.

“My mother is an ordained minister. I’m a Muslim. She didn’t do backflips when I called her to tell her I converted 17 years ago. But I tell you now, you put things to the side. And I’m able to see her, and she’s able to see me,” said Ali at the SAG Awards.

“We love each other, the love has grown. And that stuff is minutiae, it’s not that important.”

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