Jean Smart wins fourth straight Emmy for Hacks, ends speech with a plea: 'Be good to each other'

A four-peat with heart

Jean Smart did it again. The 74-year-old star claimed Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series at the 77th Emmy Awards on September 15, 2025, earning a fourth straight trophy for her ferocious, funny turn as Deborah Vance on HBO Max’s Hacks. The milestone pushes her career total to seven Emmys across 14 nominations, a late-career surge that very few performers have matched.

She walked to the stage with a slight limp, then instantly defused any worry with a deadpan line that sounded like something Deborah herself might toss out. “If I was walking like John Wayne, it’s because I broke my knee this summer and it’s not quite repaired,” she said, drawing a warm laugh before shifting into a grateful, grounded speech.

Smart used the spotlight to praise the team that built Hacks with her. She thanked an “unbelievable crew,” saluted her “incredible castmates led by the incomparable Hannah Einbinder,” and called the showrunners “beyond brilliant.” She also nodded to HBO Max, Universal Television, and the Television Academy. Then she went personal, thanking “my children who are my anchor, Joe, my cheerleader,” and signing off with a line that felt like a theme for the night: “Let’s be good to each other. Let’s just be good to each other.”

This win caps a streak that started in 2021 and continued in 2022 and 2024, underscoring how firmly Hacks has held the comedy spotlight. Smart has paired those Emmys with Critics’ Choice Television Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series in 2022, 2023, and 2025, turning Deborah Vance into a defining character of the decade. Four in a row is rare air, placing Smart among a small circle of performers who’ve owned a category year after year.

The moment also marked a quiet triumph of resilience. Smart suffered a knee fracture over the summer and previously disclosed undergoing a heart procedure in 2023, which briefly paused Hacks production at the time. Yet the work never wavered. If anything, her Deborah has grown sharper and riskier—tight five-minute bits becoming brutal, liberating hour-long sets—mirroring an artist who refuses to coast.

Why Hacks keeps landing the punchline

Hacks works because it’s a two-hander that treats both sides with respect. Smart’s Deborah is a legendary Las Vegas powerhouse whose legacy is secure—but not finished. Paired with Gen Z writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), Deborah has to dig deeper, rewrite decades of muscle memory, and face crowds that don’t care how many marquees she’s topped. The push and pull between the two isn’t cute; it’s cutting, ambitious, and often uncomfortable. That’s where the laughs hit hardest.

Credit the show’s creative spine—Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky—for building a series that treats comedy like a craft, not a backdrop. Hacks lets you see the seams: the new material that bombs, the rewrites at 2 a.m., the hustling for stage time, the ego checks. It puts a veteran woman in comedy at the center and asks what it takes to stay relevant when your instincts are brilliant but your world has changed.

Smart’s command of tone does the heavy lifting. She can pivot from a withering put-down to a bruised confession in a single beat, without breaking the character’s shell. That balance didn’t appear overnight. Smart has been on a hot streak since her scene-stealing work in Watchmen and Mare of Easttown, which is why one major newspaper tagged her “The Queen of HBO.” Hacks fused those skills—dramatic weight and savage timing—into one role.

The award also says something about the industry’s slow shift in who gets to lead. Deborah Vance is not the side character with barbed lines; she’s the engine. Her story arcs include money, power, aging, creativity, and regret—things that rarely land in one part, let alone one woman’s part in a comedy. The audience response suggests viewers want this complexity and aren’t afraid of characters who are messy, driven, and unapologetically ambitious.

Hacks has evolved as Deborah evolves. Early episodes lived in Vegas clubs and casino corridors. Later runs followed tours, TV deals, and the grind of building a new hour from scratch. The comedy got bigger, but the show kept its scalpel. Even when Deborah wins, the series asks what it costs: friendships strained, family time missed, pride swallowed on the way to a punchline that finally lands.

Smart’s thanks to her crew wasn’t boilerplate. Hacks is meticulously built—crisp pacing, dead-on costumes that track Deborah’s eras, and camera work that treats stand-up like a contact sport. You feel the sweat under the lights and the risk in every joke. That precision is why the series keeps sweeping guild lists and critics’ ballots alongside the Emmys.

As for the speech’s final note—“Let’s be good to each other”—it didn’t read as a throwaway. Awards nights can feel like victory laps. This one felt like a reminder, from someone who has outlasted trends and setbacks, that kindness is a better long game than snark. The room got it.

Seven Emmys in, Smart isn’t coasting on nostalgia. She’s still rewriting the act—hers and Deborah’s—and the room is still leaning in. The four-peat proves the bit has legs. Even with a mending knee.