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Lee Jung-Jae won the Emmy for best actor in a drama series on Sep. 12, 2022 for his role in South Korean smash hit "Squid Game", becoming the first South Korean and Asian star to win the prize in that category, for a performance that was not in English.

The 49-year-old won the coveted Emmy during Monday's ceremony held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

"Thank you so much," he said, "first of all I'd like to thank God above."

"Thank you to the television academy, thank you to Netflix, thank you to director Hwang [Dong-Hyuk] for realistic problem we all face come to life to creatively on the screen with a great script and amazing visuals," he said.

"Thank you," he ended, "Thank you 'Squid Game' team!"

"Squid Game" is also the first foreign language series to be nominated for outstanding drama series.

The Netflix show garnered a total of 14 nominations, tying the series with "Severance", "Barry" and "Dopesick" for fifth-most nods.

The Korean-language drama is Netflix’s most-watched series ever.

Director also won

"Squid Game" creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk also won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.

Hwang, who won for directing the “Red Light, Green Light” episode of Season 1, mentioned the series’ records in his acceptance speech.

“A huge thank you to Netflix and Ted Sarandos — I mentioned your name,” he joked, pointing and smiling at the Netflix exec in the crowd at the Microsoft Theater.

“Since 'Squid Game' got put in nomination at the Emmys, people have keep telling me that I made history. But I don’t think that I made history by myself. Because it was you who opened up the doors for 'Squid Game' — I have to say we made all history together.”

He added: “I truly hope this won’t be the last non-English series to be here at the Emmys. And I also hope this won’t be my last Emmy either.”

Hwang wrote the script for the show in 2008 about a group of people playing a game of life or death.

Ten years later, his idea was pitched as a series to Netflix and was watched 1.65 billion times in the first four weeks after its premiere.

Hwang was up against Jason Bateman (Ozark), Ben Stiller (Severance), Mark Mylod, Cathy Yan and Lorene Scafaria (Succession), and Karyn Kusama (Yellowjackets).

Hwang was also up for the Writing Emmy, a win that went to Jesse Armstrong for "Succession".

"Succession" later beat out "Squid Game" among others to win its second Outstanding Drama Series Emmy.

Top photos via Television Academy YouTube