NAACP Image Awards: ‘Black-ish,’ Beyonce, ‘Soul’ Score Most Wins in Non-Televised Ceremonies

3 min readMar 27, 2021

Other top winners from the five nights of virtual presentations ahead of Saturday’s live show include Barack Obama, ‘Insecure,’ and the late Chadwick Boseman, who was honored for his role in ‘Da 5 Bloods.’
The 2021 NAACP Image Awards has crowned winners in more than 60 categories via streaming presentations across five nights ahead of the awards’ live show on BET and CBS on Saturday night.

Going into the live show, Black-ish lead with five awards, winning in the categories of best actor (Anthony Anderson) and supporting actor (Deon Cole) and supporting actress (Marsai Martin) in a comedy series on Friday night, after picking up another two awards earlier in the week, one of which — best performance by a youth in a TV program — also went to Martin.

Other top winners, with four awards each, are Beyonce, who dominated the music-focused Thursday night event, and Soul.

Other top winners from the virtual ceremonies include three-time winners Power Book II: Ghost and Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, best comedy series winner Insecure, former president Barack Obama, whose memoir A Promised Land was named best nonfiction literary work during Monday night’s show. (Obama previously was named the recipient of the NAACP’s Chairman’s Award in 2005).

On Friday, the late Chadwick Boseman also won the first of two NAACP Image Awards for which he’s nominated, best supporting actor in a film for his role in Da 5 Bloods. The cast of Boseman’s more recent, final film, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, also won the award for best ensemble in a motion picture.

On Monday, the NAACP presented awards in a number of literary and documentary categories as well as two special awards for activist and youth activist of the year.
Among the winners were John Lewis: Good Trouble for best documentary (film) and The Last Dance for best documentary (TV — series or special).

In addition, Keith McQuirter won best directing for a documentary (TV or motion picture) for By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem, while Melissa Haizlip won best writing in a documentary (TV or motion picture) for Mr. SOUL!

On Tuesday, Night Two, several writing and directing awards were handed out, with females dominating the winners in those categories. Michaela Coel took home the award for best writing in a comedy series for I May Destroy You, Attica Locke nabbed the award for drama series writing for Little Fires Everywhere, and Geri Cole won best writing for a TV movie or special for The Power of We: A Sesame Street Special.

In the TV directing categories, Anya Adams won for her work on the comedy series black-ish, Hanelle Culpepper won for the drama series Star Trek: Picard, and Eugene Ashe won for best directing for a TV movie or special for Sylvie’s Love.

NAACP Image Awards: ‘Black-ish,’ Beyonce, ‘Soul’ Score Most Wins in Non-Televised Ceremonies

Written by Jacap