Morgan's father, Michael, died back in November 2019. He was 67.
The Young and the Restless star Mishael Morgan grew emotional after making history at the 49th annual Daytime Emmy Awards, largely in part to her win but also because her late father came to mind.
The 35-year-old actress became the first Black woman to win an Emmy in the Best Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama Series: Actress category on Friday, and she told ET's Deidre Behar she was "still in shock" and in "disbelief" even after clearly hearing her name called.
"I knew it, I felt it and I was still at a level of disbelief," she said after winning her first Emmy.
Morgan, who plays Amanda Sinclair on the long-running CBS soap opera, had previously been nominated for two Emmys in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category but came up short. But not this year, and after scoring the win Morgan couldn't help but think about her late father, Michael.
"I just keep thinking like, 'Dad, we did it,'" said an emotional Morgan. "When I was growing up he would always say that you have to be 10 times better. But now, I want to create a world where you don’t have to be 10 times better. Where we can all be just as great and celebrated for it. And girls that look like me and girls that don’t look like me, all different colors of the rainbow now can know that that glass ceilings is broken. You have no excuse. Go for it. Just go for it.”
Morgan's father died back in November 2019. He was 67. Following his death, Morgan took to Instagram and shared the invitation to his memorial service. Her caption simply said, "No words" along with a heartbreaking emoji.
Prior to the Daytime Emmy Awards, Morgan told ET's Nischelle Turner about a devastating car accident that nearly left her paralyzed and also changed her career path, from aspiring lawyer to a career in Hollywood.
"I had a car accident," she said. "I broke my neck. Ten percent more pressure I would have been paralyzed from the neck down. It happened in Trinidad [and Tobago] where I was born. I grew up there for five years and then I moved to Canada. We were back on a holiday and I had five days when they were trying to get the surgeon in order and all of that stuff and I just had a chance to think a lot about my life, and I just was like, 'You know, I was a good daughter. I'm a good kid, I have no regrets.' And then I just heard this voice like, 'But you never tied.' And it was something that I was embarrassed. I think also being like a child of immigrants you're embarrassed to dream bigger, you know? Like, being an attorney and being a doctor, those are the big dreams."
Morgan, who joked she might store her Emmy in the bathroom, revealed to her parents two weeks before she was set to start law school that she was not going and instead would finally commit to acting. And it paid off.
"I finally told my parents that two weeks before I was supposed to go to law school I said I’m not gonna go," Morgan said. "But when I booked Y&R they lost their minds and they were so happy."
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