Aisling Bea has won Best TV Actor at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 for her portrayal of Áine in the dramedy This Way Up.
The Irish comedian, who also wrote the razor-sharp series, beat out Mae Martin, Ncuti Gatwa, Olly Alexander and Euphoria‘s Zendaya for the prize.
“Big shout-out to the small, independent TV show Euphoria!” Bea joked while collecting the award on stage at the O2 Academy Brixton from Munya Chawawa and Amelia Dimoldenberg. “I’m sure we all expected this – I didn’t.”
She added: “Ever since I started out acting, I always wanted to win a music award. Genuinely, I will use this [award] tonight in my own special way… Thank you so, so much, honestly.
“Myself and [This Way Up co-star] Sharon Horgan had a moment where we sang ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries, and it took off. I would like to dedicate this award to the late, great Dolores O’Riordan, who I am in awe of.”
Bea joins previous award-winner Jessica Barden in being recognised for their outstanding boundary-pushing performances.
“Making This Way Up knocked the shit out of me,” Aisling Bea told NME last year when asked about the series which follows Áine – an Irish woman living in London as an English-as-a-foreign-language tutor. To everyone around her, she seems friendly and engaging, but a recent nervous breakdown means Áine is struggling to put her life back together.
“I wanted to reflect the reality of most people – someone who isn’t having a terrible life, loads of thing aren’t going wrong for them and [who looks like] they have everything together,” she said.
Bea added: “I wanted to do show that [recovery] isn’t linear – and that is most people’s experience. The romcom ‘yays!’ and the balloons at the end aren’t truthful to me. I don’t know that experience.”
The BandLab NME Awards 2022 returns to the O2 Academy Brixton tonight (March 2) and is being co-hosted by Daisy May Cooper and Lady Leshurr. The ceremony has crowned Feel Good the Best TV Series Supported By 19 Crimes, while Edgar Wright’s Last Night In Soho won Best Film.
Check back for the latest news, interviews, winners and more from the BandLab NME Awards 2022.