Mahershala Ali thanks wife, who gave birth days ago, for carrying him through awards season
Ali won the Oscar for best supporting actor in "Moonlight."
— -- Mahershala Ali thanked his wife, who was in her third trimester during awards season and gave birth to their daughter four days ago, as he gave his acceptance speech for best supporting actor in "Moonlight" at the 2017 Oscars.
"I just want to thank her for being such a soldier through this process," Ali said, "and really carrying me through it all."
Ali thanked those who worked with him on the film, as well as his teachers and professors.
"One thing that they consistently told me ... it's not about you," Ali said of his teachers. "It's about these characters. You are a servant. You're in service to these stories and these characters and I'm so blessed to have had an opportunity. It was about ['Moonlight' characters] Juan, it was about Chiron, it was about Paula."
This was the first Oscar win for Ali. He won a slew of other trophies for his role in the coming-of-age drama "Moonlight," including a Screen Actors Guild Award, an African-American Film Critics Association Award and a Critics' Choice Movie Award.
Ali and his wife, Amatus Sami-Karim, welcomed daughter Bari Najma Ali on Wednesday, the actor noted in an Instagram post Friday.