LOS ANGELES _ Ramy Youssef scored a surprise victory Sunday at the Golden Globes, winning for best actor in a comedy series for "Ramy," an irreverent, highly personal Hulu series about a first-generation Muslim American from an Egyptian family.
The 28-year-old seemed surprised to be taking home the first acting prize of the night.
"Allahu Akbar. I want to thank my God," he said, using the Arabic phrase for "God is great," an apparent jab at host Ricky Gervais, who in his monologue sneered about actors thanking god when they win awards.
Youssef joked about being relatively unknown compared to some of his fellow nominees. "Look, I know you guys haven't seen my show. Everyone's like, 'Is this an editor?' We made a very specific show about an Arab Muslim family living in New Jersey and this means a lot to be recognized on this level."
He also quipped that "my mom also was rooting for Michael Douglas," who was nominated for "The Kominsky Method" on Netflix.
The other nominees were Bill Hader ("Barry," HBO), Ben Platt ("The Politician," Netflix) and Paul Rudd ("Living With Yourself," Netflix).
"Ramy," which streams on Hulu, is considered the first mainstream Muslim-American sitcom.
Backstage, Youssef told reporters his goal was not to represent all Muslim Americans with the series, which humorously addresses stereotypes.
"I think this show is called 'Ramy,' and part of why we picked that is because we didn't want to call it 'Muslims.' We didn't' want to call it something that would blanket a group of a million people. It's a really specific story. It's one Egyptian family in North Jersey ... Symbolically, hopefully it allows people to make more stories."
News reporter Christi Carras contributed to this report.
