Whether you liked La La Land or not, Arizonans were rooting for native Emma Stone to win Best Actress.
Dale Robinette
Stone became the first native Arizonan to win an acting Oscar tonight, taking home the gold statue for Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in La La Land.
La La Land was first announced as winner of the Best Picture Oscar, but then presenters realized they made a mistake and gave the Academy Award to Moonlight.
Stone grew up in Scottsdale and acted in 16 productions at Valley Youth Theatre in downtown Phoenix. She attended Xavier College Preparatory for one semester before dropping out. She then moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming an actor.
"A moment like this is a huge confluence of luck and opportunity," she said in her acceptance speech.
Stone also thanked Bobb Cooper, the producing artistic director of Valley Youth Theatre.
It wasn’t until 2007 when people finally started to notice her after her turn as Jules, Jonah Hill’s love interest in Superbad.
After Superbad, Stone took roles mostly in comedy films such as The Rocker, The House Bunny, and Zombieland before her big breakout role in 2010’s Easy A, earning her her first Golden Globe nomination for Lead Performance in a Comedy/Musical.
From there she starred in 2011’s The Help, where she won a Screen Actors Guild award as part of the ensemble, and then she hit A-list status.
She was a love interest to Ryan Gosling (Crazy, Stupid, Love and Gangster Squad), acted alongside then-boyfriend Andrew Garfield in two Spider-Man movies, starred in two Woody Allen films, and earned her first Oscar nomination for a supporting role in 2014’s Best Picture winner, Birdman.
Stone had already hit stardom before her first Oscar nomination, but now she joins an elite class of Oscar-winning leading ladies and becomes the first winner to say she is from Arizona.
Next up for the star is a Netflix series opposite Jonah Hill and, according to IMDB, five future films, including one as tennis champion Billie Jean King and as 101 Dalmatians villain Cruella de Vil.
