Jeff Daniels won the award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series at the Emmy Awards on Sunday night. 

Daniels won for his role as as William McAvoy in The Newsroom, which airs on HBO. This was the first Emmy nomination and win for Daniels. He beat Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Kevin Spacey (House of Cards), and Damian Lewis (Homeland).

While accepting the award, Daniels joked about never having won anything legitimate before this. He closed his acceptance speech with a special mention for show's writer, Aaron Sorkin, saying he told the actor, "Whatever you do in you career, make it matter and make it count. Aasron Sorkin makes it matter and makes it count."

The award was presented by Juliana Marguiles (The Good Wife) and Dylan McDermott.

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Daniels spoke about his Emmy nomination and what it's like to work on a TV show after so many decades of being on the big screen:

"With film you know it's a 90-page script. It's a beginning, middle and end, and you're done. With a show like this you're making a 10-hour movie. Emily Mortimer [his co-star] and I talk about it. Last season we said this isn't just like scaling Everest -- it's like scaling a mountain range of Everests. But we got through it," he said.

Daniels also spoke about Gandolfini's influence on television with the publication. Gandolfini was honored in the 'In Memoriam' segment at the Emmys.

"[James] Gandolfini led the way. Everything that was written about Jim in the past few weeks is right. We all follow the quality. It was indie film for a while, and now it's cable," he said.

Watch Daniels accept the award:

Tags: Emmys 2013 outstanding lead actor Emmy Awards