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For many years during the beginning of his career, Michael Chiklis had never been nominated for an Emmy, nonetheless won one, but all that changed in 2002.

At the 2002 Emmys, Chiklis was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role as a crooked cop on The Shield. The competition was stiff and included Martin Sheen (The West Wing) and Kiefer Sunderland (24), so one can only imagine that Chiklis was keeping his expectations low for his first Emmy nod.

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However, to his delight, he was given the award, which was one of the first awards that he had ever received in his acting career. Backstage after his acceptance speech, Chiklis was overjoyed at the award but and its implications.

Although he had been in the business for a while, Chiklis didn't gain significant recognition for his work until Shield, which was a sacrifice for him and his family.

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"To put that out there and then to have a script like this land on my desk, and then have the opportunity to get it, and then to get it...and then to have the critics find it, and just this sort of steamroller effect culminating, and this--you know, it's extraordinary," he says in the featured flashback. "It really is."

Chiklis would go on to be nominated for the same award the following year but without the same result, which makes his 2002 award his sole Emmy to date.