Written, produced and partially directed by Egyptian-American Sam Esmail, cyberpunk–thriller television series Mr. Robot scooped the Golden Globe for Best TV Series, Drama.

The star of the series, Egyptian-American Rami Malek, was nominated for Best Actor in a TV Series, while his co-actor Christian Slater won Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series.

The win was unexpected and all the more celebrated, as Mr. Robot has only been on air for a single season, and was up against some highly popular shows such as Game of Thrones and Empire.

Esmail accepted the award on stage by thanking the Hollywood Foreign Press. "They gave the best drama series award to a show called Mr. Robot, and that took a lot of courage.”

He also gave a shout out to “my family here and my family in Egypt. And to them I just want to say shukran!”

Mr. Robot premiered in June and centres around Malek’s character Elliot Alderson, a young, anti-social computer programmer working as cyber-security engineer during the day, and moonlighting as a vigilante hacker.

When he joins an underground hacking group fighting corporate America, Elliot is faced with the moral dilemma of bringing down his own company.

The show has previously won Television Program of the Year at the 2015 American Film Institute Awards as well as the Audience Award for Best Episodic from the 2015 SXSW Film Audience Award, and the Breakthrough Series award at the 25th Gotham Independent Film Awards. It was also nominated at the Writers Guild of America Award for Television for the New Series Award.

The show's creator, Esmail was born in New Jersey in 1977, and is of Egyptian descent. He wrote two films in 2014, Mockingbird and Comet, which he also directed.

Malek is a film and television actor whose previous eclectic roles notably include the Hollywood family action film Night at the Museum and the independent film Short Term 12. On television he appeared in Gilmore Girls, The Pacific and Believe in 2014.

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