This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross.

My guest, Sherrily Ralph, co-stars in the ABC comedy series, Abbot Elementary.

Tonight, Ralph will find out if she won an Emmy.

She's nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the series.

It's one of several nominations for the series, including Outstanding Comedy Series.

The second season premieres September 21st, and will begin streaming on Hulu the following day.

Abbot Elementary is about the teachers in an under-resourced majority-black elementary school in Philadelphia.

The creator of the series, Quinta Brunson, plays a new, idealistic teacher who's still a little clueless.

Ralph's character has been teaching for 30 years and is the kind of teacher who, with a glance,

can get an unruly class to sit down or quietly line up single file.

Here's how the character describes herself.

I'm Barbara Howard, woman of God. I do my work, I go home. I get my nails done every week and I love teaching.

The second season of Abbot Elementary premieres September 21st on ABC and will begin streaming on Hulu the following day.

Sherrily Ralph got her first big break in the 1977 Sydney Pwadiay film, A Piece of the Action,

and even bigger break came in 1981 when she starred in the hit Broadway musical Dream Girls.

She played Dina Jones, a singer who's part of a trio of black women called The Dreams.

The musical was loosely based on the rise of the 60s girl groups like The Supremes and The Sherrels.

After the success of Dream Girls, Ralph moved to LA but found there were few roles available to black actors,

but she kept pushing to find a place for herself.

She won an Independent Spirit Award for her performance in Charles Burnett's 1990 film to sleep with anger.

From 1996 to 2001, she played Brandy Stepmother and the popular sitcom Moisha.

Here's another clip from Abbot Elementary.

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