Tonight at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage took home his fourth and final Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, for his turn as Tyrion Lannister in HBO’s blockbuster series. Tonight’s victory gives Dinklage the record for the most wins ever in this category—a distinction previously held by Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul.

“I count myself so fortunate to be a member of a community that is all about tolerance and diversity, because nowhere else could I be standing on a stage like this,” the Emmy winner said, in accepting the award. “It’s been about 10 years, all said and done, from the moment I met [series creators] David [Benoiff] and Dan [Weiss] till now. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I knew that David and Dan were quite brilliant…We did nothing but sweat, we did nothing but laugh. Dave and Dan, we literally walked through fire and ice for you—literally—and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.”

Earning his first statuette all the way back in 2011, Dinklage remains the only GoT cast member ever to win big on television’s biggest night. Met with a nomination for each of the series’ eight seasons (Dinklage also holds the record for most nominations in Supporting Actor – Drama), the thesp was in competition tonight with an additional nom, as the executive producer and star of My Dinner with Hervé, one of three HBO films contending for Outstanding Television Movie.

While an Emmys favorite for his performance on Game of Thrones, Dinklage faced fair competition tonight, in the arena of Outstanding Supporting Actor – Drama, beating out House of Cards‘ Michael Kelly, a pair of esteemed thesps from Better Call Saul (repeat nominees Jonathan Banks and Giancarlo Esposito), This Is Us cast member Chris Sullivan, as well as two of his own co-stars, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Alfie Allen.

Garnering an astonishing total of 160 Emmy nominations over the course of its lifetime, and a record 32 for its controversial swan-song season, Game of Thrones cleaned up at the Creative Arts Emmys last week, winning statuettes for Music Composition, Stunt Coordination, Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes, Non-Prosthetic Makeup, Casting, Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Special Visual Effects and Main Title Design. Following Dinklage’s win tonight, GoT claimed the prize for Outstanding Drama Series.

Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Game of Thrones spun George R.R. Martin’s series of epic fantasy novels into one of the last clear examples of event television, at a time when live TV viewership continues to descend to new lows. Featuring a starry ensemble that includes Dinklage, Allen, Coster-Waldau, Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke and many more, the drama examined nine noble families engaged in a prolonged war, with control over the mythical realm of Westeros at stake. Airing from April to May of this year, the long-anticipated final season saw the living at war with an empire of the dead, and an answer as to who would sit on the Iron Throne at Westeros’s center.

Here are Dinklage’s comments backstage following his Emmy win.