GAME of Thrones has taken out the top gong at the Emmy Awards.

The popular fantasy series, which recently finished filming its eighth and final season, led this year's nominations but only managed to convert two: Best Drama and Best Support Actor in a Drama (Peter Dinklage).

The 70th Emmy Awards turned out to be an eventful evening with an actor in bizarre disguise, clean sweeps in the comedy series and an acceptance speech that turned into "the best moment in Emmys history".

Saturday Night Live comedians Colin Jost and Michael Che were on hosting duties - but they didn't open the show.

That was left to an appropriately diverse cast including Kate McKinnon, Ricky Martin, Titus Burgess and RuPaul, who surprised by opening the show with a skit and song about diversity, claiming to have 'solved' Hollywood's diversity problem, before finally conceding they had a long way to go.

Hollywood veteran actor Henry Winkler was an early winner, taking out the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy for his role in Barry.

Winkler, aka The Fonz from Happy Days, told the audience: "If you stay at the table long enough, the chips come to you. Tonight, I got to clear the table," as he got a standing ovation.

To his children, he said: "You can go to bed now, daddy won!"

Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs Maisel swept the rest of the comedy categories

The best and worst dressed at the Emmy Awards

The biggest snub of the night was The Handmaid's Tale, which failed to win any awards. Star Elisabeth Moss had been a favourite to win Lead Actress in a Drama Series, but she lost out to The Crown's Claire Foy.

HANNAH STEALS THE SHOW

Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby, still riding a wave of adulation for her Netflix stand-up special Nanette, presented the award for Directing for a Drama Series - but got in a few well-received jokes beforehand.

She said presenting was a good gig "for somebody like me, a nobody from nowhere: gets this sweet gig, free suit and new boots…. just because I don't like men!"

"Just jokes, fellas, calm down. Hashtag 'not all men.' But a lot of 'em. Nobody knows what jokes are, but especially men. Am I right fellas? That's why I'm presenting alone," she said.

After she announced The Crown director Stephen Daldry as the winner, she noted that he was not actually present.

"Stephen could not be here tonight to accept the Emmy on… his own behalf. SO I think I just leave now, and that's… well done him," she said, shrugging as she backed off the stage.

She was on stage for a grand total of less than 100 seconds, but Gadsby certainly made an impression - and gained a lot of new fans:

A SURPRISE PROPOSAL

You'd be forgiven for tuning out a bit when Glenn Weiss took to the stage to accept the award for Directing a Variety Special - surely this won't be exciting, right?

Wrong. Weiss reeled off a list of thank yous before moving on to his partner, seated in the audience. "You wonder why I don't ever call you my girlfriend - it's because I want to call you my wife."

BOOM. There it is: A marriage proposal live on TV and front of a worldwide audience, and one that Weiss' girlfriend clearly wasn't prepared for:

And Glenn came prepared. He produced his late mother's ring, asking his girlfriend to join him on stage.

She took to the stage - amid a standing ovation from the stunned A-list crowd - to stand in front of Glenn as he knelt before her, properly proposing.

It's a yes! And sure, he totally hijacked the award show for his own benefits, but in this often dark and depressing world, wasn't it just a little bit magic?

COLIN AND MICHAEL'S BEST OPENING MONOLOGUE JOKES

"This year the audience is allowed to drink in their seats - because the one thing Hollywood needs right now is people losing their inhibitions at a work function."

The pair said hello to the "thousands in the audience, and the hundreds watching at home."

"Our network, NBC, has the most nominations of any broadcast network - which is kind of like being the sexiest person on life support. It's not good."

They said the swath of Netfix nominations is the scariest thing you can hear as a network exec - except, 'Sir, Ronan Farrow is on line one'."

The Handmaid's Tale is "what black people call history. It's Roots for white women. Roots with bonnets!"

On Netflix's reputation for churning out productions: "How is Netflix getting all that money? It's $9 a month and everyone I know shares an account. Netflix is like that Instagram model that's always in Dubai and you're like, yeah - but what do you REALLY do?"

"TV has always had a diversity problem. They did 15 seasons of ER without ONE Filipino nurse? Have you BEEN to a hospital?"

A CREEPY DISGUISE

There's been speculation about whether Atlanta star and director Donald Glover - aka Childish Gambino, of This Is America fame - turned up to the awards in a super-creepy 'whiteface' disguise.

Here's the rather odd-looking man in question:

The reason for the conjecture? That creepy looking white dude is 'Teddy Perkins', a character from Atlanta who Glover plays. The context behind the character is that Teddy Perkins is a Michael Jackson-type fallen idol, so it's not whiteface per se.

But wait: Glover's also in the audience, looking dapper as hell. So who's the creepy Teddy Perkins dude? Fans are speculating it could be fellow African-American Atlanta actor Lakeith Stanfield.

Here is the full list of 2018 Emmys winners:

DRAMA SERIES

The Americans

The Crown

Game of Thrones - WINNER

The Handmaid's Tale

Stranger Things

This Is Us

Westworld

COMEDY SERIES

Atlanta

Barry

Black-ish

Curb Your Enthusiasm

GLOW

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - WINNER

Silicon Valley

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

LEAD ACTOR, DRAMA

Jason Bateman, Ozark

Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us

Ed Harris, Westworld

Matthew Rhys, The Americans - WINNER

Milo Ventimiglia, This Is Us

Jeffrey Wright, Westworld

LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA

Claire Foy, The Crown - WINNER

Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black

Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid's Tale

Sandra Oh, Killing Eve

Keri Russell, The Americans

Evan Rachel Wood, Westworld

LEAD ACTOR, COMEDY

Anthony Anderson, Black-ish

Ted Danson, The Good Place

Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Donald Glover, Atlanta

Bill Hader, Barry - WINNER

William H. Macy, Shameless

LEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY

Pamela Adlon, Better Things

Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - WINNER

Allison Janney, Mom

Issa Rae, Insecure

Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish

Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie

SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Game of Thrones

Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones - WINNER

Joseph Fiennes, The Handmaid's Tale

David Harbour, Stranger Things

Mandy Patinkin, Homeland

Matt Smith, The Crown

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA

Alexis Bledel, The Handmaid's Tale

Millie Bobby Brown, Stranger Things

Ann Dowd, The Handmaid's Tale

Lena Headey, Game of Thrones

Vanessa Kirby, The Crown

Thandie Newton, Westworld - WINNER

Yvonne Strahovski, The Handmaid's Tale

SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY

Louie Anderson, Baskets

Alec Baldwin, Saturday Night Live

Tituss Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Brian Tyree Henry, Atlanta

Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Kenan Thompson, Saturday Night Live

Henry Winkler, Barry - WINNER

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY

Zazie Beetz, Atlanta

Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - WINNER

Aidy Bryant, Saturday Night Live

Betty Gilpin, GLOW

Leslie Jones, Saturday Night Live

Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live

Laurie Metcalf, Roseanne

Megan Mullally, Will & Grace

LIMITED SERIES

The Alienist

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - WINNER

Genius: Picasso

Godless

Patrick Melrose

LEAD ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

Jessica Biel, The Sinner

Laura Dern, The Tale

Michelle Dockery, Godless

Edie Falco, Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders

Regina King, Seven Seconds - WINNER

Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Cult

LEAD ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

Antonio Banderas, Genius: Picasso

Darren Criss, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - WINNER

Benedict Cumberbatch, Patrick Melrose

Jeff Daniels, The Looming Tower

John Legend, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert

Jesse Plemons, U.S.S. Callister (Black Mirror)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

Sara Bareilles, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert

Penélope Cruz, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

Judith Light, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

Adina Porter, American Horror Story: Cult

Merritt Wever, Godless - WINNER

Letitia Wright, Black Museum (Black Mirror)

SUPPORTING ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE

Jeff Daniels, Godless - WINNER

Brandon Victor Dixon, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert

John Leguizamo, Waco

Ricky Martin, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

Edgar Ramírez, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

Michael Stuhlbarg, The Looming Tower

Finn Wittrock, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

VARIETY SKETCH SERIES

At Home with Amy Sedaris

Drunk History

I Love You, America

Portlandia

Saturday Night Live - WINNER

Tracey Ullman's Show

OUTSTANDING REALITY COMPETITION SERIES 

The Amazing Race

American Ninja Warrior

Project Runway

RuPaul's Drag Race - WINNER

Top Chef

The Voice

OUTSTANDING VARIETY TALK SERIES 

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee

Jimmy Kimmel Live

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - WINNER

The Late Late Show with James Corden

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Game of Thrones

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Killing Eve

The Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things

Joel Fields, Joe Weisberg, The Americans - WINNER

Peter Morgan, The Crown

Bruce Miller, The Handmaid's Tale

WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

Donald Glover, Atlanta

Stefani Robinson, Atlanta

Alec Berg, Bill Hader, Barry

Liz Sarnoff, Barry

Alec Berg, Silicon Valley

Amy Sherman-Palladino, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - WINNER