Mariska Hargitay has won two Emmy Awards for her HBO documentary "My Mom Jayne", taking Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special and Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Programme. The film explores the life of her late mother, actress Jayne Mansfield, and a long-standing mystery over Mariska's biological father. The wins, announced at the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday, come just over a week before Hargitay hosts the televised Primetime Emmy Awards on 14 September, adding further prominence to what has already been a landmark year for her career.

Accepting her awards, Hargitay paid tribute to feminist campaigner Gloria Steinem, who died on Wednesday aged 92, quoting her advice to "tell your own story" and describing making the film as a way of getting to know her mother. "My Mom Jayne" beat films including "John Candy: I Like Me" and "Ocean with David Attenborough" for the documentary special prize, while Hargitay saw off directors including Lawrence Kasdan and Rebecca Miller, whose Martin Scorsese docuseries separately won Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. The recognition follows a "year of firsts" for Hargitay, who also made her Broadway debut and continues to star in "Law & Order: SVU".