Lea Michele dedicates Teen Choice Award to Glee co-star Cory Monteith in emotional tribute

Glee star Lea Michele dedicated her Teen Choice Award to her late boyfriend Cory Monteith last night, making her first public appearance since his untimely death.

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Monteith, 31, was found dead in his hotel in Vancouver last month. An autopsy revealed an overdose of heroin and alcohol had killed him.

Monteith, who co-hosted the Teen Choice Awards in 2010, played Glee's Finn Hudson, who had an on-off relationship with Michele's character, Rachel Berry.

Michele yesterday won the award for Best TV Actress, and took the stage to tearfully while wearing a necklace that said "Cory."

She said: "I just wanted to be here today to personally thank all of you and tell everyone out there how much all of your love and support has meant to me over these very difficult past few weeks."

"For all of you out there who loved and admired Cory as much as I did, I promise that with your love we're gonna get through this together. He was very special to me and also to the world."

"We were very lucky to witness his incredible talent, his handsome smile and his beautiful, beautiful heart so whether you know him personally or just as Finn Hudson, Cory reached out and he became a part of all of our hearts."

The popular musical comedy show also bagged the award for best comedy. Accepting the gong, Amber Riley - who plays Merceded Jones in the show - said: "Although we lost someone that we really love and that you guys love too we are very fortunate to come back to a show where we feel the love of family and Cory was like a brother to us."

And Naya Rivera - who plays Santana Lopez - said from the red carpet that it was therapeutic for the show's cast to be together since Monteith's death. She said: "It's really good for us to be able to be all together and be in the same room and celebrate people loving what we do."

Actors Lea Michele, Jenna Ushkowitz, Amber Riley and Kevin McHale accept Choice TV Show: Comedy award for 'Glee' onstage during the Teen Choice Awards 2013 (Getty Images)

Elsewhere at the California ceremony, One Direction pleased the crowds with "Best Song Ever."

Singers Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne of One Direction perform onstage during the Teen Choice Awards 2013 (Getty Images)

After accepting the Ultimate Choice Award, Ashton Kutcher joked: "Let's be brutally honest. This is the old guy award,"

He went on to tell the young crowd: "The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart and being thoughtful and being generous."

Actress Rebel Wilson used her time on stage winning the Choice Movie Actress Comedy award for "Pitch Perfect" to get vulgar. She made an off-color joke about One Direction's band name that was muted out by producers.