Matthew Rhys has achieved a milestone at the Emmy Awards by becoming the first individual to win two lead acting honors in a single evening. He received the award for best lead actor in a limited series for his work in the psychological thriller The Beast In Me, as well as best lead actor in a comedy for his performance in Widow’s Bay. The actor described the experience as surreal and noted the intimidating nature of accepting the awards among industry figures he admires.
Rhys’ path to Hollywood success was not straightforward. Early in his career, following a stint in the West End production of The Graduate alongside Kathleen Turner in 2000, he struggled to secure work for nearly two years. During this period, he pursued an unconventional option by meeting with a British Army officer about enlisting, only to receive a rejection letter from the military. He later relocated to Hollywood in 2006, where he reconnected with fellow Welsh actors Michael Sheen and Ioan Gruffudd, with whom he shared living accommodations and maintained Welsh cultural traditions.
Rhys met actress Keri Russell at a social event in Los Angeles in 2002, though an initial drunken voicemail did not result in her returning his call. The two eventually worked together on the television series The Americans beginning in 2013, portraying a married couple of Russian spies. They became a couple in 2014 and welcomed their son, Sam, in 2016. Rhys is also stepfather to Russell’s two children.
Beyond his professional achievements, Rhys maintains strong ties to his Welsh heritage, speaking the language regularly at home in New York and dedicating his second Emmy to Wales. He recently became known as the voice of Han Solo in a Welsh-language adaptation of Star Wars ahead of the franchise’s 50th anniversary in 2027. Rhys also owns a 1939 wooden cruiser boat named Rarebit, after a traditional Welsh cheese dish, which he is working to restore with Brooklyn Boatworks. He is set to return to Wales in October to film a BBC drama called Dragon Slayers, about investigative journalists, for which he is growing out his facial hair to match the production’s period setting.
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