Matthew Rhys

Rhys gained recognition for playing Kevin Walker in the family drama series Brothers & Sisters (2006–2011) and Philip Jennings in the spy drama series The Americans (2013–2018), the latter of which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2018. He earned Emmy nominations for his roles in the HBO comedy series Girls (2017), the HBO mystery series Perry Mason (2020–2023), and at the 2026 Emmy awards he was a three time winner, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie in the Netflix crime thriller The Beast in Me (2025), Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in the Apple TV+ comedy-horror series Widow's Bay (2026), and shared, with his fellow executive producers, for Outstanding Comedy Series for Widow's Bay. In film, Rhys appeared as Demetrius in Titus (1999), Doc Fairweather in Deathwatch (2002), Dylan Thomas in The Edge of Love (2008), Daniel Ellsberg in The Post (2017), and Lloyd Vogel in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019). He has also voiced several characters in animated series, including Aloysius in Infinity Train (2019), Emperor Belos in The Owl House (2020–2023), Riley Greene in Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai (2023), and Gammon Felda / the Florid Sword in The Wingfeather Saga (2024–present).

• Name — Matthew Rhys • Born — 8 November 1974 • Birthplace — Cardiff, Wales • Education — Royal Academy of Dramatic Art • Occupation — Actor • Years Active — 1997–present • Partner — Keri Russell (2014–present) • Children — 1

Matthew Rhys was born in Cardiff, Wales, on 8 November 1974. He grew up in Cardiff, with his younger sister Rachel, and attended Welsh-medium schools, Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Melin Gruffydd (in Whitchurch, Cardiff) and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf (in Llandaff North, Cardiff). In 1993, he was awarded the Patricia Rothermere Scholarship. At age 17, after playing Elvis Presley in a school musical, he applied to and was accepted at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. During Rhys's time at RADA, he appeared in the BBC police series Backup and in House of America. He returned to Cardiff to act in his own language in the Welsh film Bydd yn Wrol (Be Brave), for which he won Best Actor at the BAFTA Cymru (Welsh BAFTAs).

• Illustration — Rhys at the 2007 GLAAD Awards In January 1998, Rhys went to New Zealand to star in Greenstone, a colonial costume drama for television. He then landed a role in Titus, Julie Taymor's adaptation of Titus Andronicus, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. Next he played Ray in Peter Hewitt's comedy film Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? After returning to Wales, he did two consecutive films with Jonathan Pryce: The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, a film about a dysfunctional single-parent family in which he played the elder son, and Sara Sugarman's comedy Very Annie Mary, in which he played the role of Nob. Rhys would later reunite with Very Annie Mary star Rachel Griffiths on Brothers & Sisters. In 2000, Rhys played the lead role in Metropolis, a drama series for Granada TV about the lives of six twenty-somethings living in London. Next he starred in Peaches, the film of the play written and directed by Nick Grosso. Rhys starred as Benjamin in the 2000 world premiere of the stage adaptation of The Graduate, alongside Kathleen Turner at the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End. Rhys travelled to Ireland to star in the 18th-century swashbuckling adventure The Abduction Club. He played the lead role of Darren Daniels in Tabloid and then returned to New Zealand to shoot the epic drama The Lost World for the BBC. His other film credits include the independent horror film Deathwatch in Prague and Fakers, a comic crime caper. In 2003, he played Justin Price in the final episode of the long-running television series Columbo. He appeared in the independent feature Love and Other Disasters, in Virgin Territory, and as poet Dylan Thomas in the love quadrangle biographical film The Edge of Love. He moved to the United States, to Santa Monica after being cast in ABC's show Brothers & Sisters as gay lawyer Kevin Walker. The show had a five-season run, coming to an end in 2011. • Illustration — A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood premiere, Toronto Film Festival, 2019 In January 2012, Rhys appeared in a BBC Two two-part drama adaptation of Charles Dickens's last, unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired it in the United States as one feature-length episode on 15 April 2012. In 2012, Rhys reprised Sir Alec Guinness's 1959 double role of John Barratt / Jacques DeGué in a new adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's The Scapegoat. That same year, Rhys was cast as Jimmy in the Roundabout Theatre Company's Off-Broadway revival of John Osborne's play, Look Back in Anger, at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. The production played a limited engagement through 8 April 2012.

He starred opposite Keri Russell in the FX series The Americans, a 1980s Cold War spy drama about Russian KGB sleeper agents. The show debuted in January 2013, and aired its sixth and final season in 2018. Rhys received a Primetime Emmy Award for his acting in the sixth season. In 2013, Rhys starred in the television adaptation of the P. D. James novel Death Comes to Pemberley as Jane Austen hero Fitzwilliam Darcy. He appeared as Daniel Ellsberg in the Steven Spielberg film The Post in 2017. The same year, he made a guest appearance on the HBO series Girls, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

From 2020 to 2023, Rhys starred in the HBO series Perry Mason. In 2025, Rhys starred as one of the lead characters, Nile Jarvis, a morally complex protagonist, in Netflix's eight-part miniseries The Beast in Me. From 16 to 28 November 2025, he returned to the Welsh stage to play Richard Burton in the one-man play Playing Burton, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Burton's birth and raising funds for the inaugural season of Michael Sheen's new Welsh National Theatre. He received positive reviews from critics for his performance as Burton. In 2026, Rhys voiced the character of Dinosaurus in the fourth season of Invincible and starred in the Apple TV comedy-horror series Widow's Bay. At the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, Rhys won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for The Beast in Me and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Widow's Bay, making him the first to win two lead acting Emmys in one night, and the first actor to win Emmys as a lead in comedy, drama, and limited or anthology series or movie. In May 2026, it was reported that he will executive produce, as well as appear onscreen as Harold Evans, for the BBC series Dragon Slayers, which is expected to start filming by September 2026 in Manchester. Rhys will voice the character Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, which is to be dubbed into Welsh for the first time as the film prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2027.

Rhys set up his own production company, Patagonia, in 2011. It has two projects in development. One of them involves an adaptation of a book titled Operation Julie, written by Lyn Ebenezer, about the biggest LSD busts in Wales's history; Rhys bought the film rights in December 2010. In 2023, Rhys spoke on a podcast about how he has been working on a potential film about Owain Glyndŵr's life and his rebellion, begun in 1400, against the Kingdom of England.

With the help of fellow Welsh actor Rhys Ifans, Rhys supported fundraising for the Vale of Aeron pub in Ystrad Aeron. Rhys also invested in another pub in Pennal, a town in Gwynedd, North Wales, where his father grew up and Rhys would spend summers and Easters visiting. In 2019, the Glan Yr Afon (also Riverside) was put on the market without any buyers, but through a campaign supported by Rhys, there was a shares offering for the public which raised £450,000 to save the pub. The local community completed the purchase in December 2022.

In New York City, Rhys owns and rents out a charter boat named Rarebit. The Wheeler boat was constructed circa 1934; Rhys bought it from eBay in 2017. He rebuilt the boat himself with the advice of shipwrights.

Rhys has been in a relationship with his The Americans co-star Keri Russell since 2014. They had their first child, a son, in 2016. In interviews conducted in 2021, they referred to each other as husband and wife, though Rhys stated in an interview in March 2025 that they "literally haven't got round to marriage yet". The family lives together in Brooklyn along with Russell's two older children from a previous relationship. He is a supporter of Plaid Cymru and has spoken out in favour of Welsh independence. Rhys stated in November 2018 that he spoke to his son "only in Welsh", adding that he wants his son to understand the language. On 15 July 2008, Aberystwyth University honoured Rhys as a fellow. On 8 August 2008, he was honoured at the Welsh National Eisteddfod by being accepted as a member to the druidic order of the Gorsedd of the Bards for his contributions to the Welsh language and Wales. His bardic name in the Gorsedd is Matthew Tâf. In August 2009, Rhys took to the stage with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales as part of the National Eisteddfod.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1997 — Backup — PC Steve "Hiccup" Higson — Recurring role (season 2) • 1999 — Greenstone — Sam Markham — Unknown episodes • 2000 — data-sort-value="History of Britain, A" |A History of Britain — Unknown episodes • Metropolis — Matthew Bishop — Main role • 2001 — data-sort-value="Lost World, The" | The Lost World — Edward Malone — 2 episodes • 2003 — Columbo — Justin Price — Episode: "Columbo Likes the Nightlife" • Partners and Crime — Television film • POW — Alfie Harris — Episode #1.5 • 2006 — Beau Brummell: This Charming Man — Lord Byron — Television film • 2006–2011 — Brothers & Sisters — Kevin Walker — Main role • 2010 — Mr Hollywood — — — Producer; S4C-TV documentary • 2011 — LA Phil Live — Hamlet — Episode: "Dudamel Conducts Tchiakovsky" • 2012 — data-sort-value="Mystery of Edwin Drood, The" | The Mystery of Edwin Drood — John Jasper — 2 episodes • 2013 — Death Comes to Pemberley — Fitzwilliam Darcy — 3 episodes • 2013–2018 — data-sort-value="Americans, The" | The Americans — Philip Jennings — Main role • 2014 — Under Milk Wood — New York Voice — Television film • 2015 — Archer — Lloyd Llewellyn (voice) — Episode: "Achub y Morfilod"; credited for episode's story • data-sort-value="Bastard Executioner, The" | The Bastard Executioner — Gruffudd y Blaidd / the Wolf — Special guest star • 2016–2020 — data-sort-value="Wine Show, The" | The Wine Show — Himself (co-host) — Main role • 2017 — Girls — Chuck Palmer — Episode: "American Bitch" • Snowdonia 1890 — Narrator — Main role • 2018 — Death and Nightingales — Billy — 3 episodes • Down the Caravan — Dai — Television film • 2019 — BoJack Horseman — Justin Kenyon (voice) — Episode: "A Quick One, While He's Away" • Carpool Karaoke: The Series — Himself (co-host) — Season 2, episode 17 • Infinity Train — Aloysius, Alrick (voice) — 2 episodes • 2020–2023 — Perry Mason — Perry Mason — Main role; also executive producer • data-sort-value="Owl House, The" | The Owl House — Emperor Belos (voice) — Recurring role • 2022 — Tuca & Bertie — Figgy (voice) — 6 episodes • 2023 — Extrapolations — Junior — Episode: "2037: A Raven Story" • Gremlins — Riley Greene (voice) — 10 episodes • 2024–2025 — data-sort-value="Wingfeather Saga, The" | The Wingfeather Saga — Gammon Felda / the Florid Sword (voice) — Recurring role (season 2-3) • 2025 — Towards Zero — Inspector Leach — Three-part miniseries • Family Guy — Drizzleton Man (voice) — Episode: "A Little Fright Music" • data-sort-value="Beast in Me, The" | The Beast in Me — Nile Jarvis — Main role; miniseries • data-sort-value="American Revolution, The" | The American Revolution — Thomas Paine (voice) — Six-part docuseries • 2026 — Invincible — Dinosaurus / David Anders (voice) — Episode: "Making the World a Better Place" • Golden Axe — Gilius Thunderhead (voice) — Main role • 2026–present — Widow's Bay — Tom Loftis — Main role; also executive producer • TBA — Presumed Innocent — TBA — Filming; main cast (season 2)

• Year — Play — Role — Playwright — Venue — Ref. • 1997 — Cardiff East — Tommy — Peter Gill — Royal National Theatre • Grace Note — Nick — Samuel Adamson — The Old Vic • One More Wasted Year — Pierre — Christophe Pellet — Royal Court Theatre • Stranger's House (Fremdes Haus) — Yanne — Dea Loher — Royal Court Theatre • 2000 — data-sort-value="Graduate, The" |The Graduate — Benjamin Braddock — Charles Webb — Gielgud Theatre • 2002 — data-sort-value="Associate, The" |The Associate — Tiny — Simon Bent — Royal National Theatre • 2003 — Under Milk Wood — Mog Edwards — Dylan Thomas — New Theatre (Cardiff) • 2004 — King Lear — Edmund — William Shakespeare — Royal Shakespeare Company • Macbeth — Macduff — The Young Vic • Romeo and Juliet — Romeo — Royal Shakespeare Company • 2012 — Look Back in Anger — Jimmy — John Osborne — Roundabout Theatre Company • 2025 — Playing Burton — Richard Burton — Mark Jenkins — Welsh National Theatre