Is there anything Matthew Rhys can’t do?
Proving he can make us laugh and he can scare us to our core, the Welsh actor took home two trophies at tonight’s Emmy Awards for his starring roles in Apple TV’s comedy Widow’s Bay as well as Netflix’s limited series The Beast in Me. He was heavily favored for the comedy prize once that show debuted and seized the zeitgeist; more of a surprise was the limited series win, but his omnipresent, charm-forward campaign trail for Widow’s Bay propelled him to the top of the pack in that category as well.
Getting nominated in the same year for lead acting roles in two different categories is impressive enough — there’s an elite group of just a dozen or so who’ve managed that feat — but winning both? That’s history in the making. No actor has ever won two lead Emmys in a given year.
With these wins, Rhys also joins an elite group of performers who have won two lead trophies across the different comedy/drama/limited genres: Andre Braugher, Edie Falco, Glenn Close, Sally Field, Peter Falk, Kirstie Alley, and his The Beast in Me co-star Claire Danes.
With tonight’s two trophies for lead actor in a comedy and lead actor in a limited series, Rhys can also claim another record. He already made Emmy history as the first male performer ever to be nominated in all three lead acting categories; now he’s the first to win all three. He won the best drama prize in 2017 for The Americans, one of his three total nominations for his work on the critically acclaimed FX spy series. He was also previously nommed as a guest actor for Girls (2017) and as a lead actor on Perry Mason (2021).
