Matthew Rhys completes rare Emmy trifecta
The Welsh actor has become the first reported winner of lead Emmys in drama, comedy and limited series, adding two awards to his 2018 victory for The Americans.
Matthew Rhys has become the first actor reported to have won lead-acting Emmy awards across drama, comedy and limited series categories, according to The Guardian’s Culture report.
Rhys claimed lead comedy actor for Widow’s Bay and lead actor in a limited series or anthology for The Beast in Me, securing two of the three awards on the same night. His earlier drama win came in 2018, for playing Philip Jennings in The Americans.
The latest victories extend a career defined by movement between registers and mediums. In Widow’s Bay, Rhys plays a mayor confronting a supernatural haunting; in The Beast in Me, he plays a property developer.
The Guardian places Rhys’s first screen credit 30 years ago, in the Welsh comedy film Bydd yn Wrol. His subsequent work has ranged across television, film and theatre, including roles in Brothers and Sisters, The Americans, Perry Mason, Girls, BoJack Horseman and Family Guy.
The three Emmy wins give formal shape to that breadth: a drama performance, a comic lead and a limited-series role now sit within the same record.
