Image source, Getty ImagesByDanielle HerbertBBC Wales
- Published9 minutes ago
Hollywood actor Matthew Rhys has made history at the Emmys by becoming the first person to win two lead acting prizes in one night.
He was named best lead actor in a limited series for the psychological thriller The Beast In Me, and best lead actor in a comedy for his role in Widow’s Bay.
Here are five things you may not already know about the history-making 51-year-old.
1. Almost a failed actor
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At the start of his career, Rhys was so desperate for work he considered joining the British Army.
In 2000, he stared alongside American actress Kathleen Turner in the West End production of The Graduate.
But for nearly two years afterwards he couldn’t find work.
So he met with an army officer who he said was “incredibly suspicious” of him because he was an actor, and told him “we’ll be in touch”.
Rhys said: “Then about a week later, I got a rejection letter from the British Army saying, ‘thank you for your interest, good luck in your career’.
“And I went, ‘oh my God, I can’t even join the army’.”
2. He formed the ‘LA Tafia’
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In 2006, Rhys moved to Hollywood and surrounded himself with fellow Welsh actors – including Michael Sheen and Ioan Gruffudd.
He lived with Newport-born Sheen and schoolfriend Gruffudd. He and Gruffudd both attended Welsh medium school Ysgol Glantaf in Cardiff.
In an interview in The Big Issue Cymru in 2003, Rhys said the pair did not see each other often, despite living under the same roof, as they were both busy working.
He affectionately called their group the ‘LA Tafia’.
In 2012, Rhys told The Independent newspaper how the trio would speak Welsh to one another, dream of good fish and chips and watch rugby together in a British pub.
3. How he met wife Keri Russell
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A decade after first meeting actor Keri Russell, the pair finally became an item when they starred together in the TV series The Americans in 2013.
They played a married couple who were Russian spies from 2013-2018.
Rhys and Russell were a couple from 2014 and had their son, Sam, in 2016. Rhys has previously told the BBC he speaks Welsh to Sam in the hope he will understand the language for life.
He joked he planned to “force” Sam to embrace Welsh culture.
Rhys is also stepdad to Russell’s children River and Willa.
4. His boat is named after a famous Welsh dish
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Rhys owns a 1939 wooden cruiser boat, which shares its name with a famous Welsh dish.
The boat is named Rarebit, which is also the name of a traditional Welsh meal consisting of seasoned melted cheese sauce served over hot toast.
He told the US TV show Today he didn’t realise “the disaster of buying an old wooden boat” before making the purchase.
Rhys said the boat is “part of Brooklyn history” and is the same class of boat that acclaimed author Ernest Hemingway previously owned.
Rhys admitted he has tried to sell Rarebit but now hopes to work with naval architecture at Brooklyn Boatworks to turn her into something “for Brooklyn and New York” in the future.
5. His first language is Welsh
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Rhys’ first language is Welsh and regularly speaks it at home in New York.
The passionate Welshman dedicated his second award “to the great and good people of Wales, who were as much a nurture as anyone else”.
“We are a small but mighty nation. This is incredible,” he said, adding, “diolch yn fawr iawn” which means “thank you very much” in Welsh.
Rhys has also been revealed as the voice of Han Solo in a new Welsh language adaptation of Star Wars.
Star Wars will be dubbed in Welsh for the first time ahead of the sci-fi classic’s 50th anniversary next year.
Rhys told New York Times podcast The Interview that the Welsh language project brought up some unexpected feelings.
“What was weird is obviously, they’d had to translate all these things that we’d grown up with, knowing Star Wars,” Rhys said.
“I was saying in Welsh things like, ‘pelydr cyrchu’ – it’s kind of like, ‘tractor beam’.”
He’s keen to remain connected to all things Welsh, and in 2025, Rhys took on the role of Welsh icon Richard Burton in the one-man show, Playing Burton, raising funds for the Welsh National Theatre.
Rhys said he first saw the play as a student in London more than 30 years ago and dreamed of portraying Burton ever since.