Matthew Rhys walked into Monday’s Emmy Awards with two nominations for lead actor and walked out with two trophies, becoming the first performer in Emmy history to win leading acting awards in a single night. The Welsh actor took Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Netflix’s “The Beast in Me,” then returned later in the broadcast to claim Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Apple TV’s “Widow’s Bay.”
The first win caught him off guard. Rhys later admitted backstage that he genuinely hadn’t expected to win for “Beast,” calling his own acceptance speech something close to unprepared rambling. Onstage, he praised co-star Claire Danes, describing her performance as fierce and relentless and calling her an intimidating scene partner. The two play a real estate mogul and a novelist drawn into a cat-and-mouse investigation after his wife’s disappearance, a role that had already earned Rhys nominations at the Golden Globes and the Actor Awards earlier in the season.
His second trip to the stage carried more expectation but no less emotion. “Widow’s Bay” entered the night with 19 nominations, the most of any comedy series, and had already piled up wins for co-stars Kate O’Flynn and Stephen Root earlier in the evening.
Rhys opened with a joke about making the room’s women stand again, then credited series creator Katie Dippold and director Hiro Murai for shaping the show’s blend of small-town comedy and creeping horror. He also took a moment to shout out Wales, noting that his home country was small but always ready to make noise when it had something to celebrate.
The double win extends a run of recognition that began in 2018, when Rhys won Lead Actor in a Drama Series for “The Americans,” making him the first male actor to win leading acting Emmys across all three major categories. Industry watchers had flagged the feat as a possibility once Rhys became the first man in three decades to score dual lead nominations in one season, following John Goodman’s split 1995 nods for “Roseanne” and “Kingfish.”
Unlike Goodman, or the handful of actresses who managed a similar double nomination since, Rhys became the first person in that group to actually win either category, let alone both.
