Matthew Rhys

Matthew Rhys Evans (/riːs/ REESS; born 8 November 1974) is a Welsh actor. He 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 was Emmy-nominated for his guest role in Girls (2017) and for playing the title role in the period series Perry Mason (2020–2023).

In film, Rhys appeared as Dylan Thomas in The Edge of Love (2008) and as Daniel Ellsberg in The Post (2017) and starred as a cynical journalist in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019). He has also voiced several characters in animated series, including Emperor Belos in The Owl House (2020–2023).

Early life and education

Rhys was born in Cardiff, Wales, on 8 November 1974 (some sources say 4 November). His first language is Welsh. He grew up in Cardiff 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).

Career

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 opposite Brittany Murphy in the independent feature Love and Other Disasters, in Virgin Territory opposite Hayden Christensen, Tim Roth and Mischa Barton, and playing poet Dylan Thomas in the love quadrangle biographical film The Edge of Love. He moved 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.

In January 2012, Rhys appeared in a BBC Two two-part drama adaptation of Charles Dickens' 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' 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. 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 starred opposite Keri Russell in the FX series The Americans, a 1980s Cold War spy drama about Russian KGB sleeper agents (Rhys and Russell, who portray married KGB agents with two children, among other agents and handlers). Rhys and Russell are partners off-screen as well. The show debuted in January 2013. The sixth season airing in 2018 was the final season of The Americans. Rhys received a Primetime Emmy Award for the sixth season.

Business ventures

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

With the help of Welsh actor Rhys Ifans, Rhys supported fundraising for the pub Vale of Aeron in Ystrad Aeron, Ceredigion, Wales.

Rhys' father grew up in Pennal, a town in Gwynedd, North Wales, and Rhys would spend summers and Easters visiting. In 2019, a pub named Glan Yr Afon (also Riverside) in Pennal was put on the market in 2019 without any buyers, but through a campaign supported by Rhys, there was a shares offering for the public; this raised £450,000 to save the pub, which was purchased by the local community in December 2022.

Rhys set up his own production company, Patagonia (2011), which has two projects in development. One of them involves the adaptation of a book called Operation Julie, written by Lyn Ebenezer, about the biggest LSD drugs bust (in Wales's history); Rhys bought the film rights in December 2010.

Personal life

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.

He is a supporter of Plaid Cymru, actively supporting Welsh independence.

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.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Bibliography

• Patagonia: Crossing the Plain (2010) – a photographic account of his month-long journey on horseback while filming a documentary on Patagonia, and the Welsh settlers who made it their home having journeyed from Wales in the late 19th century.