Just like TV viewers, Emmy voters can’t seem to get enough of Matthew Rhys.
The Welsh actor has won at the 2026 Emmys for best actor in a limited series or TV movie for his sinister turn in The Beast in Me.
And Rhys wasn’t done. He went on to win best actor in a comedy series for his role in Widow’s Bay, becoming the first performer in history to have won the lead acting Emmy across all three genres, since he won on the drama side back in 2018 for The Americans, and the first man to have won two lead acting trophies in a single night.
Accepting his limited series acting award, Rhys showed off his comedic chops as he joked about using the Emmy as a weapon.
“Oh, good grief! If you try and taunt me, I’ll stab you in the eyes with this,” he said.
He then called the win a “real shock … not least because of the caliber and company of the actors in this category.”
He went on to thank Netflix, the creatives behind the scenes on the thriller, including its writers, and co-star Claire Danes: “Thank you for letting me join the mystery machine and bringing out the beast.”
Rhys’ limited series win is considered something of an upset, with Oscar Isaac having been favored to win his first Emmy for his work in the Netflix anthology Beef. Rhys also beat out former winners Riz Ahmed (Bait) and Jason Bateman (Black Rabbit) as well as first-time nominee Charlie Hunnam (Monster: The Ed Gein Story).
Speaking backstage in the Emmys‘ press room, Rhys elaborated on his surprise at his Beast win.
“To be perfectly honest, I genuinely didn’t think I would get it for Beast,” he said. “And so that was such a shock … [explains] rambling speech that I gave. I had a few names for Widow’s Bay, kind of was a bit of an optimistic eyebrow raise, but I don’t count the first one because I wasn’t expecting it, which is why it’s such a kind of almost a speech.”
Although The Beast in Me aired way back in November, the psychological thriller was a smash hit for Netflix and had already netted both Rhys and co-star Danes nominations for the 2026 Golden Globes and Actor Awards. The series, also up for best limited series at the Emmys 2026, examined the deadly cat-and-mouse game between Agatha (Danes), a best-selling author searching for inspiration for her next book, and Niles (Rhys), her wealthy new neighbor who is rumored to have killed his wife.
Deep into the season, it’s revealed that Niles is in fact a murderer — kicking Rhys’ mercurial, mustache-twirling performance into a thrilling new gear.
“I did [a little bit of reading] about impulse killings, which I found equal parts disturbing but interesting, and how more often than not, in an impulse killing, the person doing the killing sees themselves as a victim,” Rhys told The Hollywood Reporter of how he approached Niles. “I leaned into that a little for Nile. These impulses come from a wrongdoing that he sees as having been done upon himself from an earlier age, and it was primarily that, really. He’s doing this because of something that’s been done to him.”
Hilary Lewis contributed to this report.
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