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.
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'." 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. 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.
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