What To Know
- Matthew Rhys won the 2026 Emmys for Lead Actor in a Limited Series for The Beast in Me and Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Widow’s Bay.
- A breakdown of actors who have won concurrent Emmys in one night, and why Rhys made history with his second win.
Matthew Rhys just won a 2026 Primetime Emmy Award for his lead performance in Netflix’s The Beast in Me, a limited series. Less than an hour later, he won again for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Widow’s Bay. It begs the question: Has anyone won two acting Emmys in the same night, and has anyone won two lead acting Emmys in one night? Rhys isn’t the only actor with concurrent nominations at tonight’s ceremony, but he just made history thanks to these wins. Here are the stats.
Rhys was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for The Beast in Me and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Widow’s Bay (he was considered a frontrunner for the latter; his costars, Kate O’Flynn and Stephen Root, won their supporting categories earlier in the ceremony on September 14). He joined a very small group of male actors who have won two acting Emmys in the same night. The group gets bigger when you include female actors.
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James Earl Jones is the only male actor to win two acting Emmys in a single night. In 1991, he won for his lead and supporting roles in Gabriel’s Fire and Heat Wave. Eight women have won concurrent Emmys in a single night: Cloris Leachman (1975), Glenda Jackson (1972), Colleen Dewhurst (1989), Shirley Knight (1995), Stockard Channing (2002), Allison Janney (2014), and Alex Borstein (2018). A standout was Maya Rudolph (2020–2021), who became the first performer to win in two categories in both 2020 and 2021 — and they were the same two categories each year to boot.
What sets a Rhys Widow’s Bay win apart from the rest of these winners is that no actor has ever won two lead acting Emmy Awards in a single night or year until now. Rhys is now in a winners category of one, as is Jean Smart.
Smart made her own Emmys history by winning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the fifth time for Hacks, making her the first actor to ever win a lead Emmy for every single season of a show.
Rhys was up against Riz Ahmed for Bait, Jason Bateman for Black Rabbit, Charlie Hunnam for Monster: The Ed Gein Story, and Oscar Isaac for Beef in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category. In Lead Actor, Comedy, Rhys’ fellow nominees were Yahya Abdul-Mateen II for Wonder Man, Steve Carell for Rooster, Jason Segel for Shrinking, and Martin Short for Only Murders in the Building.
Rhys isn’t the only concurrent nominee at this year’s ceremony. Bateman, Colman Domingo, Laurie Metcalf, and Nick Offerman are also concurrent nominees tonight.
Check out the full list of winners at the 2026 Emmys here.