LIFE & TIMES: Matthew Rhys

Currently presenting the gadget section of The Wine Show (7pm, Ch5), actor Matthew Rhys, 43, has never strayed far from his Welsh roots, despite making his name in the US…

Born in Cardiff in 1974, Matthew Rhys Evans successfully applied to Rada in London after playing Elvis Presley in a school musical. While still at drama school, he started to get occasional acting work, playing Boyo in the British film House Of America and PC Steve Higson in BBC series Backup (both 1997). In 2003, he played killer Justin Price in

Columbo Likes The Nightlife, the lastever episode of the US series, making his character the last to be arrested by Peter Falk’s dogged detective.

In 2008, he caught our eye as Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in The

Edge Of Love, co-starring Keira Knightley. By then, the roles were coming thick and fast: Kevin Walker in US series Brothers & Sisters (2006-2011);

John Jasper in The Mystery Of Edwin Drood

(2012); and Fitzwilliam Darcy in Death Comes

To Pemberley (2013). In 2013, he made his debut as Philip Jennings in US series The Americans, a role for which he has been nominated for numerous awards. He has also directed several episodes of Brothers & Sisters and The Americans. He is currently starring in The Post

(2017), with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, and will also be seen in the forthcoming live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book (2018).

He is in a relationship with Keri Russell, his co-star in The Americans; their first child, Sam, was born in 2016.