Matthew Rhys was born on November 8, 1974, in Cardiff, Wales as Matthew Rhys Evans. He is an actor and director, known for playing Philip Jennings in The Americans (2013) for which he received two Golden Globe Award nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award. In movies he did parts in many films including The Post (2017) and Burnt (2015). He is also widely known for playing Kevin Walker in Brothers & Sisters. In 1993, he was awarded the Patricia Rothermere Scholarship and 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.

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. 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 lawyer Kevin Walker. The show had a five-season run, coming to an end in 2011. In 2020, he appeared alongside Tom Hanks in the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.