Winning an Emmy is no laughing matter, especially when you’re trying to break a record.
That’s exactly what Matthew Rhys is hoping to do with a Best Comedy Actor win for Widow’s Bay, which would put him in a rarified field of performers who won lead acting prizes in both the comedy and drama categories.
Rhys previously won the Best Drama Actor award for the final season of The Americans. That 2018 victory came after two previous bids for the FX spy series in 2016 and 2017, plus a 2017 comedy guest acting nom for Girls. Rhys competed once again in Best Drama Actor for Perry Mason in 2021 and is contending this year in Best Limited Series/Movie Actor for The Beast in Me. (Rhys is also nominated in Best Comedy Series as a producer of Widow’s Bay.)
Although Rhys isn’t predicted to win his bid for The Beast in Me, he’s far and away the frontrunner in Best Comedy Actor according to Gold Derby’s odds. Should he prevail, he’d be only the third person in history to win both comedy and drama lead acting awards. (If Rhys wins for The Beast in Me as well, it’ll be quite the hat trick indeed, considering no one has ever won all three.)
Movie/Limited Actor
1.
2.
Matthew Rhys
The Beast in Me
3.
4.
Charlie Hunnam
Monster: The Ed Gein Story
5.
Jason Bateman
Black Rabbit
Comedy Actor
1.
2.
Martin Short
Only Murders in the Building
3.
4.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Wonder Man
5.
The last person to pull this off was Edie Falco, who won Best Comedy Actress in 2010 for the first season of Nurse Jackie. Falco previously won three Best Drama Actress prizes for The Sopranos (1999, 2001, 2003). Her predecessor, Carroll O’Connor, pulled a reverse-Falco, winning four Best Comedy Actor awards for All in the Family (1972, 1977-79) before prevailing in drama for In the Heat of the Night (1989).
Others have tried and failed to join this elite group. Donald Glover, for instance, took home comedy acting and directing prizes for the first season of Atlanta (2017), but was less successful when he jumped over to the drama categories for Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024).
Jennifer Aniston similarly won Best Comedy Actress for Friends in 2002, but has yet to prevail for her dramatic work in The Morning Show, which brought her nominations in 2020 and 2024.
Then you have Allison Janney, who won back-to-back drama supporting actress awards for The West Wing in 2000 and 2001 before jumping over to the lead category the next year, winning that prize in 2002 and 2004. Janney tried to do the same thing with the sitcom Mom, which brought her back-to-back comedy supporting actress wins in 2014 and 2015, but she lost her lead actress bids in 2017, 2018, and 2021.
Tyne Daly won three consecutive Best Drama Actress awards for Cagney & Lacy in 1983 through 1985. A 1992 rule change that permitted guest performers to compete in the lead and supporting races allowed Daly to earn a Best Comedy Actress bid for her single episode appearance on Wings. Daly was no match for Murphy Brown star Candice Bergen, who had the benefit of appearing in every episode of her sitcom.
Mariette Hartley faced no such hurdles for her one episode stint on The Incredible Hulk, which brought her a Best Drama Actress trophy in 1979. When she headlined her own sitcom, Goodnight, Beantown, however, she came up short in the 1983 Best Comedy Actress race.
After taking home two Best Comedy Actor awards for playing Oscar Madison on The Odd Couple (1971 and 1973), Jack Klugman tried his hand on the drama side with his lead role on Quincy, M.D. Alas, he struck out all four times at bat (1977-80).
In 1966, Bill Cosby became the first black actor to win an Emmy for I Spy, a prize he received again in 1967 and 1968. Despite winning Best Drama Actor three consecutive times, he was less successful when competing in the lead comedy actor category for The Bill Cosby Show in 1970.
(Special mention should be made of Robert Young, who won lead acting Emmys for the sitcom Father Knows Best in 1957 and 1958 before taking home the Best Drama Actor award for Marcus Welby, M.D. in 1970. Young won his trophies for Father Knows Best before the Emmys separated the acting prizes into comedy and drama categories, so we’re not technically counting him alongside O’Connor and Falco.)
One can speculate as to why Emmy voters are allergic to rewarding a comedian who tries to play it straight, or a dramatic actor who wants to yuck it up. Yet Rhys has a leg up on the competition considering his series is nominated for a staggering 19 Emmys, a sizable haul for a first season show. It certainly helps that Widow’s Bay is Hacks’ main competition in Best Comedy Series, and voters often like to hand a lead acting prize to a series winner… or its runner-up.
So while it doesn’t happen very often, Matthew Rhys may soon find himself laughing all the way to the Emmy history books.
