Matthew Rhys has won Best Actor at the 2026 Bafta Cymru Awards for his performance in Netflix thriller The Beast in Me.
The Welsh actor received the award at the ceremony held at the ICC Wales in Newport, where the event has taken place since 2024.
The win marks Rhys’ second Bafta Cymru award, 29 years after he won his first for his role in the Welsh-language film Bydd yn Wro, or Be Brave.
Rhys has also enjoyed success during this year’s awards season. Last month, he became the first person to win two lead acting prizes in one night at the Emmys.
Gabrielle Creevy won Best Actress at the Bafta Cymru ceremony for the second time.
Y Crwydryn won the Single Documentary award, while Rhys Edwards was named Director Factual for the same programme.
Mari Grug won her first Bafta Cymru for Presenter for Mari Grug: Yn Dydd Ar Y Tro.
Y Golau: Dwr won two awards, while Matthew Barry took home Best Writer for The Guest.
Amour a Mynydd won Entertainment Programme, while Stori’r Iaith received the Factual Series award.
Burton won Feature/Television Film, while Gofod Ymennydd – Brain Space won Short Film and Itopia took the Children’s Programme award.
A total of 17 awards were presented during the ceremony, alongside two Bafta Outstanding Contribution awards.
Presenter Carol Vorderman received an Outstanding Contribution award and said she was humbled and excited by the recognition.
Lauren Evans, from Hendy in Carmarthenshire, received the inaugural Outstanding Contribution to Craft award.
She has worked on productions including Game of Thrones, King Lear and The Danish Girl, and more recently worked on Sex Education, Lost Boys and I Swear.
Evans also won Best Casting for I Swear, which received six Bafta nominations earlier this year.
She said she was “incredibly proud” to represent Welsh voices at the 2026 ceremony and pledged to continue elevating our Welsh creatives and our Welsh talent.”
Bafta Cymru chair Lee Walters congratulated this year’s nominees, describing them as a testament to the creativity, skill and dedication of people working across Wales’ screen industries.
He said Evans and Vorderman had taken “very different paths” but had both “achieved so much and thoroughly deserve to be celebrated.”
Erizia Rubyjeana
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