Hollywood actor Matthew Rhys has made history at the Emmys by becoming the first person to win two lead acting prizes in one night.

He was named best lead actor in a limited series for the psychological thriller The Beast In Me, and best lead actor in a comedy for his role in Widow’s Bay.

Rhys told BBC Wales that receiving the double honour had been a “complete out of the body experience” which “still feels as surreal as it was last night”.

He described being in “abject terror” when called to collect his awards in the presence of “heroes”, such as Gary Oldman.

Rhys said he was too intimidated by actor Harrison Ford to tell him that he was to voice his legendary Star Wars character Han Solo when the movie is being dubbed into Welsh for the first time.

Here are five things you may not already know about the history-making 51-year-old – and why he’s currently letting his beard grow so bushy.

At the start of his career, Rhys was so desperate for work he considered joining the Army.

In 2000, he starred alongside American actress Kathleen Turner in the West End production of The Graduate.

But for nearly two years afterwards he couldn’t find work.

So, he met an Army officer who was “incredibly suspicious” of him because he was an actor, and told him “we’ll be in touch”.

Rhys said: “Then about a week later, I got a rejection letter from the British army saying, ‘thank you for your interest, good luck in your career’.

“And I went, ‘oh my God, I can’t even join the Army’.”

In 2006, Rhys moved to Hollywood and surrounded himself with fellow Welsh actors – including Michael Sheen and Ioan Gruffudd.

He lived with Newport-born Sheen and schoolfriend Gruffudd. He and Gruffudd both attended Welsh medium school Ysgol Glantaf in Cardiff.

In an interview in The Big Issue Cymru in 2003, Rhys said the pair did not see each other often, despite living under the same roof, as they were both busy working.

He affectionately called their group the “LA Tafia”.

In 2012, Rhys told The Independent newspaper how the trio would speak Welsh to one another, dream of good fish and chips and watch rugby together in a British pub.

Rhys met Keri Russell in Los Angeles at a kickball game in 2002, where he asked for her phone number.

During an interview on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Rhys explained that he had left a drunken message on Russell’s answer machine following the meeting, which he did not remember doing.

Rhys said Russell did not find the message charming “in the slightest” so did not return his call.

A decade later, the pair finally became an item when they starred together in the TV series The Americans in 2013.

They played a married couple who were Russian spies from 2013-2018.

Rhys and Russell were a couple from 2014 and had their son, Sam, in 2016. Rhys has previously told the BBC he speaks Welsh to Sam in the hope he will understand the language for life.

He joked he planned to “force” Sam to embrace Welsh culture.

Rhys is also stepdad to Russell’s children River and Willa.

Rhys owns a 1939 wooden cruiser boat, which shares its name with a famous Welsh dish.

The boat is named Rarebit, which is also the name of a traditional Welsh meal consisting of seasoned melted cheese sauce served over hot toast.

He told the US TV show Today he didn’t realise “the disaster of buying an old wooden boat” before making the purchase.

Rhys said the boat is “part of Brooklyn history” and is the same class of boat that acclaimed author Ernest Hemingway previously owned.

Rhys admitted he has tried to sell Rarebit but now hopes to work with naval architecture at Brooklyn Boatworks to turn her into something “for Brooklyn and New York” in the future.

Rhys’ first language is Welsh and regularly speaks it at home in New York.

The passionate Welshman dedicated his second award “to the great and good people of Wales, who were as much a nurture as anyone else”.

“We are a small but mighty nation. This is incredible,” he said, adding, “diolch yn fawr iawn” which means “thank you very much” in Welsh.

Rhys has been revealed as the voice of Han Solo which was played by Harrison Ford in a new Welsh language adaptation of Star Wars, ahead of the sci-fi classic’s 50th anniversary in 2027.

Rhys said he saw Ford at the awards ceremony but did not dare “go over and say, ‘guess what I just did? Revoiced you in Welsh'”.

He described voicing the character as an “arresting moment” given that Star Wars had been a “big part in our upbringing” and said that Ford’s role had been “legendary”.

“I just hope he doesn’t come after me,” he joked.

Rhys also revealed that he was due back in Wales in October.

He’s filming a new BBC drama called Dragon Slayers about the work of Sir Harry Evans, former editor of The Sunday Times, whose team of investigative journalists broke some of the biggest stories in the 1970s and beyond.

Rhys revealed he was currently allowing his beard to grow bushy to produce sideburns befitting the period in which the drama is set.