2016
The Get Down
Appears in the musical drama series.
FLM.REDYAHYA
ABDUL-MATEEN II
ยะห์ยา อับดุล-มาทีน ที่สอง
From architecture to the screen
From Watchmen to Aquaman and The Matrix Resurrections.
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Building a career across genres
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is an American actor born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 15 July 1986. His route to acting included studying architecture and working in city planning before he trained at Yale’s drama school.
The musical drama series The Get Down (2016–2017) introduced him to a wider television audience. He subsequently appeared in films including The Greatest Showman and Us, moving between musical and suspenseful stories.
In Aquaman (2018), he plays David Kane, also known as Black Manta. The role places a personal grudge within the larger conflict of a superhero adventure, and he later returned to the character.
His performance as Cal Abar in the limited series Watchmen (2019) won him the 2020 Primetime Emmy for supporting actor in a limited series or movie. The role forms an important part of a story that combines superhero mythology with questions about history and identity.
In 2021, he appeared in Candyman and The Matrix Resurrections. Across very different genres, his work has ranged from intimate uncertainty to the heightened scale of action and fantasy.
Selected work
2018
Aquaman
Plays David Kane / Black Manta.
2019 / 2020
Watchmen
Wins a supporting-actor Emmy in 2020.
2021
Candyman / The Matrix Resurrections
Appears in two distinct genre films.
Performance readings are FLM.RED editorial interpretation.
Films in FLM.RED
Titles in this collection; not a complete filmography.
Sources & image notes
- Television Academy — Emmy and career
- Playbill — birth
- Fandango — architecture and acting
- TIME — film career
- Boundaries production notes — Yale training
Portrait illustration: FLM.RED.