Welsh actor Matthew Rhys walked into the 78th Emmy Awards on Monday with one historic win already on his shelf. He left with two more.Rhys won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for Netflix’s The Beast in Me, where he plays Nile Jarvis, a manipulative real estate scion suspected of murdering his first wife. Hours later he claimed Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay, in which he plays Tom Loftis, the anxious mayor of a mysteriously cursed New England Island.No male performer had ever won both lead prizes in the same night. Combined with his 2018 drama win for The Americans, Rhys is now the first male actor to hold lead Emmys across all three categories. Barbara Stanwyck remains the only other performer to have done so, winning between 1961 and 1983.In the limited series race he beat Oscar Isaac, Riz Ahmed, Jason Bateman and Charlie Hunnam. In comedy he defeated Steve Carell, Martin Short, Jason Segel and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.He thanked Widow’s Bay creator Katie Dippold with a line that brought the house down. “This is purely because of the depraved and twisted mind of Katie Dippold. Her genius really does live in the recesses of her disturbed brain,” he said.Widow’s Bay has been renewed for a second season. Rhys received two additional Emmy nominations this year as executive producer on both shows.