Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Bio
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is an American actor born on July 15, 1986, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He first drew widespread attention for his portrayal of Cal Abar, also known as Doctor Manhattan, in the HBO limited series Watchmen, a performance that earned him a Primetime Emmy Award. Across film and television, Abdul-Mateen has built a reputation for bringing physicality, intelligence, and restraint to characters drawn from comic books, historical drama, and genre storytelling.
He is widely recognized for playing the DC villain Black Manta in the superhero films Aquaman and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Bobby Seale in the Netflix historical legal drama The Trial of the Chicago 7, and Morpheus in The Matrix Resurrections. Abdul-Mateen has also appeared in acclaimed series such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Black Mirror, and made his Broadway debut in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog. He lives in New York City.
Early Life and Background
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of six children. His father, Yahya Abdul-Mateen I, was Muslim, and his mother, Mary Abdul-Mateen, is Christian. The family eventually settled in the Magnolia Projects of New Orleans before relocating to Oakland, California, where he attended McClymonds High School.
At McClymonds, Abdul-Mateen was an athlete and a self-described geek who enjoyed chess while also being elected prom king. After his family was priced out of Oakland, they moved to Stockton, California. The experience of growing up across New Orleans, Oakland, and Stockton shaped the stories he would later seek to tell through his work as a performer and producer.
Path to Acting
Abdul-Mateen enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where he joined the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and competed as a hurdler for the California Golden Bears track team. A teammate encouraged him to take a theater class, a decision that helped him overcome a childhood stutter and sparked his interest in performance. He graduated from Berkeley with a degree in architecture and later worked as a city planner in San Francisco.
After being laid off from his planning job, Abdul-Mateen chose to pursue acting full-time and enrolled at the Yale School of Drama, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree. Early in his career, he was committed to keeping his Muslim name intact on screen rather than adopting a stage name, a stance that became part of his public identity as he entered the industry.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Career
Early Career (2016–2017)
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II began his professional acting career in 2016 with a role in the Netflix musical drama series The Get Down, produced by Stephen Adly Guirgis and Baz Luhrmann. He played Clarence “Cadillac” Caldwell, a prince of the disco world, and his performance drew critical praise. The series gave him an early platform to demonstrate his range in a high-profile ensemble.
In 2017, he appeared in Shawn Christensen’s drama The Vanishing of Sidney Hall, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He also took on supporting roles in two major studio releases that year, playing police officer Garner Ellerbee in the action comedy Baywatch opposite Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron, and acrobat W. D. Wheeler in the musical The Greatest Showman alongside Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya. These projects signaled his rapid rise into feature films.
Breakthrough (2018–2019)
Abdul-Mateen’s profile rose sharply in 2018 when he was cast as the DC Comics villain Black Manta in Aquaman, directed by James Wan and starring Jason Momoa. The same year, he appeared in the road-trip drama Boundaries with Vera Farmiga and Christopher Plummer, and joined the cast of the Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale. His work across film and prestige television positioned him as one of the most sought-after character actors of his generation.
In 2019, he appeared in Jordan Peele’s horror film Us in a flashback role and starred in “Striking Vipers,” the opening episode of the fifth season of Black Mirror. Later that year, he took on the role of Cal Abar, who becomes Doctor Manhattan, in Damon Lindelof’s HBO superhero limited series Watchmen. His performance earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie in September 2020.
Continued Success (2020–2023)
In 2020, Abdul-Mateen portrayed real-life Black Panther chairman Bobby Seale in Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 for Netflix. He followed that with two high-profile 2021 releases, playing Morpheus, also credited as Agent Smith, in Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix Resurrections, and starring in Nia DaCosta’s horror film Candyman. He also returned to the role of Black Manta in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in 2023.
In September 2022, Abdul-Mateen made his Broadway debut in the revival of Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog, sharing the stage with Corey Hawkins. He remained in the production until January 2023 and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play, cementing his standing across stage and screen.
Notable Works and Milestones
Signature works in Abdul-Mateen’s career include Watchmen, for which he won an Emmy, and the Aquaman films, which established him within a global superhero franchise. His performances in The Trial of the Chicago 7, The Matrix Resurrections, and Candyman showcased his ability to move between historical drama, science fiction, and horror, while his Tony-nominated Broadway turn in Topdog/Underdog demonstrated his range as a stage actor.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Award Nominations
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has earned major nominations across television, film, and theater. He received a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his Broadway debut in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog, performing alongside Corey Hawkins during the 2022–2023 season. These nominations reflect consistent recognition from peers in the entertainment industry.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Awards Won
In September 2020, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his role as Cal Abar, also known as Doctor Manhattan, in the HBO limited series Watchmen. The award marked his first Emmy and one of the most significant honors of his career to date.
| Award | Wins | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Primetime Emmy Award | 1 | 2020 |
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Family
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is the youngest of six children born to his father, Yahya Abdul-Mateen I, who was Muslim, and his mother, Mary Abdul-Mateen, who is Christian. His father, who had West Indian heritage, passed away in 2007. After his father’s death, Abdul-Mateen began researching his family history, a process that deepened his interest in stories about identity and lineage.
Personal Life
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II resides in New York City. In November 2021, he launched a production company called House Eleven10, named after his childhood home in Oakland, California. The company focuses on bringing to life stories drawn from his upbringing and on uplifting talent from under-represented communities, beginning with a creative partnership through Netflix.