Photo: Eva Rinaldi / CC BY-SA 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is the rare actor whose career feels architecturally designed, which is fitting since he actually studied architecture at Berkeley before pivoting to acting. I love the structure of his choices: a blockbuster villain in Aquaman to build recognition, then an Emmy-winning dramatic turn, then prestige work like The Trial of the Chicago 7 and The Matrix Resurrections. From New Orleans to Hollywood, his path reads like deliberate load-bearing decisions rather than lucky breaks. What stays with me is the melancholy he sneaks into even his villains; there is always a person under the armor. I think he is just getting started.
Overview
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (; born July 15, 1986) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Black Manta in the superhero films Aquaman (2018) and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), Bobby Seale in the Netflix historical legal drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), and Morpheus / Agent Smith in The Matrix Resurrections (2021).
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
- Name (Japanese)
- ヤヒヤ・アブドゥル＝マティーン 2世
- Reading
- やひや・あぶどぅる＝まてぃーん 2世
- Born
- July 15, 1986 (age 39)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Cancer / Tiger
- Origin
- New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / television actor / film actor / architect / executive producer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- McClymonds High School
- University
- University of California, Berkeley
Awards & achievements
- 2020 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Television actor — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.