Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is an American actor born on July 15, 1986, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the youngest of six children born to his father, Yahya Abdul-Mateen I, a Muslim who lived from 1945 to 2007, and his mother Mary, who is Christian. Abdul-Mateen spent his early years in the Magnolia Projects of New Orleans before his family relocated to Oakland, California, where he attended McClymonds High School. At McClymonds, he was both an athlete and an avid chess player and was voted prom king. The family later moved to Stockton, California after being priced out of Oakland.

Abdul-Mateen attended 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 suggestion from a teammate led him to enroll in a theater class, which helped him overcome a stutter. He graduated from Berkeley with a degree in architecture and subsequently worked as a city planner in San Francisco. Following a layoff, he enrolled at the Yale School of Drama, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree. Early in his professional career, Abdul-Mateen was deliberate about not adopting a stage name or altering his Muslim name, despite suggestions that it might hinder his prospects.

His acting career began in 2016 with the Netflix musical drama series The Get Down, created by Stephen Adly Guirgis and Baz Luhrmann, in which he played Clarence "Cadillac" Caldwell, a figure in the disco world. In 2017, he appeared in The Vanishing of Sidney Hall, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and took on the role of police officer Garner Ellerbee in the action comedy Baywatch alongside Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron. That same year, he played acrobat W. D. Wheeler in the musical film The Greatest Showman, which starred Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, and Efron.

Abdul-Mateen expanded his profile significantly in 2018, appearing in the road trip drama Boundaries alongside Vera Farmiga and Christopher Plummer, and taking on the role of DC Comics villain Black Manta in Aquaman, a role he reprised in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in 2023. In 2019, he appeared in Jordan Peele's film Us and starred in "Striking Vipers," an episode of the fifth season of Black Mirror. Later that year, he portrayed Cal Abar, also known as Doctor Manhattan, in the HBO limited series Watchmen, a performance that earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special in September 2020. He also played Bobby Seale in the Netflix historical legal drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 in 2020, and starred as Morpheus and Agent Smith in The Matrix Resurrections in 2021, as well as appearing in Nia DaCosta's 2021 film Candyman.

In September 2022, Abdul-Mateen made his Broadway debut in the revival of Suzan-Lori Parks's play Topdog/Underdog, performing alongside Corey Hawkins. He remained with the production through January 2023. The role earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play as well as a Theatre World Award in 2023. In 2022, he was cast as Marvel Comics character Simon Williams in the Disney+ series Wonder Man, which premiered on January 27, 2026. Abdul-Mateen currently lives in New York City.