Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Biography

Actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II won an Emmy in 2020 for his role as Cal Abar in the mini-series Watchmen (starring Regina King).

On the big screen, Abdul-Mateen is best known as Black Manta (David Kane) in the DC superhero movie Aquaman (2018).

Born in New Orleans, Abdul-Mateen moved to California as a teen and went to high school in Oakland.

He earned a degree in architecture in 2011, then worked as a city planner until being laid off.

By then Abdul-Mateen had caught the acting bug, so he applied to drama schools. He graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 2015.

He didn’t have to wait long for a career boost: in 2016 he was cast as a villainous disco king in the  Baz Luhrman series The Get Down (2016-17).

This came a steady streak of career ups. After Watchmen (2019) Abdul-Mateen appeared the 2020 film The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Abdul-Mateen played Bobby Seale).

In late 2020 Abdul-Mateen was cast in the reboot of the horror film Candyman and the third sequel to The Matrix (1999, starring Keanu Reeves).