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). For his portrayal of Cal Abar / Doctor Manhattan in the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019), he won a Primetime Emmy Award. He also starred in episodes of The Handmaid's Tale (2018) and Black Mirror (2019).
He made his Broadway debut in the Suzan-Lori Parks play Topdog/Underdog for which he received a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play nomination. He has played Simon Williams / Wonder Man in media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring in the Disney+ series Wonder Man (2026), for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.
Contents
Early life
Abdul-Mateen was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. His mother, Mary, is Christian, while his father (1945–2007) was Yahya Abdul-Mateen I (birth name John Ford), a member of the New Orleans Masjid of Al-Islam, a former Nation of Islam temple founded in the 1960s that later adopted Sunni Islam. He is the youngest of six children. He spent his childhood in the Magnolia Projects of New Orleans, and then moved to Oakland, California, where he attended McClymonds High School. At McClymonds, he was an athlete and self-described geek who enjoyed chess and was voted prom king. The family was eventually priced out of Oakland and moved to Stockton, California.
