This post contains spoilers for “You” season 5.
In the “Succession”-flavored final season of Netflix’s “You,” the Lockwood family is a moral cesspool — with one exception. While the other siblings and in-laws are all viciously fighting for power or recognition, Teddy Lockwood (Griffin Matthews), the half-sibling to Joe’s wife Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and twins Reagan and Maddie (Anna Camp, twice), is just trying to keep a foothold at the company his racist father helped build. As a Black, gay man whose conception was fraught at best, Teddy is frank about how the melodramatic power plays and murder schemes that make “You” so fun to watch could impact him much differently than his white, old money counterparts.
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Teddy is a breath of fresh air, and spends a good chunk of the season as one of the most morally spotless characters in Joe’s world. If we keep the parallel to HBO’s “Succession” going (and it seems like the show wants us to), he’s like midwesterner Tom — a real person who has little chance of keeping his hands clean in the midst of a powerful corrupting force. Along with Camp, Madeline Brewer, Tom Francis, Natasha Benham, and Frankie DeMaio, Matthews joins the “You” cast for the first time in season 5, just as the clock runs out on the story of Penn Badgley’s self-obsessed serial killer.
If the actor behind Teddy Lockwood looks familiar, it’s because you’ve probably seen him before. Here’s where.
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You might know Griffin Matthews from She-Hulk or The Flight Attendant
Matthews’ earliest on-screen roles came in the mid-aughts, when he appeared in small TV roles as well as a recurring part on the short-lived Lucy Liu dramedy “Cashmere Mafia.” In the years that followed, he had guest spots on some of the most watchable shows of the era, from “Weeds” to “Torchwood” to “Suburgatory.” He’s also appeared in a few crime procedurals that match the macabre vibes of “You,” even playing the author of a Slenderman-like folk tale in a “Law & Order: SVU” two-parter.
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One of the actor’s most high-profile roles to date came in 2022, when he appeared in two episodes of Marvel’s “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” as a fashion designer to the super-stars. That same year, he wrapped up his time on “The Flight Attendant,” where he played a friend and co-worker to Kaley Cuoco’s deeply messy protagonist Cassie for all 16 episodes. You might also know Matthews from Netflix’s TV adaptation of “Dear White People,” where he shows up in season 3 as a gay man who shows ever-awkward Lionel (DeRon Horton) what queer community looks like. Other screen credits to date include the HBO series “Ballers,” an episode of Apple TV’s feminist anthology series “Roar,” and the Netflix rom-com “Your Place or Mine.”
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In addition to his work on screen, Matthews has had an impactful career in the nonprofit world. According to an interview with Out magazine, he met his husband, composer Matt Gould, after the pair connected over the work they’d both already done in Africa in the early 2000s. According to The Huffington Post, Matthews was disillusioned by the work (or lack thereof) of the organization he first visited Africa with, so upon returning home, he launched the organization Uganda Project to help the kids he’d met there thrive. The pair also co-wrote the play “Witness Uganda” (also sometimes called “Invisible Thread”), which Matthews starred in. Based on his time in the non-profit fundraising world and his experiences in Uganda, the play won an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2014.
All five seasons of “You” are now on Netflix.
