2025 MATRIX HONOREE
BELLAMY YOUNG
Actress, Producer, Advocate
Bellamy Young is best known for her role of President Mellie Grant on the ShondaLand series SCANDAL, for which she earned a Critics’ Choice Award. Amidst a vast television career, other notable work includes THE OTHER BLACK GIRL with Garcelle Beauvais , PROMISED LAND with John Ortiz, and PRODIGAL SON with Michael Sheen.
On the bigger screen, Young has been in both studio fare like A WRINKLE IN TIME, WE WERE SOLDIERS, and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: III, along with many indies like THE FREEBIE, NIGHT STALKER, and A COUNTRY REMEDY, which she also helped produce in her home state of North Carolina.
On Broadway, she originated the role of ‘Mary’ in Cy Coleman’s THE LIFE; Off-Broadway, she was ‘Meg’ in Stephen Sondheim’s revival of his MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. Other favorite collaborations include creating the role of ‘Margaret’ with the Randy Newman and David Mamet for their version of FAUST and the role of ‘LouAnn’ in the world premiere of Landford Wilson’s BOOK OF DAYS.
Originally from Asheville, NC, Young is a graduate of Yale University as well as the BADA training program at Oxford College in England. She is proud to be a gender justice ambassador for the global humanitarian organization CARE, for whom she created the podcast SHE LEADS WITH CARE to uplift the stories of incredible female leaders from around the world who have changed their own lives and their communities with the help of CARE. You can listen the podcast- as well as to Young’s album Far Away So Close- on all platforms. Her first novel, The Aetherion Code, co-written with her dear friend Fay Masterson, will be released worldwide July 1st.
Presenting the Matrix Award to Bellamy Young
TONY GOLDWYN
Actor, Director, Writer, and Activist
Tony Goldwyn’s latest feature directing project, Ezra, with Bobby Cannavale and Robert DeNiro, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Boulder International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Sun Valley Film Festival. Additionally Goldwyn has a role in the film, reuniting him with Ghost castmate Whoopi Goldberg. He can also be seen in the Academy Award-winning Best Picture Oppenheimer and in the original “Law & Order” series talking over as the new DA. Other recent credits include the award-winning ensemble of King Richard with Will Smith and NatGeo’s limited series “The Hot Zone: Anthrax” streaming on Hulu.
Further film credits include Plane with Gerard Butler, Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House, The Belko Experiment and Divergent. Goldwyn first caught audiences’ attention in the box office smash Ghost. He appeared in numerous other films including The Pelican Brief, Kiss The Girls, Nixon, The Substance of Fire, The Last Samurai, and the remake of Wes Craven’s classic The Last House on the Left. He is familiar to children as the title voice in Disney’s Tarzan.
Goldwyn made his feature directorial debut with A Walk on the Moon. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, receiving praise from critics as well as special recognition from the National Board of Review for Excellence in Independent Filmmaking.
Other feature directing credits include The Last Kiss, for which Goldwyn received Best Director from the Boston Film Festival, and the romantic comedy Someone Like You. Conviction, starring Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell, earned Swank a SAG Award nomination, won Best Film at the Boston Film Festival and was awarded a Freedom of Expression honor from the National Board of Review.