Rhys Thomas (born 18 September 1979) is a Welsh director and producer best known for his work on Saturday Night Live for NBC and the series Documentary Now! for IFC. Rhys Thomas became the Saturday Night Live Film Unit producer in 2005 and in 2010 began directing shorts, music videos, and commercial parodies for the show. He also directed and produced the SNL opening credit sequence in 2012–2018 and the opening credits for the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, which he also produced and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special in 2015. In 2015 he made his feature film debut with the film Staten Island Summer written by Colin Jost. That year he also directed John Mulaney’s Emmy-nominated stand-up special The Comeback Kid for Netflix. Thomas is also a co-creator and director of the Emmy-nominated IFC series Documentary Now!. In 2016, he also produced the Adele Live in New York City concert special for NBC, for which he earned his fourth Primetime Emmy nomination. He also produced and directed the opening credits for the talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers. In 2017, he produced and directed all six episodes of the Amazon Prime show Comrade Detective starring Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He teamed with Bill Hader again in 2018 for Pringles' first-ever Super Bowl commercial. In 2021, Thomas served as an executive producer and directed episodes 1, 2, and 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series Hawkeye. Description above from the Wikipedia article Bert and Bertie, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Biography from TMDB.
- September 18, 1979 (47)
- Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales, UK
- Director and producer
- 11 on Motif · 20 credits in all
Known for
What are Rhys Thomas' films like?
Across their 7 Motif titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Self and Bonds.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 1 · Wry 0 · Earnest 3
Light 5 · Serious 0 · Dark 0
Grounded 3 · Stylized 2 · Heightened 0
Gentle 4 · Charged 1 · Intense 0
Steady 5 · Shifting 0 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 0 · Some laughs 1 · Funny 4
Slow burn 1 · Even-paced 2 · Relentless 2
Casual 5 · Engaged 0 · Full focus 0
Easy watch 5 · Affecting 0 · Heavy 0
Resolved 5 · Open-ended 0 · Ambiguous 0
Moods and endings
- Happy5
- Ambiguous2
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Rhys Thomas' films?
As of October 24, 2026, 7 of their 11 Motif titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Netflix (3).
Subscription and free streaming for Rhys Thomas' titles on Motif; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
20 credits, 11 with a Motif page; 1 appearance as themselves is hidden until asked for.
Midcredits score: 37th percentile of all shows
An SNL Thanksgiving (not in the Motif catalog yet)(2024)
Hawkeye(2021)
Midcredits score: 75th percentile of all shows
Chad (not in the Motif catalog yet)(2021)
Midcredits score: 88th percentile of all films
Party Monster: Scratching the Surface (not in the Motif catalog yet)(2018)
Comrade Detective(2017)
Midcredits score: 52nd percentile of all shows
Queen: From Rags to Rhapsody (not in the Motif catalog yet)(2015)
Midcredits score: 98th percentile of all films
Documentary Now!(2015)
Midcredits score: 87th percentile of all shows
Staten Island Summer(2015)
Midcredits score: 27th percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 69th percentile of all shows
An SNL Valentine(2015)
Midcredits score: 17th percentile of all films (provisional, few ratings)
Midcredits score: 98th percentile of all films
Saturday Night Live: Thanksgiving (not in the Motif catalog yet)(2013)
Queen: Greatest Video Hits (not in the Motif catalog yet)(2002)
Saturday Night Live(1975)
Midcredits score: 71st percentile of all showsAnomaly (not in the Motif catalog yet)
Robotech (not in the Motif catalog yet)
Sleep Train (not in the Motif catalog yet)
Career shape
A full career of 19 titles, 16 of them dated from 1975 to 2026.
Film career
- 2015Screen debut· Staten Island Summer
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on Motif, shown from 5 scored.
How do Rhys Thomas' films land?
Their typical Motif film has a Midcredits score in the 88th percentile, the median of all 5; across their 5 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 87th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up5
- 50th to 74th3
- 25th to 49th2
- Below 25th1
Shape of the crowd
7 of their 11 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Universally Loved1
- Crowd Pleaser7
- Broadly Agreed1
- Mixed2
Reviewers score the atmosphere 63/100 and the pacing 55/100 in their films, across 3 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on Motif; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their Motif titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Rhys Thomas work with?
People who share at least 2 of Rhys Thomas' Motif titles, grouped by what they did on them; Beth McCarthy-Miller shares the most, 3.
Directors
- Beth McCarthy-MillerShared titles: The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins (2026), Adele Live in New York City (2015), An SNL Valentine (2015)See all 3 shared titles with Beth McCarthy-Miller
Writers
- John MulaneyShared titles: John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch (2019), John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid (2015)See all 2 shared titles with John Mulaney
Actors
- Bobby MoynihanShared titles: The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins (2026), Staten Island Summer (2015)See all 2 shared titles with Bobby Moynihan
Editors
- Adam EpsteinShared titles: John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch (2019), Staten Island Summer (2015)See all 2 shared titles with Adam Epstein
Producers
- Lorne MichaelsShared titles: Adele Live in New York City (2015), An SNL Valentine (2015), Staten Island Summer (2015)See all 3 shared titles with Lorne Michaels
- David MinerShared titles: John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch (2019), John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid (2015)See all 2 shared titles with David Miner
- Erik KenwardShared titles: Adele Live in New York City (2015), An SNL Valentine (2015)See all 2 shared titles with Erik Kenward
- Erin DoyleShared titles: An SNL Valentine (2015), Staten Island Summer (2015)See all 2 shared titles with Erin Doyle
Mixed roles
- John SolomonShared titles: An SNL Valentine (2015), Staten Island Summer (2015)See all 2 shared titles with John Solomon
