---
name: "Charles Melton"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/charles-melton"
fi1m_id: "charles-melton"
imdb_id: "nm6217576"
tmdb_id: 1907002
wikidata_id: "Q41796239"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "4 January 1991"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 5
average_fi1m_score: 65
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 5
updated: "2026-10-13T21:37:11.504284+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Charles Melton

## Identity

Charles Melton

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/charles-melton
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** charles-melton
- **IMDb ID:** nm6217576
- **TMDB ID:** 1907002
- **Wikidata ID:** Q41796239
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Melton, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q41796239, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6217576/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1907002

Actor. Born 4 January 1991 in Juneau, Alaska, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 4 January 1991, Juneau, Alaska, USA
- **Active:** 2020–present
- **Also known as:** Charles Michael Melton
- **Average Fi1m score:** 65, as actor, over 5 titles
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 67 to 66 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 2 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 1 of 3 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Action 2, Thriller 2, Animation 1, Comedy 1, Crime 1, Drama 1
- **Screen time:** 7 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $466m across 4 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Melton, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q41796239, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6217576/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1907002

## Coming up

- *Untitled Daniels Event Film* (2027-11-18)

## Streaming the US now

- **Netflix:** [*May December*](https://film.one/film/may-december.md) (84)
- **Hulu:** [*Bad Boys for Life*](https://film.one/film/bad-boys-for-life.md) (68)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Charles Melton

> Charles Melton does less than anyone else in the frame and makes it look like a decision. In *May December* that stillness is the best thing on screen; in *Her Private Hell* it is the only thing that survives the pace.

Joe Yoo sits at his own dinner table with his shoulders in while his wife tells a stranger what a fine father he is. He raises monarch caterpillars in mesh boxes and talks about them the way other men talk about their children, and he texts someone late at night and will not say who. Charles Melton plays him in *May December* (2023) almost entirely without raising his voice, a big man moving through his house as if nobody has told him he lives there. It is the best thing in a film that also has Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman in it, which is saying something.

Nothing before it suggested he had this in him, though that is partly because nobody asked. He came to acting from modelling, did guest turns on *Glee* and *American Horror Story: Hotel*, and then spent six years as Reggie Mantle on *Riverdale*, from 2017 to 2023, a part that mostly required him to be athletic and to take his shirt off on cue. *The Sun Is Also a Star* (2019) gave him a romantic lead of the same kind. He has said, without apparent irony, "Riverdale truly was my Juilliard — I was learning and growing and playing and taking risks. I was allowed to do that." We would not have guessed it from the outside.

Then Todd Haynes cast him, and he put on a good deal of weight to play a suburban father, and the shirtless boy vanished. We did not expect to be moved by *May December*, a sly, chilly, funny film about an actress researching a scandal, and Melton did it: watching Joe listen to his own life described to him by other people, we wanted to look away. He has since taken supporting parts in the second season of *BEEF* (2023) and in Alex Garland's *Warfare* (2025), neither of which we have reviewed.

*Her Private Hell* (2026) shows both what the method can do and where it runs out. As Private K for Nicolas Winding Refn, Melton holds a face still for minutes at a time and lets us read into it, and he is the only actor in the film who makes the slowness look like a choice rather than an instruction. But Refn gives him nothing to be still about, and a held face with nothing behind it is a photograph. The film runs a hundred and ten minutes and we could not stay with it.

So far he has been very good for one director who understood what he was for and merely dignified for another who did not. He has proved he can hold still on command. We would like to see what happens when someone asks him to move.

## Biography

Charles Michael Melton is an American actor. Born on 4 January 1991 in Juneau, Alaska, he attended Kansas State University before dropping out to pursue acting in Los Angeles. He began his career as a fashion model and made early television appearances in guest roles on *Glee* (2014) and *American Horror Story: Hotel* (2015–2016).

Melton gained prominence playing Reggie Mantle in the series *Riverdale* (2017–2023). He starred in the film *The Sun Is Also a Star* (2019) and appeared in *Bad Boys for Life* (2020). His performance as Joe Yoo in the 2023 film *May December* earned nominations for a Critics' Choice Movie Award and a Golden Globe Award.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (5)

- *Her Private Hell* (2026), Fi1m 41, as Private K — [page](https://film.one/film/her-private-hell.md)
- *Kevin* (2026), Fi1m 56, as Charles Melton (voice) — [page](https://film.one/tv/kevin.md)
- *Warfare* (2025), Fi1m 76, as Jake — [page](https://film.one/film/warfare.md)
- *May December* (2023), Fi1m 84, as Joe Yoo — [page](https://film.one/film/may-december.md)
- *Bad Boys for Life* (2020), Fi1m 68, as Rafe — [page](https://film.one/film/bad-boys-for-life.md)

## Complete filmography (28)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Untitled Daniels Event Film* (2027), Actor
- *Untitled Woman* (2026), as Art Teacher
- *Her Private Hell* (2026), as Private K — Fi1m 41, [page](https://film.one/film/her-private-hell.md)
- *Kevin* (2026), series, as Charles Melton (voice) — Fi1m 56, [page](https://film.one/tv/kevin.md)
- *Warfare* (2025), as Jake — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/warfare.md)
- *Love Hangover* (2025), Actor
- *May December* (2023), as Joe Yoo — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/may-december.md)
- *BEEF* (2023), series, as Austin Davis · Executive Producer
- *History of the World: Part II* (2023), series, as Josh
- *Poker Face* (2023), series, as Davis McDowell — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/poker-face.md)
- *Secret Headquarters* (2022), as Hawaii
- *Wake* (2022), as Hank
- *Heart of Champions* (2021), as Chris
- *Fracture* (2021), series, as Noa
- *American Horror Stories* (2021), series, as Wyatt
- *Mainstream* (2021), as Charles Melton
- *Bad Boys for Life* (2020), as Rafe — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/film/bad-boys-for-life.md)
- *The Sun Is Also a Star* (2019), as Daniel Jae Ho Bae
- *The Thinning: New World Order* (2018), as Cage
- *Riverdale* (2017), series, as Reggie Mantle
- *Faces Without Eyes* (2015), as Doc
- *American Horror Story* (2011), series, as Mr. Wu
- *Glee* (2009), series, as Model, Gavin — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/tv/glee.md)
- *K-Pop: Lost in America*, Actor
- *My Darling California*, as Kent
- *Love Child*, as Easy
- *Audition*, Actor
- *Saturn Return*, Actor

## Gallery

- ![Charles Melton](https://film.one/media/person/15456/gallery-17fa784d8732.jpg) Charles Melton — DPNews, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Charles_melton_2024_3.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Charles Melton poses during the "Her Private Hell" photocall at the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2026](https://film.one/media/person/15456/gallery-abac946beae4.jpg) Charles Melton poses during the "Her Private Hell" photocall at the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2026 — Gabriel Hutchinson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Charles_Melton_at_the_2026_Cannes_Film_Festival.jpg/1280px-Charles_Melton_at_the_2026_Cannes_Film_Festival.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Charles Melton poses during the "Her Private Hell" photocall at the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2026](https://film.one/media/person/15456/gallery-03b25bf55dae.jpg) Charles Melton poses during the "Her Private Hell" photocall at the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2026 — Gabriel Hutchinson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Charles_Melton_at_the_2026_Cannes_Film_Festival_02.jpg/1280px-Charles_Melton_at_the_2026_Cannes_Film_Festival_02.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Charles Melton poses during the "Her Private Hell" photocall at the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2026](https://film.one/media/person/15456/gallery-508e1f6f3343.jpg) Charles Melton poses during the "Her Private Hell" photocall at the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2026 — Gabriel Hutchinson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Charles_Melton_at_the_2026_Cannes_Film_Festival_02_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-Charles_Melton_at_the_2026_Cannes_Film_Festival_02_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Charles Melton](https://film.one/media/person/15456/gallery-217a99ca9fde.jpg) Charles Melton — Image via TMDB
- ![Charles Melton](https://film.one/media/person/15456/gallery-157ca4f8c074.jpg) Charles Melton — Image via TMDB
- ![Charles Melton poses during the "Her Private Hell" photocall at the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2026](https://film.one/media/person/15456/gallery-062d6b9b5fcf.jpg) Charles Melton poses during the "Her Private Hell" photocall at the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2026 — Gabriel Hutchinson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Charles_Melton_at_the_2026_Cannes_Film_Festival_03.jpg/1280px-Charles_Melton_at_the_2026_Cannes_Film_Festival_03.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Charles Melton attends the Red Carpet prior to the British Independent Fil Awards held at the Round House London , 2025](https://film.one/media/person/15456/gallery-8bf2257cdb24.jpg) Charles Melton attends the Red Carpet prior to the British Independent Fil Awards held at the Round House London , 2025 — Daltoncitys, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Charles_Melton_attends_the_Red_Carpet_prior_to_the_British_Independent_Fil_Awards_held_at_the_Round_House_London_%2C_2025.jpg/1280px-Charles_Melton_attends_the_Red_Carpet_prior_to_the_British_Independent_Fil_Awards_held_at_the_Round_House_London_%2C_2025.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/charles-melton