In The Queen's Gambit, Russell Dennis Lewis and Matthew Dennis Lewis portray chess-playing identical twin brothers Mike and Matt, respectively. When Beth Harmon first meets Matt and Mike in 1963 at the Kentucky State Championship, the brothers antagonize her, telling her there’s no way she can win against Harry Beltik. Beth’s next run-in with the twins later that year in Cincinnati is significantly more amicable. Beth cheerfully greets Matt and Mike, who have both come to admire Beth. She sees the twins again at the Mexico City Invitational – Matt has quit playing in tournaments, but Mike is there to compete. Later, Beth asks the twins to save a seat for her mother, which they agree to do, showing how close they now are with Beth.
By the series finale, Matt and Mike have become good friends with Beth and join in on a phone call from Benny’s apartment in New York City to Moscow, where Beth is with Townes on the other end of the line. Matt and Mike (along with Benny Watts and Harry Beltik) help Beth strategize the rest of her match with Vasily Borgov, which will resume the next day. The heartwarming scene shows just how far Beth’s friendship has come with Matt and Mike, who went from being two of her first critics to two of her greatest supporters.
The extraordinarily likeable brothers in The Queen's Gambit are played by the charismatic acting duo of Matthew Dennis Lewis (who plays Matt) and Russell Dennis Lewis (who plays Mike). The twin brothers were born in Harpursville, New York, a small town near Binghamton in the Southern Tier. The brothers credit their tight-knit rural community with their success and are proud of their hometown. "All those people get to see someone they knew ... on Netflix," Matthew told WBNG, a Binghamton local news station, "It really makes their day, and that's what is really cool to see." Russell adds, "We had so many caring people around us... Success was never out of the question because we had such a great support system from the very beginning." Matthew and Russell have both spoken in multiple interviews about how they grew up playing in the woods of Harpursville with their other two brothers and that they would create characters and stories to entertain themselves.
Russell told VoyageLA that’s when his love of acting started – as a kid playing in the woods and telling stories. After graduating from high school, Russell moved to New York City and joined The American Music and Dramatic Academy. Matthew joined Russell in the city when Russell had called him up and asked if he would consider moving to New York City. Russell completed his training at the acting conservatory and lived in New York City for a total of six years before moving to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career.
In New York City, Matthew trained in Muay Thai and competed professionally, but began to miss acting. Luckily, his martial arts training helped him land jobs both in modeling and acting. Matthew also moved to Los Angeles and appeared in several music videos and commercials, including an MTV commercial for the 2013 VMAs that featured Katy Perry. Matthew starred in a 2017 short film, For God and Country, while Russell appeared on Teen Wolf and Major Crimes, but both Matthew and Russell consider their roles in Godless as their big acting break. Russell and Matthew both appeared in all seven episodes of the Netflix miniseries Godless as twin brothers, Daryl and Donnie Devlin.
Though the gritty Western Godless is a far cry from the cerebral and artistic '60s drama, Godless was written and directed by Scott Frank, who also wrote and directed The Queen’s Gambit. Recently, Matthew and Russell both appeared in an episode of Blue Bloods and the short film Sins Unveiled, which was written and produced by Matthew. More than likely, both Matthew and Russell will appear in more productions following their roles in Netflix’s most-watched scripted and original limited series. In the meantime, fans can follow Matthew and Russell’s upcoming projects and continue to enjoy their performances as Matt and Mike in The Queen’s Gambit.