Biography
As a kid, Matthew didn't really aspire to be an actor: he would have much rather been an archeologist or a baseball player. But it is no surprise to those close to him that the field of acting eventually came calling as he was always using his imagination; whether it be playing superheros with his friends or faking an injury to get his older brother into trouble. Perhaps he was destined for the stage and screen after all!
Matthew started showing interest in the arts in high school. Although he was always creative, in both writing and fine arts, he only took one drama class which was in grade 11. He did, however, make the best of it by exploring all aspects of the craft. It was during this class that he not only fell in love with acting, but also tried his hand at producing, directing and stage managing. He directed and produced the class' final production, a gripping Holocaust story which he also wrote and had several supporting roles in. The real highlight for him that year was during the school's summer variety show. The theme was summer sports and as it reads above, Matthew was a serious baseball player for some time. With his good reputation in the school he actually managed to get permission to stage a scene from the classic baseball movie "Bull Durham," the scene where Kevin Costner's character gets ejected from the game. Matthew got a standing ovation as he uttered the infamous word that combines a rooster and something to do with suction. It was classic theatre for sure and the combination of all his efforts that year garnered him with the Drama award and the highest mark in the class: 97%.
From there Matthew went onto college, Georgian College in Barrie to be exact, where he got an Honours Diploma in Advertising and Marketing. This experience would lend itself greatly to his later work in television commercials as he could relate to both the talent side and the client/agency side of the process. Following school he went to work first at a few big agencies in Toronto, then in smaller boutique creative houses and finally winding up as the entire marketing department for several companies. He enjoyed the work, but found the superficial nature of the industry taxing at times. When taking on the role of an entire department for smaller companies he found his creativity greatly under appreciated, often having to scale back his well thought out plans to the simplest and cheapest renditions possible.
It was during this time his mother gave him a clipping from the newspaper about a technical institute in Toronto that taught radio and television broadcasting. Matt went down for orientation and signed up a few days later for classes. Although he really enjoyed using his voice, he soon learned that most television networks were looking for pretty girls to read the news, and he sadly did not qualify. However, it was during one of his earliest sessions, during a 'get comfortable in front of the camera' class that he had an epiphany! He was asked to simply select a tongue twister from a list and read it out loud in front of the camera. Then the instructor would give direction as to what to do with it. Matt chose the tongue twister "grey geese grazing grain" because no one else had picked it and it seemed to roll off his tongue well. He was asked to just recite it first then the teacher, a tall, fetching blonde with an exotic name, asked him to do it like Frankenstein's Monster, followed by a little boy and finally like a cheerleader. Well, by the time he was done flopping around like a cheerleader the entire room was engulfed with laughter. And that was it. Matt had found his calling: he loved making people laugh.
So the next logical step was to take classes at the world famous Second City in Toronto, which he did, getting up to level D or something like that, it's all a blur it happened so fast. And before he knew it he was looking for an agent, which he found, and was skipping along waiting for his chance to work in the illustrious acting industry.
He waited... and waited.
He took some more courses: Sears & Switzer, Rapier Wit just to name a few...
Eventually he did get a few auditions, even booked a toy commercial, but it wasn't long before he realized two things:
A) The industry was very fickle and you could wait forever in between jobs.
B) He needed a better agent.
To solve problem A he explored his love of improv and eventually started a group up in his neck of the words, in York Region. This little idea grew and blossomed into something much bigger than he expected and helped him stay sane while pursing his own acting career. The Canadian Improv Showcase was created in 1996 as a way for actors to hone their craft while they waited for their next gig. No squabbling over the writing, it was all about the actor utilizing the simple 'short-form' improv format. The troupe started performing in 1997 and took off like a rocket! Now, almost 15 years later, the group boasts the best comedic talent Toronto has to offer: 16 of the finest comedians Matt has ever encountered. The Canadian Improv Showcase offers a bevy of programmes including school workshops, corporate sessions, golf entertainment and even a rehabilitation programme exploring the Healing Power of Laughter. To date they have been in over 600 showcases worldwide and have visited more than 300 schools across Ontario. Check them out if you're ever in need of quality entertainment.
Problem B was not solved so easily as Matthew was still establishing himself. He actually went through a few agents, all a waste of time to be honest, before finding the perfect fit. It was with Talent House that Matt got his first real break, a quiet, stylish man by the name of Colin McMurray grilled him during his interview and probably wouldn't have given him a shot if it wasn't for the fact that Matt was now part of a three actor-package deal with his two step-kids as he recently got married and had an instant family (just add water). But nonetheless Matthew finally had a real agent and things took off for him. You can see samples of his work following this breakthrough by visiting the video page of the site and you can learn about the ones he couldn't get copies of by viewing his resume, also featured here.
Nowadays, Matthew is still with the same agent, but Colin is on his own now at his own agency. To learn more, not that we missed much, feel free to contact Matthew or Colin, through the Contact link of this site.
Oh, we almost forgot!
To make sure Matt has absolutely no free time at all, he also started a medieval education group called The Knights in the Classroom. Now whenever he's not busy acting or touring with his improv troupe, he can be found at schools showing off his medieval martial arts skills, providing kids with a hands-on experience of the middle ages. This project has gotten off to such a great start he is now in the planning stages of starting his own medieval martial arts training group, called The Knights of York.
As the world famous author and lecturer, Dale Carnegie once said: "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."
Matthew started showing interest in the arts in high school. Although he was always creative, in both writing and fine arts, he only took one drama class which was in grade 11. He did, however, make the best of it by exploring all aspects of the craft. It was during this class that he not only fell in love with acting, but also tried his hand at producing, directing and stage managing. He directed and produced the class' final production, a gripping Holocaust story which he also wrote and had several supporting roles in. The real highlight for him that year was during the school's summer variety show. The theme was summer sports and as it reads above, Matthew was a serious baseball player for some time. With his good reputation in the school he actually managed to get permission to stage a scene from the classic baseball movie "Bull Durham," the scene where Kevin Costner's character gets ejected from the game. Matthew got a standing ovation as he uttered the infamous word that combines a rooster and something to do with suction. It was classic theatre for sure and the combination of all his efforts that year garnered him with the Drama award and the highest mark in the class: 97%.
From there Matthew went onto college, Georgian College in Barrie to be exact, where he got an Honours Diploma in Advertising and Marketing. This experience would lend itself greatly to his later work in television commercials as he could relate to both the talent side and the client/agency side of the process. Following school he went to work first at a few big agencies in Toronto, then in smaller boutique creative houses and finally winding up as the entire marketing department for several companies. He enjoyed the work, but found the superficial nature of the industry taxing at times. When taking on the role of an entire department for smaller companies he found his creativity greatly under appreciated, often having to scale back his well thought out plans to the simplest and cheapest renditions possible.
It was during this time his mother gave him a clipping from the newspaper about a technical institute in Toronto that taught radio and television broadcasting. Matt went down for orientation and signed up a few days later for classes. Although he really enjoyed using his voice, he soon learned that most television networks were looking for pretty girls to read the news, and he sadly did not qualify. However, it was during one of his earliest sessions, during a 'get comfortable in front of the camera' class that he had an epiphany! He was asked to simply select a tongue twister from a list and read it out loud in front of the camera. Then the instructor would give direction as to what to do with it. Matt chose the tongue twister "grey geese grazing grain" because no one else had picked it and it seemed to roll off his tongue well. He was asked to just recite it first then the teacher, a tall, fetching blonde with an exotic name, asked him to do it like Frankenstein's Monster, followed by a little boy and finally like a cheerleader. Well, by the time he was done flopping around like a cheerleader the entire room was engulfed with laughter. And that was it. Matt had found his calling: he loved making people laugh.
So the next logical step was to take classes at the world famous Second City in Toronto, which he did, getting up to level D or something like that, it's all a blur it happened so fast. And before he knew it he was looking for an agent, which he found, and was skipping along waiting for his chance to work in the illustrious acting industry.
He waited... and waited.
He took some more courses: Sears & Switzer, Rapier Wit just to name a few...
Eventually he did get a few auditions, even booked a toy commercial, but it wasn't long before he realized two things:
A) The industry was very fickle and you could wait forever in between jobs.
B) He needed a better agent.
To solve problem A he explored his love of improv and eventually started a group up in his neck of the words, in York Region. This little idea grew and blossomed into something much bigger than he expected and helped him stay sane while pursing his own acting career. The Canadian Improv Showcase was created in 1996 as a way for actors to hone their craft while they waited for their next gig. No squabbling over the writing, it was all about the actor utilizing the simple 'short-form' improv format. The troupe started performing in 1997 and took off like a rocket! Now, almost 15 years later, the group boasts the best comedic talent Toronto has to offer: 16 of the finest comedians Matt has ever encountered. The Canadian Improv Showcase offers a bevy of programmes including school workshops, corporate sessions, golf entertainment and even a rehabilitation programme exploring the Healing Power of Laughter. To date they have been in over 600 showcases worldwide and have visited more than 300 schools across Ontario. Check them out if you're ever in need of quality entertainment.
Problem B was not solved so easily as Matthew was still establishing himself. He actually went through a few agents, all a waste of time to be honest, before finding the perfect fit. It was with Talent House that Matt got his first real break, a quiet, stylish man by the name of Colin McMurray grilled him during his interview and probably wouldn't have given him a shot if it wasn't for the fact that Matt was now part of a three actor-package deal with his two step-kids as he recently got married and had an instant family (just add water). But nonetheless Matthew finally had a real agent and things took off for him. You can see samples of his work following this breakthrough by visiting the video page of the site and you can learn about the ones he couldn't get copies of by viewing his resume, also featured here.
Nowadays, Matthew is still with the same agent, but Colin is on his own now at his own agency. To learn more, not that we missed much, feel free to contact Matthew or Colin, through the Contact link of this site.
Oh, we almost forgot!
To make sure Matt has absolutely no free time at all, he also started a medieval education group called The Knights in the Classroom. Now whenever he's not busy acting or touring with his improv troupe, he can be found at schools showing off his medieval martial arts skills, providing kids with a hands-on experience of the middle ages. This project has gotten off to such a great start he is now in the planning stages of starting his own medieval martial arts training group, called The Knights of York.
As the world famous author and lecturer, Dale Carnegie once said: "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."
