Matthew’s film debut came when he was cast as the lead in Bob Blunden’s short, Skinhead. After then focusing his energies on theatre and music, he returned to screen acting with another short, Maurice 13. When Matthew met director Neil McEnery-West he was cast as the lead in half-hour arthouse film Undertow and went on to win Best Actor at the New York International Independent Film Festival. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called Undertow ‘… gutsy and intriguing …’ and the film was featured in his Cannes review as one of the highlights of the Short Film Corner.
The success of Undertow led to Matthew’s first feature film role, in US production company The Triumvirate’s comedy-drama Starlight & Superfish, shot on location in Detroit. Matthew played glam rocker Rex Redding alongside Tim Brennen (Hancock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Desperate Housewives) and Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids, Reno 911) and his performance won him Best Actor at the Michigan Blue Water Film Festival. Starlight & Superfish is available on DVD via US distributor Vanguard Cinema.
Matthew’s UK feature film debut was as would-be hitman Mike in Carlo Ortu’s The Killers for Sugarspun Pictures. Bafta-winner Noel Clarke (Kidulthood, Adulthood) had this to say about the film:
‘… The Killers is fantastic … incredibly witty dialogue and incredible heart … you feel for the helpless wannabe assassins, getting an insight into their loneliness through each other … the writer-director’s perspective on what being alone can drive human beings to do is outclassed only by the performances he pulls from the cast …’.
Matthew’s television career began with commercials, appearing as French farmer Bobby in Chic Farming for Stella Artois, as the Office Hero in Waves for Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and as music producer Day V Lately in Yell’s Pulse & Thunder campaign. Matthew’s TV drama debut came when he was cast as cold-blooded killer George Barlow in Waterloo, the concluding episode of flagship BBC crime series Waking The Dead, alongside David Bradley (Harry Potter, Harry Brown) and Paul McGann (Withnail & I, The Monocled Mutineer). Telegraph reviewer Ed Cumming enthused that Waterloo was ‘… brilliant … with delicious twists … like a one-hour British Bourne film …’.
