Matthew’s Bio:
Matthew grew up in Alberta and was fortunate to come from a great family (his parents were Christians and his grandpa was a pastor). Growing up he was the guy you loved to hate, very motivated: athletic, straight A student, class president. He was able to channel much of that motivation after high school and use it to study acting. This was a natural choice since his father was an actor for a time and theatre administrator, so technically, he was just going into the family business. It was during this season that he started learning film editing, and in fact he enjoyed it so much that he had dreams of one day starting his own production company. Matthew kick started his film career by acting in cartoons. At first small parts, but he was motivated and soon was getting lead roles as a voice actor.
After getting married and having dreams of starting a family, Matthew enrolled in civil engineering at the University of British Columbia as a “back up plan”. All along he was hoping that at any time, God would land him a giant acting role, and he would be able to drop out of school. Well it didn’t happen. Fast forward a couple of years, and his life story took a turn for the worst. After finding out his wife was leaving him, Matthew dropped out of school and began living on his friends couch. In this moment of desperation God started talking to him in ways that were far clearer than at any other time in his life. God’s grace provided. He started by making money cutting grass, and then used his film editing background to work as a “logger” for a Mixed Martial Arts TV show. Finally he worked up the courage to go back to school to finish his degree in civil engineering. He also poured himself into something that he had learned back in Art College: Fencing. Because he was a single guy with a lot of extra energy, he excelled at competition playing for the UBC fencing team.
Now graduated from University, Matthew works full-time for an Engineering Co-operative in Vancouver. What about the Fencing? Well, in 2010 Matthew got remarried, to Mona, a woman he met while competing on the fencing team in UBC.
- Listen to Matthew’s talk at Business by the Book: Play Audio