Matt Walton
Encyclopedia
Matthew R. Walton is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

, screen
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

.

Early life

Walton was born and raised in rural New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. His father was a lawyer and film enthusiast. He became involved in stage-acting at the age of five, wrote his first comic-book series, The Further Adventures of Boba Fett, in the second grade, and made his first movie, The Twelve Labors of Hercules, in the ninth grade. Walton received scholarships to teen performing arts academies and the Boston Conservatory
Boston Conservatory
The Boston Conservatory is a performing arts conservatory located in the Fenway-Kenmore region of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in music, dance and musical theater...

. At the age of 19, he landed his first professional job in a national tour of Lend Me a Tenor
Lend Me a Tenor
Lend Me a Tenor is a comedy by Ken Ludwig. The play was produced on both the West End and Broadway . Although it received seven Tony Award nominations, it won only one, for Best Actor. A Broadway revival opened in 2010. Lend Me a Tenor has been translated into sixteen languages and produced in...

 and went on to graduate Cum Laude
Latin honors
Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. This system is primarily used in the United States, Canada, and in many countries of continental Europe, though some institutions also use the English translation of these...

 with a BFA
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...

 in Theater.

Stage

Walton returned to New York City and began studying with Wynn Handman
Wynn Handman
Wynn Handman, is the Artistic Director of The American Place Theatre, which he co-founded with Sidney Lanier and Michael Tolan in 1963. His role in the theatre has been to seek out, encourage, train, and present new and exciting writing and acting talent and to develop and produce new plays by...

, Tony Spiridakis
Tony Spiridakis
Tony Spiridakis is an American film director, writer, actor, producer and playwright best known for such films as Queens Logic, Tinseltown, The Last Word, If Lucy Fell and Ash Tuesday.-External links:...

, Stephan Jobes and acting coaches Anthony Abeson, Seth Barrish and Bob Krakower. Walton concurrently did improv with the Upright Citizens Brigade
Upright Citizens Brigade
The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The most recent incarnation consists of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh...

. He made his New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 debut Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 starring as Berger in the 30th Anniversary Production of Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...

 in 1997, and later reprised the role in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 and at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, New York
Sag Harbor, New York
Sag Harbor is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, with parts in both the Towns of East Hampton and Southampton. The population was 2,313 at the 2000 census....

. His performance in Hair led to roles in Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 premiers including The Tailor Made Man, The Sweepers, We're All Dead, Rush's Dream, Gorilla Man, and The Framer. He played leads in New York and regional revivals of Beirut, Grease
Grease (musical)
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...

, Violet
Violet (musical)
Violet is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori and libretto by Brian Crawley based on the short story "The Ugliest Pilgrim" by Doris Betts. It tells the story of a young disfigured woman who embarks on a journey by bus from her farm in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, all the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma...

, Boy's Life, A Few Good Men, Proposals
Proposals (play)
Proposals is a play by Neil Simon. Incidental music was written by Stephen Flaherty.A nostalgic memory play, Proposals recalls one idyllic afternoon in the summer of 1953, the last time the Hines clan gathers at its retreat in the Poconos. Clemma, the family's housekeeper , dreads a visit from the...

, Italian American Reconciliation
Italian American Reconciliation
Italian American Reconciliation is a play by John Patrick Shanley. It was first performed at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut in 1986...

, and Human Error.

Television and film

Walton's first television roles were on the soaps
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...

, As the World Turns
As the World Turns
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...

, and All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...

. Walton also played guest roles on Rescue Me
Rescue Me (TV series)
Rescue Me is an American television drama series that premiered on the FX Network on July 21, 2004, and concluded on September 7, 2011. The series focuses on the professional and personal lives of a group of New York City firefighters in the fictitious Ladder 62 / Engine 99 firehouse.The show...

, Royal Pains
Royal Pains
Royal Pains is a USA Network television series that premiered on June 4, 2009, starring Mark Feuerstein, Paulo Costanzo, Jill Flint and Reshma Shetty. The series is based in part on actual concierge medicine practices of independent doctors and companies...

, Cashmere Mafia
Cashmere Mafia
Cashmere Mafia is an American television dramedy which ran on ABC from January 6, 2008 to February 20, 2008. The series was created by Kevin Wade, who also served as executive producer alongside Darren Star, Gail Katz, Jeff Rake and Michael Pressman, with Susie Fitzgerald co-executive producing....

, The Bronx is Burning
The Bronx Is Burning
The Bronx Is Burning is a television drama that debuted on ESPN on July 9, 2007, after the 2007 MLB Home Run Derby. It is an eight-episode mini-series adapted from Jonathan Mahler's best-selling book, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning...

, and several episodes of Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...

.

Walton has appeared in over two-dozen films including Coen brothers
Coen Brothers
Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...

 film Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading is a 2008 black comedy film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Brad Pitt. It was released in the United States on September 12, 2008, and it was released on October 17, 2008...

 and independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...

s Gigantic
Gigantic (film)
Gigantic is a 2008 independent comedy film directed by Matt Aselton and starring Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman, Edward Asner and Jane Alexander...

, 200 American and Armless. Walton owns production company Autumn Sky, which has co-produced a film, Montclair, and has several new film and TV projects in development.

In 2009, Walton played Elijah Clarke on One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...

 for 18 months. Matt can currently be seen as sportscaster Alex Reiser on the Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

 show Onion SportsDome
Onion SportsDome
Onion SportsDome is a parody sports television show from the makers of The Onion. The show premiered on Tuesday, January 11, 2011, at 10:30 p.m. EST on Comedy Central in the United States. It is seen in Canada on The Comedy Network....

, which premiered in January 2011.

Commercial and voice acting

Walton has acted in a number of ad campaigns, notably for Advil
Advil
Advil is a brand of ibuprofen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug . Advil is manufactured by Pfizer and has been on the market since 1984.-History:...

 Cold and Sinus, Rooms to Go
Rooms To Go
Rooms To Go Incorporated is a chain of furniture stores based in the South Eastern United States and Puerto Rico. In September 2005, Cindy Crawford launched the "Cindy Crawford Home" furniture line exclusively with Rooms To Go....

, Lowe's
Lowe's
Lowe's Companies, Inc. is a U.S.-based chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores. Founded in 1946 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, the chain now serves more than 14 million customers a week in its 1,710 stores in the United States and 20 in Canada. Expansion into Canada began in...

, Barclay's, Speed Stick
Speed Stick
Speed Stick is a brand of deodorant/antiperspirant that, as the name suggests, comes in stick form. The product is owned by its parent company, Colgate-Palmolive. It was formerly known as "Mennen Speed Stick" prior to Colgate-Palmolive's purchase of The Mennen Company. Currently, the products...

, Cablevision, and Old Navy
Old Navy
Old Navy is an American clothing brand as well as a chain of stores owned by Gap, Inc., with corporate operations in San Francisco and San Bruno, California. It is one of the first major corporations to house headquarters in the new Mission Bay district of San Francisco.Gap, Inc. was run by...

. Walton has also worked as a voice-over artist in over 100 TV and radio commercials, promos and narrations for The Biography Channel
The Biography Channel
The Biography Channel is an American digital cable television channel owned by A&E and based on the television series of the same name. A version of the channel also airs on ONO and Telefónica in Spain and on Sky Digital and cable television in the United Kingdom, a version of the channel also...

, A&E Network
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...

, Bravo, the Travel Channel
Travel Channel
The Travel Channel is a satellite and cable television channel that is headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, US. It features documentaries and how-to shows related to travel and leisure around the United States and throughout the world. Programming has included shows in African animal safaris,...

, Independent Film Channel
Independent Film Channel
The Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...

, and Oxygen
Oxygen (TV channel)
Oxygen is an American cable television specialty channel with television programming marketed towards women, with a format similar to Lifetime.- History :...

. He has also done the narration for a number of audiobooks, including Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...

, Sinbad
Sinbad
Sinbad or Sindbad may refer to:* Sinbad the Sailor, from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, also known as Arabian Nights* Sinbad the Sailor, an alias of Edmond Dantes in the novel The Count of Monte Cristo...

, and Second Chance
Second Chance (novel)
Second Chance is a 2004 novel, authored by Danielle Steel and published by Random House in June, 2004. The book is Steel's sixty-third novel.-Synopsis:...

. Walton is currently the voice of Castrol
Castrol
Castrol is a brand of industrial and automotive lubricants which is applied to a large range of oils, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications...

 motor oil
Motor oil
Motor oil or engine oil is an oil used for lubrication of various internal combustion engines. The main function is to lubricate moving parts; it also cleans, inhibits corrosion, improves sealing, and cools the engine by carrying heat away from moving parts.Motor oils are derived from...

.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
2002 Asheron's Call 2
Asheron's Call 2
Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings was a fantasy MMORPG for Microsoft Windows-based PCs that was released on November 22, 2002 and shut down on December 30, 2005...

(voice) Video game
2003 200 American Conrad
2003 Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is a third-person shooter video game developed by Remedy Entertainment for Microsoft Windows and Rockstar Vienna for the Xbox & PlayStation 2 and published by Rockstar Games. The game is a direct sequel to Max Payne and is followed by Max Payne 3...

Policeman/Cleaner/Commando (voice) Video game
2003 Manhunt
Manhunt (video game)
Manhunt is a stealth game developed by Rockstar Games. It was released to the public on November 18, 2003 for the PlayStation 2 console, and on April 20, 2004 for Xbox and PC. Although it was generally well-received by critics, Manhunt created a controversy due to the graphic violence the player...

Swat 2 Video game
2005 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...

Jack 1 episode: 'Starved'
2006 Flannel Pajamas
Flannel Pajamas (film)
Flannel Pajamas is a 2006 film directed by Jeff Lipsky, starring Julianne Nicholson and Justin Kirk. It charts the course of a short-lived marriage, from its passionate beginning through the daily erosion of feeling and romance to separation...

Dr. Butler Uncredited
2006 All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...

Terry 'T' McDermott 6 episodes
2007 Montclair Matt
2007 The Bronx Is Burning
The Bronx Is Burning
The Bronx Is Burning is a television drama that debuted on ESPN on July 9, 2007, after the 2007 MLB Home Run Derby. It is an eight-episode mini-series adapted from Jonathan Mahler's best-selling book, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning...

Jim McMullen 2 episodes
2007 Holier than Thou Miles Short
2007 The Agency Mark Marley TV movie
2007-2010 One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...

Elijah Clark/Elijah Kent 138 episodes
2008 Cashmere Mafia
Cashmere Mafia
Cashmere Mafia is an American television dramedy which ran on ABC from January 6, 2008 to February 20, 2008. The series was created by Kevin Wade, who also served as executive producer alongside Darren Star, Gail Katz, Jeff Rake and Michael Pressman, with Susie Fitzgerald co-executive producing....

Mike 1 episode: 'Conference Call'
2008 Death in Love
Death in Love
Death in Love is a psychosexual-thriller about a love affair between a Jewish woman and a doctor overseeing human experimentation at a Nazi German concentration camp, and the impact this has on her sons' lives in the 1990s. The film debuted in 2008. It was written and directed by Boaz Yakin.The...

Young Father
2008 Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...

Det. Peary 1 episode: 'Please Note We Are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger'
2008 Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...

Dalton Reid 2 episodes
2008 Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading is a 2008 black comedy film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Brad Pitt. It was released in the United States on September 12, 2008, and it was released on October 17, 2008...

Morning Show Host
2008 We Pedal Uphill Anthony
2008 Gigantic
Gigantic (film)
Gigantic is a 2008 independent comedy film directed by Matt Aselton and starring Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman, Edward Asner and Jane Alexander...

Conner Williams
2008 Moonlight and Mistletoe
Moonlight and Mistletoe
Moonlight and Mistletoe is a 2008 Christmas-themed television film directed by Karen Arthur.- Plot :Holly Crosby is the daughter of Nick Crosby, the owner of Santaville, an amusement park focusing on Christmas, open 365 days a year...

Ben Richards TV movie
2008 Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

Trooper Thomas Volchek 1 episode: 'Knock Off'
2008 Favorite Son Robert Mason
2009 True North Green Short
2009 Loving Leah
Loving Leah
Loving Leah is a television movie that aired on CBS as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie on January 25, 2009. The film is directed by Jeff Bleckner and stars Adam Kaufman as an unobservant Jewish bachelor who feels compelled to marry his observant rabbi brother's widow, Leah to honor him via the...

Carter
2009 Rescue Me
Rescue Me (TV series)
Rescue Me is an American television drama series that premiered on the FX Network on July 21, 2004, and concluded on September 7, 2011. The series focuses on the professional and personal lives of a group of New York City firefighters in the fictitious Ladder 62 / Engine 99 firehouse.The show...

Harris 1 episode: 'Perspective'
2009 Sherri
Sherri
Sherri is a given name, and may refer to:* Sherri Baier, former Canadian pairs figure skater* Sherri Coale , current women's basketball coach for the University of Oklahoma Sooners...

Stu
2010 Armless Dr. Richard Phillips
2010 Royal Pains
Royal Pains
Royal Pains is a USA Network television series that premiered on June 4, 2009, starring Mark Feuerstein, Paulo Costanzo, Jill Flint and Reshma Shetty. The series is based in part on actual concierge medicine practices of independent doctors and companies...

Dennis 'DB' Brown 1 episode: 'Mano a Mano'
2010 Sim City Mayor Mayor CollegeHumor
CollegeHumor
CollegeHumor is a comedy website owned by InterActiveCorp and based in New York City. The site features daily original comedy videos and articles created by its in-house writing and production team, in addition to user-submitted videos, pictures, articles and links. In early 2009, CollegeHumor's...

 short
2011 Onion SportsDome
Onion SportsDome
Onion SportsDome is a parody sports television show from the makers of The Onion. The show premiered on Tuesday, January 11, 2011, at 10:30 p.m. EST on Comedy Central in the United States. It is seen in Canada on The Comedy Network....

Alex Reiser Series regular
2011 The Fall of Dyna-Woman Dr. Robert Miller Short
2011 We Are the 1% Dr. Robert Miller CollegeHumor
CollegeHumor
CollegeHumor is a comedy website owned by InterActiveCorp and based in New York City. The site features daily original comedy videos and articles created by its in-house writing and production team, in addition to user-submitted videos, pictures, articles and links. In early 2009, CollegeHumor's...

short

External links

  • Official Fan Site: http://www.facebook.com/MattyFnWalton
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