Matthew Har­ri­son (Co-​Founder, Teacher, Coach)

Matthew Har­ri­son is a coach and teacher in both Los Ange­les and Vancouver.He has forged careers and honed pro­fes­sion­als in their craft – on set and in class – for over twelve years, by giv­ing actors the machin­ery nec­es­sary for suc­cess: clear direc­tives, solid tools, and a fresh and pro­found act­ing tech­nique.Work­ing at act­ing schools and stu­dios since 1996, Matthew has devel­oped a dis­tinct and com­pre­hen­sive tech­nique and a pro­fes­sional phi­los­o­phythat has evolved into what is now known as the ACTOR’S FOUNDRY.Matthew’s empha­sis on self-​knowledge as the spring­board to ego-​less act­ing and its con­duit to clear story tellinghas earned him a loyal ros­ter of work­ing actors.

His reg­u­lar coach­ing ros­ter includes:

  • Cobie Smul­ders (How I Met Your Mother)
  • Patrick Gal­lagher (Sideways)
  • Christo­pher Shyer (The Practice)
  • Paul Camp­bell (Knight Rider)
  • Bran­don Jay Mclaren (Harper’s Island)
  • Leah Gib­son (Arc­tic Air)
  • Brett Dier (Mr. Young)
  • Daniel Cud­more (Twilight)
  • Tracy Spiri­dakos (Major­ity Rules)
  • Aliyah O’Brien (Men With Brooms)
  • Ben Wat­son (High­land Gardens)
  • Karen Hol­ness (Cash­ing In)
  • Brooke Nevin (I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer)
  • Colby Johann­son (Reaper)
  • Sage Brock­le­bank (Psych)
  • Leah Cairns (Bat­tlestar Gallactica)
  • Leela Savasta (Intelligence)
  • Erica Cerra (Eureka)
  • Kerry James (Heartland)
  • Jody Raci­cot (Flash Gordon)
  • Ryan Kennedy (Whistler)

and many more.

As an on set coach, he reg­u­larly works with high-​caliber actors such as Rufus Sewell, Kurt Rus­sell, Peter Krause, Maria Bello, and many more.

His empha­sis on ‘col­lab­o­ra­tion over con­flict’ and com­mu­nity over com­pet­i­tive­ness’ has built a foun­da­tion for those actors in the all-​encompassing pro­fes­sional facil­ity known as the Actor’s Foundry.

Matthew’s thoughts and opin­ions are found in his essays which have evolved from his pre-​class talks, dubbed “ser­mons” by his stu­dents. The essays have achieved fame and life across the web.

Matthew began a career in the arts as a writ­ing assis­tant to the award-​winning Amer­i­can play­wright Fred­er­ick Dou­glas Ward. Matthew’s arts edu­ca­tion con­tin­ued at New York’s pres­ti­gious Neigh­bor­hood Play­house The­ater School from 1991 to 1995. After the two year inten­sive train­ing, Matthew was hired by the National The­ater of the Per­form­ing Arts and toured the United States twice. Two years of work­ing with regional the­aters landed him in Seat­tle play­ing Ham­let at the Wash­ing­ton Shake­speare Fes­ti­val. He has con­tin­ued work­ing exten­sively as an actor in the­atre on stages across North America.

On screen, Matthew’s cred­its are extensive.

Film and tele­vi­sion cred­its include:

  • Thir­teen Ghosts
  • Romeo Must Die
  • The House Next Door
  • The Watch­men
  • Down­load­ing Nancy
  • Des­ti­na­tion Infestation
  • The Last Trimester
  • Vivid Dreams
  • Tor­nado Warning
  • Judi­cial Indiscretion

  • Chaos (Series Regular)
  • Psych
  • Endgame
  • Reaper
  • Smal­l­ville
  • Super­nat­ural
  • Tru Call­ing
  • Star­gate
  • Stargate:Atlantis
  • The 4400
  • Reunion
  • and a recur­ring char­ac­ter on the Cana­dian series Godiva’s

Matthew’s comedic and improv skills served him well as the Nean­derthal Man in Night At The Museum and Night At The Museum 2: Bat­tle For The Smith­son­ian with Ben Stiller and Robin Williams.

Pro­mot­ing what he calls “Pro­fes­sional Cre­ativ­ity”, Matthew is often involved in his clients self-​created projects as direc­tor, pro­ducer, spon­sor, and coach. In this capac­ity, he has directed sev­eral made for the Web episod­ics, short films, plays, stage pre­sen­ta­tions, and scene nights.

He has directed many suc­cess­ful the­atre pro­duc­tions in New York, Los Ange­les, and Vancouver.

Trackbacks

  1. […] a case for bi-​coast-​ality by Matthew Harrison […]

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