Matt Day
Encyclopedia
Matthew "Matt" Day is an Australian actor best known for his film and television roles.

Early life and career

Matt Day was born in Melbourne in 1971. When he was 11 years old he went to live in the United States with his father, who was a newspaper correspondent, and it was there that he became interested in acting.

On his return to Australia, he attended Princes Hill Secondary College
Princes Hill Secondary College
Princes Hill Secondary College is a state, coeducational Secondary school located in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton North, Australia.Prior to 1959, when it was elevated to High School status, PHSC was known as Princes Hill Public School and Princes Hill State School.The school has been in...

 and joined the youth theatre as St Martins in South Yarra. He was spotted by an agent and at the age of 17, left his home in Carlton
Carlton, Victoria
Carlton is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Melbourne...

 in Melbourne to go to Sydney for the role in the television series A Country Practice
A Country Practice
A Country Practice is an Australian television drama series. One of the longest-running of its kind, produced by James Davern of JNP Productions, it ran on the Seven Network for 1,058 episodes from 18 November 1981 to 22 November 1993. It was produced in ATN-7's production facility at Epping,...

that was to be his big break.

He joined the cast of A Country Practice in 1989, as Luke Ross, a role he played until 1991. Further TV roles included Water Rats
Water Rats (TV series)
Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001. The series was based around the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who fight crime across Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney...

, Farscape
Farscape
Farscape is an Australian-American science fiction television series filmed in Australia and produced originally for the Nine Network. The series was conceived by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainment...

, and Spooks
Spooks
Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...

.

He also appeared in the hit film Muriel's Wedding
Muriel's Wedding
Muriel's Wedding is a 1994 Australian-French romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by P. J. Hogan. The film, which stars actresses Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Sophie Lee, and Bill Hunter, focuses on the socially awkward Muriel whose ambition is to have a glamorous wedding and improve...

. Other film roles include Love and Other Catastrophes
Love and Other Catastrophes
Love and Other Catastrophes is a quirky 1996 Australian romantic comedy film featuring Frances O'Connor, Radha Mitchell, Alice Garner, Matthew Dyktynski, Matt Day and Kym Gyngell...

, Doing Time for Patsy Cline
Doing Time for Patsy Cline
Doing Time for Patsy Cline is a 1997 Australian multi-award-winning film starring Miranda Otto, Richard Roxburgh, and Matt Day and directed by Chris Kennedy.-Plot:...

, Kiss or Kill (for which he was nominated for an AFI
Australian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...

 award), and My Brother Jack (mini series).

During his time in England from 2000 to 2007, Day played many television roles including BBC's 2002 version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, in which he played Sir Henry Baskerville, The Love of Lionel's Life and a guest role in Spooks
Spooks
Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...

. He has said that his favourite role of this period was the photographer Frank Hurley
Frank Hurley
James Francis "Frank" Hurley, OBE was an Australian photographer and adventurer. He participated in a number of expeditions to Antarctica and served as an official photographer with Australian forces during both world wars.His artistic style produced many memorable images but he also used staged...

 in the 2002 Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 telemovie Shackleton, in which Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...

 played the title role.

His most recent film he appeared in was in 2009, in My Year Without Sex
My Year Without Sex (film)
My Year Without Sex received strongly favourable reviews, and was touted by The Sydney Morning Herald as "possibly the best" Australian film of 2009 as well as "the most accomplished" local film of 2009 by The Age....

, directed by Sarah Watt
Sarah Watt
Sarah Ann Watt was an Australian film director.Born in Sydney, Watt completed a Graduate Diploma of Film and Television at the Swinburne School of Film and Television, Melbourne in 1990. Her student film "Catch of the Day" was to reflect the style of future work...

.

In 2009 and 2010, Day was in Tangle
Tangle (TV series)
Tangle is an Australian drama series for the Showcase subscription television channel. It focuses on the lives of two generations of two families and their tangled lives. Tangle is filmed in Melbourne and first screened on 1 October 2009...

. Also in 2010, he was in Underbelly: The Golden Mile
Underbelly: The Golden Mile
Underbelly: The Golden Mile is a 13-part Australian television mini-series loosely based on real events that stemmed from the nightclub scene of the Sydney suburb of Kings Cross. The timeline of the series is the years between 1988 and 1999. it primarily depicts the running of Kings Cross and the...

 and in Rake
Rake (TV series)
Rake is an Australian television series, produced by Essential Media and Entertainment, that first aired on ABC1 in 2010. It stars Richard Roxburgh as Cleaver Greene, a brilliant but self-destructive barrister, a rake...

.

In 2011, he was in ABC1
ABC1
ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...

's telemovie Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo
Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo
Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo is a 2011 Australian two part television miniseries about the beginning of Cleo magazine and its creator, Ita Buttrose...

.

Personal life

Day's parents divorced when he was young. When he was 7 and his brother Chris was 5, his mother, an English teacher, took them around Europe for six months. He said later that "the whole experience went definitely some way to influencing my wanderlust".

Day moved with his wife, journalist Kirsty Thomason, to England in 2000, not returning to Australia until 2007. The couple and their son now live in Sydney.

Feature films

  • My Year Without Sex
    My Year Without Sex (film)
    My Year Without Sex received strongly favourable reviews, and was touted by The Sydney Morning Herald as "possibly the best" Australian film of 2009 as well as "the most accomplished" local film of 2009 by The Age....

    (2009).
  • Scoop
    Scoop (2006 film)
    Scoop is a 2006 American-British romantic comedy/murder mystery written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Ian McShane, and Allen himself...

    (2006).
  • And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
    And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
    And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself is a 2003 television film starring Antonio Banderas as Pancho Villa.At the time of production, this was the most expensive 2-hour television/cable movie ever made, with a budget of over $30 million....

    (2003).
  • Muggers (2000).
  • The Sugar Factory (1998).
  • Doing Time for Patsy Cline
    Doing Time for Patsy Cline
    Doing Time for Patsy Cline is a 1997 Australian multi-award-winning film starring Miranda Otto, Richard Roxburgh, and Matt Day and directed by Chris Kennedy.-Plot:...

    (1997).
  • The Two-Wheeled Time Machine (1997).
  • Kiss or Kill (1997).
  • Dating the Enemy
    Dating the Enemy
    Dating The Enemy is an Australian comedy about a boyfriend and girlfriend who swap bodies and have to live as each other.-Plot:One Valentine's evening a group of single, dateless friends get together to play Trivial Pursuit. Brett , a friend of the host from Melbourne, has just landed a job as...

    (1996).
  • Love and Other Catastrophes
    Love and Other Catastrophes
    Love and Other Catastrophes is a quirky 1996 Australian romantic comedy film featuring Frances O'Connor, Radha Mitchell, Alice Garner, Matthew Dyktynski, Matt Day and Kym Gyngell...

    (1996).
  • Muriel's Wedding
    Muriel's Wedding
    Muriel's Wedding is a 1994 Australian-French romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by P. J. Hogan. The film, which stars actresses Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Sophie Lee, and Bill Hunter, focuses on the socially awkward Muriel whose ambition is to have a glamorous wedding and improve...

    (1994).

Television

  • Reef Doctors
    Reef Doctors
    Reef Doctors is an Australian television drama series set to premiere on Network Ten in Australia in 2012. Sam is a doctor who runs the remote Hope Island Clinic with her team of doctors. They look after residents of a small island community and neighbouring islands on the Great Barrier Reef, as...

    (2012, 13 Episodes).
  • Rake
    Rake (TV series)
    Rake is an Australian television series, produced by Essential Media and Entertainment, that first aired on ABC1 in 2010. It stars Richard Roxburgh as Cleaver Greene, a brilliant but self-destructive barrister, a rake...

    (2010-2012, 16 episodes).
  • Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo
    Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo
    Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo is a 2011 Australian two part television miniseries about the beginning of Cleo magazine and its creator, Ita Buttrose...

    (2011)
  • Tangle
    Tangle (TV series)
    Tangle is an Australian drama series for the Showcase subscription television channel. It focuses on the lives of two generations of two families and their tangled lives. Tangle is filmed in Melbourne and first screened on 1 October 2009...

    (2009–2010, 16 episodes).
  • Underbelly: The Golden Mile
    Underbelly: The Golden Mile
    Underbelly: The Golden Mile is a 13-part Australian television mini-series loosely based on real events that stemmed from the nightclub scene of the Sydney suburb of Kings Cross. The timeline of the series is the years between 1988 and 1999. it primarily depicts the running of Kings Cross and the...

    (2010, 3 episodes).
  • The Informant (2008).
  • Spooks
    Spooks
    Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...

    (2006, 2 episodes).
  • Hell Has Harbour Views
    Hell Has Harbour Views
    Hell Has Harbour Views is a 2001 novel written by Richard Beasley . The story is set in a corrupt Sydney law firm and follows the protagonist, Hugh Walker, a lawyer who always hoped he would be a defender of the poor and oppressed, until a Sydney law firm dangled an office with a harbour view in...

    (2005).
  • Shackleton (2002).
  • My Brother Jack
    My Brother Jack
    My Brother Jack is a classic Australian novel by writer George Johnston. It is part of a trilogy centring on the character of David Meredith...

    (2001).
  • Farscape
    Farscape
    Farscape is an Australian-American science fiction television series filmed in Australia and produced originally for the Nine Network. The series was conceived by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainment...

    (2000, 3 episodes).
  • The Love of Lionel's Life (2000).
  • Water Rats
    Water Rats (TV series)
    Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001. The series was based around the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who fight crime across Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney...

    (1996, 1 episode).
  • The Beast
    The Beast (1996 film)
    The Beast is a 1996 made for TV movie starring William Petersen, Karen Sillas and Charles Martin Smith. The movie is based on the 1991 novel Beast by Jaws author Peter Benchley. The film is about a giant squid that attacks and kills several people when its food supply becomes scarce and its...

    (1996).
  • G.P. (1995, 1 episode).
  • Snowy River: The McGregor Saga (1995, 1 episode).
  • The Bob Morrison Show
    The Bob Morrison Show
    The Bob Morrison Show is an Australian sitcom that screened on the Nine Network in 1994.The Bob Morrison Show is the story of an ordinary family from through the eyes of their pet dog, Bob Morrison...

    (1994, 26 episodes).
  • A Country Practice
    A Country Practice
    A Country Practice is an Australian television drama series. One of the longest-running of its kind, produced by James Davern of JNP Productions, it ran on the Seven Network for 1,058 episodes from 18 November 1981 to 22 November 1993. It was produced in ATN-7's production facility at Epping,...

    (1989–1992, 1993, 227 episodes).

Stage

  • The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Sydney Theatre Company, Sydney, 2009.
  • Scarlett O'Hara At the Crimson Parrot, Arts Centre Playhouse, Melbourne, 2008.
  • Fred, Sydney Theatre Company, Sydney, 1999.
  • Six Degrees of Separation, Sydney Theatre Company, Sydney, 1998.
  • Man of the Moment, Esemble Productions Theatre, Sydney

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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