In 2019, I had the pleasure of playing a role in Ria Tobaccowala’s MFA thesis feature USER ZERO at NYU. I played a corrupt financier going head-to-head with Jeremy Holm’s character. You might remember Jeremy from HOUSE OF CARDS and MR. ROBOT. Congrats to Ria and her expert crew. The future of film is in good hands with these young filmmakers!
on the set of USER ZERO
In April, the cast of ALL MY LOVE, KATE celebrated a number of prizes at the “Fruitie” Awards, which honored productions from the 2018 Fresh Fruit Festival. I took home an award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Full-Length Play.
I spent a week on BULL filming an episode for their third season. I play a juror whose point of view matters to the case in a big way. It was a lot of fun playing a little scene with Freddy Rodriguez. Dennis Smith directed us, and the episode airs on Monday, April 22nd.
I recorded a bunch of radio and web voiceovers for PNC Bank. I can’t say much more at this point, but stay tuned for more news! And I’ll post the final spots here, too!
For my performance as Danny in Joe Breen’s ALL MY LOVE, KATE at last year’s Fresh Fruit Festival, I’ve been awarded a “Fruitie” for Outstanding Performance in a Lead Role!
Joe’s marvelous play won a few other awards, too: Outstanding Production (Joe Breen), Outstanding Performance in a Featured Role (Sarah Matteucci), and Outstanding Choreography (Erika Wasko). Congrats to everyone!
There’s going to be an Awards of Distinction Gala at the Bowery Poetry Club in May and I’ll post some pictures here.
the cast of ALL MY LOVE, KATE
THE SILENCER ran for three performances at NY WinterFest in February and March. In this (very) dark comedy by Howard Zuckerman, I played Marc, a man driven to murder rude smartphone users regardless of the consequences. A great cast was led by Sarah MacDonnell, who won Best Director at the festival. Congrats, Sarah!
I shot two episodes of NBC’s hit series THE BLACKLIST in November, playing an anchorman (again, my passion for news and politics pays off!). Season 6 kicks off in January 2019, with my episodes most likely airing in March. I worked solo—just me behind an anchor desk, but the great crew, led by directors Andrew McCarthy (!) and Christine Gee, was a joy to work with. They work fast, too: I shot my two episodes in just three hours!
It’s been TOP SECRET for more than a year, but I can finally reveal that I have a part in Rockstar Games’ newest epic video game, RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2. I play Palmer, the “clearly overwhelmed” acting sheriff of Armadillo, an Old West town overrun by the Del Lobo gang. Filming the motion capture for this video game was one of the most incredible experiences of my career—but it’s so TOP SECRET that that’s all I can say about it!
What is it about the end of the year that so many great playwrights want to get their plays read? I’m not complaining! The final months of 2018 had me busy with a number of readings:
Sari Caine’s sensational new play DOG DREAMS had a reading at The Arc, an old sushi factory in Long Island City that her group, DMNDR, is converting into a multi-use performance space
I read a role in Sandy Gruenwald’s WHO LOVES YA, BABY at the Sheen Center
I helped organize an informal reading of John Ryan Martine’s gay bathhouse epic EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE in my living room, where I was joined by actors Dan Domingues, Clea Alsip, and Virginia Logan
at my old stomping ground Primary Stages/ESPA, I read THE SHATTERING OF GLASS by D.L. Newton
and I ventured down a few floors of my building to director Abigail Zealey-Bess’s apartment for a reading of my friend Andy Bergh’s new play, JANE OF THE TREE
Pamela Bob’s brilliant new TV series LIVIN’ ON A PRAIRIE had its official premiere the legendary Tribeca TV Festival this fall. Three of the six short episodes were screened for an international audience, including one of the episodes I appear in, “Bonnetheads Anonymous,” wherein I confess my obsession with—you got it—LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. I’m proud to be in this hilarious series, and stay tuned for more updates!
Matt W. Cody on the red carpet for LIVIN’ ON A PRAIRIE at the 2018 Tribeca TV Festival
My latest project is the role of Nick Genovese in Sarah Elizabeth Grace’s powerful new play IMPLIED CONSENT. We run for four performances: October 11, 12, and 13 at 8pm, and October 14 at 2pm, at Access Theater in Tribeca. Click here for tickets.
IMPLIED CONSENT examines unbalanced power dynamics across two centuries, illuminating how society has both changed for women, and stayed the same. Tara Rose is a successful writer seeking to reclaim the feminist glory of an ancestor's lost narrative. When she returns to her Michigan hometown and reconnects with her childhood mentor, Nick Genovese, her story—and that of her ancestor—start to slip out of her control. The action jumps between mid-nineteenth century Saginaw, early 2000's suburban Detroit, and the present day.
The cast is led by the playwright, Sarah Elizabeth Grace, and features Morgan McGuire, Adriana Jones, Brendan Patrick Connor, and Ryan Desaulniers.
After a couple of years' development, Joe Breen's new play ALL MY LOVE, KATE will have its premiere at All Out Arts' 16th Annual Fresh Fruit Festival. Performances are July 10, 14, and 15 at the Wild Project in New York. Tickets available here.
I'm joined in the cast by Brendan Cataldo, Kazuhiro Imafuku, Sarah Metteucci, Chris McFarland, and Jill Melanie Wirth.
ALL MY LOVE, KATE is the story of Jack and Danny, who for years have lived quietly and privately; keeping their life together separate from the world outside their door. But after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the couple finds themselves separated by an ocean, a war, and a world that would rather pretend they didn’t exist. A love story told across miles, memories, and dreams, ALL MY LOVE, KATE examines what it truly means to be an American and a Patriot, and questions who has the right to define those words.
I participated in a reading of Celine Song's incredible new play ENDLINGS as part of the INK'D festival at The Playwrights Realm.
On the island of Man-Jae in Korea, three elderly women spend their dying days diving into the ocean to harvest seafood with nothing but a rusty knife. They are “haenyeos”— “sea women” — and there are no heiresses to their millennium-old tradition. ENDLINGS is a real estate lesson from the last three remaining “haenyeos” in the world: don’t live on an island. Unless it’s the island of Manhattan…
Sammi Cannold directed an outstanding cast that included Lori Tan Chinn, Wai Ching Ho, and Ako.
from L to R: Sammi Cannold (director), Matthew Dunivan, Celine Song (playwright), Andy Talen, Lori Tan Chinn, Jack Phillips Moore, Wai Ching Ho, Matt W. Cody, Ako, Matt DaSilva, Jiehae Park, Norman Anthony Small (stage manager)
I wanted to work with filmmaker Ahren von Aschwege and his team again, this time on a comedic scene. With help from the hilarious Kaira Klueber, I wrote a short scene for us called CO-PARENTING. What would happen if a divorced dad strugged at ... being divorced?
John T. Lewis's screenplay KILLING ROGER is about the LIFE magazine reporters and photographers who were on the scene of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas more than 50 years ago. At a recent reading, I read the role of Dick Stolley, the reporter who secured the rights to publish the Zapruder film. LIFE's cover story on JFK bumped the planned cover of football star Roger Staubach, one of only four players to win both the Heisman Trophy and Super Bowl MVP.
It was a pleasure to read with so many actors I've gotten to know at Naked Angels' Tuesdays@9.
Last fall, after months of development at Primary Stages ESPA, Joe Breen's wonderful play ALL MY LOVE, KATE had its ESPA Drills reading at the Cherry Lane Theater in the West Village. I bushed up my Katharine Hepburn imitation (the young Kate, mind you), and played alongside actors Neil D'Astolfo, Michael McCorry Rose, and Karen Braga to an enthusiastic audience.
I was thrilled to read the role of Convict #2 in Greg Pierce's THE DECOYS at the Atlantic Theater Company. Daniel Aukin directed and the excellent cast was comprised of Zeljko Ivanek, Jayne Houdyshell, Zachary Fine, and Sarah Steele.
At the end of 2017, I took part in a flurry of readings of new plays and screenplays.
In David Lavine's THE BRIGHT FOG, I played an art thief; for Janice Danielle, I read a variety of smaller roles in her screenplay CAPUCINE; and I supported a reading at The Studio of the soon-to-be-released feature film TU ME MANQUES by reading stage directions.
The highlight, however, may have been another developmental reading of Andy Bergh's great new play DOMESTICATED QUEER. Directed once again by the marvelous Abigail Zealey-Bess, this reading gave me the opportunity to work with the magnificent Tony nominee Lou Liberatore and the legendary, three-time Tony nominee Brian Murray. There's more news to come about this wonderful play!
I'm thrilled to announce that Pamela Bob's hilarious TV series LIVIN' ON A PRAIRIE had its premiere at the Brazen Tavern on May 14. LIVIN' ON A PRAIRIE follows Pamela as she navigates life and love while struggling to overcome her obsession with the 1970's hit TV show LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. I play a bonnethead--a guy who secretly loves the show, too. Pamela and I meet by chance... is there a future there? Stay tuned!
Matt W Cody and Justin Sams in LIVIN' ON A PRAIRIE
I've wanted to produce a reading of Dan Kitrosser's new play AWAY IT ROLLED (formerly known as A FEW THINGS BEFORE I LEAVE YOU) for a long time, and it finally happened! Dan is a good friend and one of the most talented and unique playwrights of his generation.
Here's the plot: on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Eddie breaks up with his caustic comedian girlfriend Holly. When Eddie asks his (mostly) gay brother Hugh, an art dealer, to retrieve some books from his apartment, the mutual animosity between Holly and Hugh bursts into an affair that somehow seems terribly, awfully, horribly right. AWAY IT ROLLED is a comedy and a drama about how much it actually takes to move on.
Sherri Eden Barber was our director, and get a load of this cast: Michael Chernus (ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK) played Eddie, and Clea Alsip (BOARDWALK EMPIRE) played Holly. I played the role of Hugh, and the role of Michael was played by the magnificent Jovan A. Davis. Lacy Allen added her talents as our reader of stage directions.
We had a successful and well-received reading on May 12 at Ripley-Grier Studios in New York.
From L to R: Michael Chernus, Clea Alsip, Dan Kitrosser, Sherri Eden Barber, Matt W Cody, Lacy Allen, Jovan A. Davis