Matthew Montgomery (actor)

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Matthew Montgomery
Born	Matthew Ramirez March 16, 1978 Houston, Texas
Education	B.A. Theatre Arts - USC School of Dramatic Arts; M.F.A. Film/TV Production - USC School of Cinematic Arts
Alma mater	University of Southern California
Occupation	Actor/Director/Writer/Producer
Years active	2000-present
Spouse(s)	Steve Callahan (m. 2015)

Matthew Montgomery (born Matthew Ramirez; March 16, 1978) is an American film, television, and stage actor, director, writer, producer and educator. He was born in Houston, Texas in 1978. Since his debut in Gone, But Not Forgotten (2003), he has primarily specialized in independent movies with LGBTQ+ themes. His most recent film, Devil's Path (2018), marked his directorial debut and was produced by his husband, actor/producer Steve Callahan.

Early life[]

Matthew Montgomery's father is of Mexican-Spanish descent and his mother is of Ukrainian descent. He was born in Houston, Texas but spent most of his formative years in Corpus Christi,^[1] where he became involved with the arts at a very young age. He attended Tuloso-Midway High School where he was actively involved as a young actor in the drama department and later became the president of the drama club. Growing up, Montgomery was fascinated by film and television in particular. One of the first professional actors Matthew met as a child was Christopher Hewitt (Mr. Belvedere). Hewitt apparently discouraged Montgomery from becoming an actor, reportedly saying, "If you can do anything else, do that." Montgomery largely attributes his move to Los Angeles to that encounter saying, "Hewitt forced me to look deeply at my creative ambitions very early on. In a way it helped reinforce how much I wanted to be an actor." In a strange twist of fate, Matthew would go on to attend USC School of Dramatic Arts where he would share the stage with former Belvedere cast member, Brice Beckham.

Personal life[]

After his parents divorced when he was two years old, Matthew spent a number of years with his grandmother who kept him grounded in his Latino roots. She introduced him to Latin culture and Latin storytelling. This eventually helped shape Matthew as a storyteller over the years. His father, John Joel Ramirez, is an abstract artist and painter, and was co-owner of the Gallería Chaparral in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the 80s and early 90s. This environment exposed Matthew to many eccentric and artistic individuals who would visit (painters, actors, directors, writers, etc.) and who had a great influence on his attraction to the arts. His father later remarried and Matthew was introduced to the world of classic cinema through his step-mother. Matthew's work is highly influenced by actors and filmmakers from the classic era of cinema.

Montgomery went on to attend USC School of Dramatic Arts to pursue his B.A. in Theatre. He later dropped out due to personal reasons but remained in Los Angeles. Matthew then attended Texas A&M University in Kingsville for one semester in their theatre department before accepting a scholarship to Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Matthew attended Point Park for one year before finally making the move back to Los Angeles. In 2009, Matthew decided to return to USC^[2] to finish his degree and graduated with a B.A. in Theatre Arts in 2011. Montgomery was then accepted to USC School of Cinematic Arts graduate program as a Lionsgate-Televisa Pantelion Fellow where he studied until 2015 upon receiving his M.F.A. in Film/TV Production.

Matthew Montgomery and his real-life partner met on set in 2008 and have played lead roles together such as in Rob Williams' film Role/Play.^[3] Montgomery accepted the Philadelphia QFest 2010 Artistic Achievement Award for Acting after the film.^[4] Montgomery and Callahan were married on March 21, 2015 after being together for more than 7 years. They currently live in Los Angeles, California.

Work[]

Matthew Montgomery is a writer, director, producer, and actor whose career began in 2002 when he starred in Gone, But Not Forgotten, an LGBT film which played in over thirty film festivals around the world and was the "Top Ten Best Seller" for TLA Video for 2003 and 2004. He later went on to star in and produce several independent features when he teamed up with Guest House Films.

In 2008, Matthew starred in the psychological thriller, Pornography: A Thriller (where he met his husband),^[5] as well as the award-winning gay indie drama, Redwoods. In 2010, he was the recipient of the Artistic Achievement award for acting and producing from Philadelphia's QFest.

After completing his M.F.A. in film production at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Matthew went on to develop a psychological thriller, Devil's Path, which marked his directorial debut in 2018.^[2][6] In 2019, the film went on to win him Best First Narrative Feature at FilmOut San Diego and the First-Time Director award from qFLIX Worcester. He currently teaches as an Adjunct Professor at USC School of Dramatic Arts while working on his next thriller film.^[7]

Filmography[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Matthew Montgomery at IMDb
• Matthew Montgomery at USC School of Dramatic Arts