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Matt Berry
Berry in 2008
Born	Matthew Charles Berry (1974-05-02) 2 May 1974 (age 50) Bromham, Bedfordshire, England
Occupations	Actor comedian musician writer
Years active	1998–present

Matthew Charles Berry (born 2 May 1974) is an English actor, comedian, musician and writer. He has appeared in comedy series such as The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, The Mighty Boosh, Snuff Box, and also co-created and starred in the Channel 4 sitcom Toast of London, for which he won the 2015 BAFTA Award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme. He has starred in the FX television series What We Do In the Shadows since 2019. In addition to his acting career, Berry is a prolific musician and has released nine studio albums. His most recent, The Blue Elephant, was released in May 2021.

Early life

Matthew Charles Berry was born on 2 May 1974 in Bromham, Bedfordshire, the son of Pauline (née Acreman) and Charles Berry. He attended Nottingham Trent University, graduating in 1999 with a BA in contemporary arts.

Career

Film and television

Berry began his career as a runner before appearing in the video game magazine show Game Over on BSkyB's computer and technology channel .tv, between 1998 and 1999. Though commissioned as an editorial show on the subject matter, episodes contained a large number of comedy sketches with Berry as the main performer.

2004–2011: Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, The IT Crowd and Snuff Box

Berry's first prominent television role was playing Todd Rivers/Dr Lucien Sanchez in the cult 2004 comedy series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and its 2006 spin-off, Man to Man with Dean Learner. He later appeared as eccentric and sinister tycoon Dixon Bainbridge in The Mighty Boosh. Berry first met The Mighty Boosh duo while performing at the Hen and Chickens Theatre, where they were resident in 2000. He can be seen in a cameo performance in The Mighty Boosh Live DVD.

After meeting Rich Fulcher while filming The Mighty Boosh, Berry wrote and starred in the comedy series Snuff Box with him on BBC Three. Fulcher co-starred as Bainbridge's lackey, Bob Fossil. Berry also starred alongside Fulcher and Simon Farnaby on E4's The Golf War in November 2007.

In 2007, Berry joined The IT Crowd during its second series as Douglas Reynholm. He was nominated as Best Male Comedy Newcomer in the 2007 British Comedy Awards for this role, but lost out to James Corden for Gavin & Stacey.

In 2008, he became the face of Adult Swim's spoof charity appeal "Save the Workers".

In 2010, Berry played journalist Michael Duffy in the BBC production Five Daughters, which portrayed events surrounding the Ipswich murders of 2006. In 2011, he provided the voice of Allen in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Allen Part Two." Berry appeared in the British comedy panel game Shooting Stars, portraying Vangelis. He also appeared as an antiques expert in the ITV sketch show Monkey Trousers with Vic and Bob and Steve Coogan.

Berry also made a number of film appearances during this period, including The Devil's Chair (2006) and Moon (2009). He also starred in The Search (2009) a short film about "a lonely man's search for the existence of life outside our universe takes a remarkable turn when he connects with a recently bereaved family".

2012–2018: Toast of London and other TV appearances

In 2012, BBC Radio 4 aired his comedy series I, Regress. In it, he takes on the role of Dr. Berry, a brilliant but unorthodox regressive therapist. During each 15-minute episode, Berry explores the psyche of a guest patient, attempting to treat his or her problems in surreal dreamlike sequences. Berry appeared in the film adaptation of the David Nicholls novel One Day, playing the role of Aaron, Dexter's agent. He briefly featured in the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, introducing ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky" by way of a mock weather forecast.

In July 2012, he appeared as vainglorious actor Steven Toast in the pilot episode of Channel 4 sitcom Toast of London, co-written with Arthur Mathews. Notwithstanding mixed reviews, a series was commissioned. The first episode was broadcast on 20 October 2013. On 10 May 2015 Berry won a BAFTA award for Best Male Comedy Performance in the series Toast of London. In 2015, Berry and Arthur Mathews published "Toast on Toast: Cautionary tales and candid advice", a spoof autobiography of Steven Toast. It was also released as an audiobook read by Berry.

Berry played the title character in the 2013 Portlandia episode "Squiggleman." Co-creators Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein included the appearance on a list of their "proudest musical moments" from the show.

From 2014 to 2015, he co-starred in the BBC 2 series House of Fools, written by and starring Reeves and Mortimer. He portrayed Beef, "the highly sexual, flamboyant and blindly confident friend of Vic and Bob" who "will seduce anything in a skirt."

Berry appears in episode nine of the sixth season of Dan Harmon's television series Community, released on Yahoo Screen on 5 May 2015. In December 2015, he played Professor Awfulshirt in Harry Hill in Professor Branestawm Returns on BBC One.

Berry also took on a number of voice acting roles. He voiced Bubbles, an inter-dimensional dolphin, in the 2015 SpongeBob SquarePants film sequel, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. That year, he also voiced the main villainess, "The Butt Witch," in Twelve Forever, a series pilot created by Julia Vickerman for Cartoon Network that was released on their website on 18 May 2015. The show was eventually moved over to Netflix in December 2017. From 2015 to 2016, Berry narrated Matt Berry Does..., a series of comedy shorts for the BBC. Berry provided the voice of Prince Merkimer in Matt Groening's animated series Disenchantment, which premiered in 2018 on Netflix.

2019–present: What We Do in the Shadows and Year of the Rabbit

Since 2019, Berry has starred in the FX TV adaptation of the film What We Do in the Shadows; he plays Laszlo, one of four vampires living in Staten Island. The series was renewed for a second season in May 2019. In an interview with collider.com, he said, "... t's good fun. I like it. I enjoy it. It's different and it's very free. The scripts are starting points and then we go from there. That's how I like to work, anyway. So, for me, it was perfect. That's my background, improvisation. It was home for me in that department."

In 2019, Berry also starred in the IFC/Channel 4 sitcom Year of the Rabbit. Set in Victorian London, he plays the alcoholic Detective Inspector Rabbit. On 11 February 2020, the series was renewed for a second series of six episodes.

In April 2020, BBC Two commissioned Berry for a mockumentary series titled Squeamish About… The four quarter-hour specials will be co-written by Berry and Arthur Mathews, and star Berry as "Michael Squeamish." The series uses a combination of archive footage and voiceover to produce a surreal perspective on the episodes' subject.

In 2021, after the second series of Year of the Rabbit was axed, Berry got a commission from the BBC to make a "Steven Toast in America" series for them. The show is due to be a six-part television programme for BBC One, which will be broadcast under the title Toast of Tinseltown and which will be co-written by Berry and Arthur Mathews.

Voiceovers

Berry has provided many voiceovers for both radio and television advertising, including Absolute Radio, Volvic, Müller Corner adverts and characters on several adverts for The Natural Confectionery Company. He has also been in the sketch show The Wrong Door as a recurring bit-part character who runs into a snooker hall and shouts "Stop playing snooker!" before whispering an implied impossible wager to one of the players and completing an unfeasible trick shot. In 2012, he worked with Team17 on their video game title Worms Revolution, providing voiceover, as fictional wildlife documentary maker Don Keystone, for both the game and the video advertisements produced for it. In 2014, he read out the teamsheets at Luton Town before the game. In 2015, he provided the voice for an award-winning satirical anti-war film by the UK branch of Veterans for Peace called Action Man: Battlefield Casualties.

Since 2019, Berry has narrated adverts for Moneysupermarket.com and also voices inserts for Absolute Radio.

Music

Berry composed all the music for Snuff Box and Toast of London, as well as the music for AD/BC: A Rock Opera, which he co-wrote with Richard Ayoade. AD/BC was a half-hour parody of overblown musicals in general and Jesus Christ Superstar in particular, telling the story of the innkeeper who allowed Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus to sleep in his manger. AD/BC was broadcast in December 2004 and featured Fulcher and Mighty Boosh stars Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. He also performed a song for an episode of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace titled "One Track Lover," a spoof of cheesy romantic 1980s songs.

Berry also wrote music for the BBC 2 Steve Coogan comedy Saxondale and appeared in the first and third episodes of the second series of the show. He composed the theme song for the Channel 4 sketch show Blunder. He is also credited on The Peter Serafinowicz Show.

Berry has recorded nine studio albums: Jackpot (1995), Opium (self-released, 2008), Witchazel (2011), Kill the Wolf (2013), Music for Insomniacs (2014), The Small Hours (2016), Television Themes (2018), Phantom Birds (2020) and The Blue Elephant (2021). The most recent five have been released on Eddie Piller's Acid Jazz Records. In 2017, a "companion piece" to The Small Hours titled Night Terrors was released, featuring remixes by artists such as Saint Etienne. He stated in the first issue of Bearded Magazine in 2007 that he was producing and collaborating on new material with 1960s soul singer Geno Washington and was to record a new album. This would become Witchazel, which Berry originally released as a one-day only free download in March 2009. The album was later officially released as a CD and paid-for digital download.

Berry has toured with a number of bands including Jonas 3 and The Maypoles. The latter comprises former Bluetones singer Mark Morriss and singer/clarinet player Cecilia Fage. Rich Fulcher has joined Berry on stage for several appearances. Geno Washington has also joined Berry onstage at London gigs for encores of the Snuff Box theme.

In October 2007, Berry provided a brand new track "Cream Pie" to Bearded Magazine for readers to download for free, followed by a cover of the Blur song "Sing" in November 2007. "Cream Pie" is still available to supporters of Beardaid.

Berry voiced his appreciation of the television themes of Ronnie Hazlehurst in an episode of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, and his band played out the Screenwipe Christmas special with a rendition of Hazlehurst's theme tune for 1980s British sitcom Sorry!.

Until 2010, Berry presented a show on Absolute Radio, where he still performs various voiceovers and is described as "the voice of Absolute Radio." The now-defunct Matt Berry Podcast regularly featured in the Top Ten of the iTunes podcast chart, and its producer Vince Lynch was nominated for Best Online Producer at the Radio Production Awards.

In 2012, part of the Snuff Box theme appeared briefly in the film Dredd, the line "but it was bronze" playing from a computer terminal in the Grand Hall of Justice in the latter half of the film.

In 2015, he was the opening act for Steven Wilson's second Royal Albert Hall concert.

In July 2018, Berry released an album titled Television Themes on Acid Jazz Records. This album featured covers of famous retro TV themes such as Sorry!, Doctor Who and Rainbow, and became Berry's first UK Top 40 album chart hit.

In 2019, Berry was revealed as one of the contributing artists on the latest Desert Sessions album.

In October 2020, Berry's album Phantom Birds (also issued by Acid Jazz) charted on the UK albums chart and eclipsed the number 38 peak of Television Themes, by getting to number 31. In December 2020, he appeared in Gorillaz's livestreamed concert Song Machine Live, performing the narration for the spoken-word song "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head."

Music videos

Berry has also made several music video appearances. He starred in the video for the Super Furry Animals song "Run-Away" (2007), which was directed by Richard Ayoade. Other appearances include the videos for "Reset" (2011) from London-based experimental band Three Trapped Tigers and "What Are You Like" (2017) from Irish band Pugwash.

Filmography

Film

Television

Discography

Awards and nominations

References

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External links

• Official website
• Matt Berry at IMDb
• BBC biography
• Matt Berry at the British Film Institute

• 1974 births
• Living people
• 20th-century English male actors
• 21st-century English male actors
• Alumni of Nottingham Trent University
• Best Male Comedy Performance BAFTA Award (television) winners
• British male comedy actors
• British male television writers
• English male film actors
• English male television actors
• English male voice actors
• English soap opera writers
• English television producers
• English television writers
• Male actors from Bedfordshire
• People from the Borough of Bedford