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Matthew Wilkas | |
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| Born | April 20, 1978 Camden, Maine, U.S. |
| Education | Boston University (BFA) |
| Occupation(s) | Actor and playwright |
| Years active | 2003–present |
Matthew Wilkas (born April 20, 1978) is an American New York based theatre and film actor, playwright and reality television personality. He is best known for his lead role as Matt in the 2012 feature film Gayby .
He grew up in Camden, Maine, with his two sisters. When he was 12, his father died. He later went to Boston University on the theater program because they gave him a student-aid package. He later moved to Hartford, Connecticut, before moving to New York. [1]
Wilkas co-wrote with American actor and playwright Mark Setlock titled Pageant Play, a satire about the world of child beauty pageants. The play was produced in July 2008 at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. [2] and in 2012, he was in the stage production Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark replacing main actor Matt Caplan. Wilkas has appeared on stage in a number of acts including Silence! The Musical , The Last Sunday in June, Far and Wide, The Pride etc. He has appeared in the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Huntington Theatre Company, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and The Sundance Theatre Institute, under the direction of Michael Greif, Anna D. Shapiro, Will Frears, Carolyn Cantor, Mark Brokaw, Nicholas Martin, and Trip Cullman. [3] In 2019, Wilkas starred in Little Shop of Horrors as Dr. Orin Scrivello at the Pasadena Playhouse [4]
His television career started in 2003 with a token role in the TV series Hope & Faith followed by brief appearances in The New Twenty and Ugly Betty . After many small roles on television, in 2012, he had a lead role in the feature film Gayby which debuted at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. [5] In the film, Matt a comic book store worker (played by Wilkas) and Jenn a yoga instructor (played by Jenn Harris), best friends from college, now single and in their thirties, in agreement with a pact they had made in their youth, decide to have a baby ("gayby") together, even though Jenn is straight and Matt is gay. In 2012, Wilkas and Harris co-won the Award for "Best Acting Ensemble: Feature" during the Ashland Independent Film Festival for their roles in Gayby. The film won a number of other festival awards, named one of the top ten independent films of 2012 by IndieWire , and nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. For his performance in the film, Wilkas was named one of Out magazine's "Out100" and one of the Los Angeles Outfest Film Festival's "Five in Focus". [6]
In 2014, Wilkas appeared in Undateable , an American television sitcom that aired on NBC where he was cast as the character Brett, Justin Kearney's gay friend (pilot only). [7] He also appeared in a number of shorts including This Bachelorette Party Sucks and Masc Only.
In 2017, he had a lead role in New York Is Dead, a series that he co-wrote and produced. As Felix, he co-stars with Gayby actress Jenn Harris. Also in 2017, he is appearing in a lead role as X in "Boy Culture: The Series", an episodic sequel to the original 2006 LGBT American drama film Boy Culture . A Kickstarter campaign was launched for the production. [8] The series will also include Darryl Stephens (as Andrew), Matthew Crawford (as Chayce), as well as Stephen Guarino and singer Steve Grand.
Matthew Wilkas is openly gay. From November 2015 to July 2019, Wilkas was in a relationship with freestyle skiing champion and Olympic athlete Gus Kenworthy. [9] [10] At the 2018 Winter Olympics, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Wilkas kissed Kenworthy before his qualifying run in the men's slopestyle; the kiss was broadcast on live television and was lauded as being a significant moment in visibility of LGBT+ athletes. [11] [12]
 | This section needs expansionwith: more theatrical works. You can help by adding to it. (October 2017) |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | The New Twenty | Cruise Guy | |
| 2010 | Gayby | Matt | Short |
| 2011 | Boys on Film 7: Bad Romance | Sam | Segment: Curious Thing [15] |
| 2012 | Gayby | Matt | Based on the 2010 short film of the same name. |
| 2014 | Top Five | Gavin | |
| 2015 | You're Killing Me | Andy | |
| 2015 | This Bachelorette Party Sucks | Short | |
| 2016 | Masc Only | Ryan Schultz | Short |
| 2017 | The Mummy | Reporter | |
| 2018 | Island Zero | Titus | |
| 2019 | Crystal Cliffside for Woke Vampires | Azazel Von Heinrich | Short |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Hope & Faith | Pallbearer | Episode "Remembrance of Rings Past" |
| 2008 | Ugly Betty | Waiter | Episode: "Bad Amanda" |
| 2014 | Looking | Benjamin | Episode: "Looking for Now" |
| 2014 | Saint Francis | Greg | TV movie |
| 2015, 2017 | EastSiders | Kevin | Episodes: "Sex Therapy", "Thick Like a Lotion" and "Priscilla" |
| 2017 | Hiatus | Matt the Trainer | Episode: "The Rebirth" |
| 2017 | New York Is Dead | Felix | 6 episodes |
| 2018–19 | Matt and Dan | Various characters | Lead role with Daniel Vincent Gordh |
| 2019 | Bonding | Rolph | Episodes: "Old Friends, New Names", "Pete Shy" and "Double Date" |
| 2019 | Modern Family | Paul | Episode: "Perfect Pairs" |
| 2020 | AJ and the Queen | Officer Patrick Kennedy | Recurring role, 7 episodes |
| 2022 | And Just Like That… | Justin | S1 E9 |
| 2022–24 | So Help Me Todd | Lawrence | Recurring role, 4 episodes |
| Year | Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | "Brown Rice" | Natti Vogel [16] |
Robert Gant is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Ben Bruckner on the Showtime series Queer as Folk.
Peter Frechette is an American actor. He is a stage actor with two Tony Award nominations for Eastern Standard and Our Country's Good, and frequently stars in the plays of Richard Greenberg. He is well known on TV for playing hacker George on the NBC series Profiler and Peter Montefiore on Thirtysomething. In film, he is known for playing T-Bird Louis DiMucci in the musical Grease 2.
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Mark Setlock is a former American actor and playwright living in New York, NY.
Little Shop of Horrors is a horror comedy rock musical with music by Alan Menken and lyrics and a book by Howard Ashman. The story follows a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. The musical is loosely based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors. The music, composed by Menken in the style of early 1960s rock and roll, doo-wop and early Motown, includes several well-known tunes, including the title song, "Skid Row (Downtown)", "Somewhere That's Green", and "Suddenly, Seymour".
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Lee Wilkof is an American character actor who has been appearing on stage, film and television for 6 decades.
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Gayby is a 2012 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Lisecki and starring Jenn Harris, Matthew Wilkas, Mike Doyle, Anna Margaret Hollyman, Jack Ferver and Jonathan Lisecki. It is based on the 2010 short film of the same name. It debuted on March 12, 2012 at the South by Southwest film festival.
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