Matthew Day (born 28 September 1971) is an Australian actor and filmmaker.

Early life

Day was born in Melbourne, Victoria. When he was 11 years old, he went to live in the United States with his father, a newspaper correspondent, where he became interested in acting. On his return to Australia, he attended Princes Hill Secondary College, in Carlton North and joined St Martins Youth Arts Centre in South Yarra.

Career

Day was spotted by an agent at the age of 14 and was soon cast in his first role in the ABC television series c/o The Bartons. At 17, he left his home in Carlton and relocated to Sydney for the role in the television series A Country Practice that was to be his first big break. He has since gone on to establish a reputation as one of Australia's leading film, television and theatre actors, appearing in numerous Australian television series and telemovies including Rake, Tangle, Hell Has Harbour Views, My Brother Jack and Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo. Feature credits include Touch, My Year Without Sex, Love and Other Catastrophes, Muriel's Wedding, Woody Allen's Scoop and Kiss or Kill, for which he received nominations for a Film Critic Circle Award and an AFI Award for Best Actor. His international television credits include Shackleton with Kenneth Branagh, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Commander, Spooks, Hotel Babylon, Secret Diary of a Call Girl and Bruce Beresford's And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself. Short films as writer/director include Beat (2011 St Kilda Film Festival) My Everything (2003 Toronto Short Film Festival) and Wish (Turner Classic Shorts 2008 Winner - Special Mention, London Film Festival, Encounters Short Film Festival, Foyle Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Stockholm Film Festival). In 2017 he won the 25th Tropfest short film festival for his comic short film The Mother Situation, which he both directed and acted in. In 2022 Day was announced as part of the cast for channel 9 drama ''Human Error. In 2023 Day was named for ABC musical drama In Our Blood. Day would return for the second season of Strife.''

Personal life

Day's parents divorced when he was young. His mother, an English teacher, took him around Europe for six months when he was 7 and his brother Michael was 9. He said later that "the whole experience went definitely some way to influencing my wanderlust". Day moved with his wife, journalist Kirsty Thomson, to London in 2000, not returning to Australia until 2007. The couple now live in Sydney and have two sons, Jackson and Rufus.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Writer/director

Awards and nominations