Matt Keeslar
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
At eighteen, Matt Keeslar moved from Adrian, Michigan to New York City
to attend the drama division of The Juilliard School. The Juilliard faculty had
selected him to fill one of twenty spots in "Group 24", the
twenty-forth class to participate in Juilliard's rigorous acting
program. Along with the group projects Matt performed at Juilliard, he
also played the title role in a touring production of Moliere's Don
Juan, directed by Joseph Chaiken; produced and starred in a student
production of "Waiting for Godot; and participated in several
interdepartmental productions, including playing the title role in Igor
Stravinsky's A Soldier's Tale. Matt signed with ICM in his second year
at Juilliard and immediately won roles in
Quiz Show (1994), directed by
Robert Redford, and
Renaissance Man (1994), directed
by Penny Marshall. In his third
year, Matt won a lead role in the movie
Safe Passage (1994), in which he
played the son of Susan Sarandon and
Sam Shepard. He finally dropped out of
Juilliard after his third year to take accept the lead role in Peter
Yates' Film
The Run of the Country (1995).
Matt went on to star in professional plays in New York and regionally.
He originated the roles of Boyd in Nicky Silver's Fit to be Tied,
Nathan Hale in David Stanley Ford's The Interrogation of Nathan Hale,
Bo in Laura Cahill's Mercy, and Ricky in Jack Heifner's Earth to Bucky.
Despite his love of theatre, Matt worked in film and television most
frequently. Some of the highlights from his film career include:
Waiting for Guffman (1996),
The Last Days of Disco (1998),
Scream 3 (2000), and
Art School Confidential (2006).
He guest-starred in several television projects, and starred in
The Middleman (2008), a series
for ABC Family in which he played the title role.