Matt Berry

Matthew Charles Berry was born on 2 May 1974^[2] in Bromham, Bedfordshire,^[1] the son of nurse Pauline (née Acreman) and taxi driver Charles Berry.^[1] He attended Nottingham Trent University, graduating in 1999 with a BA in contemporary arts.^[3]

Film and television

Berry began his career as a runner. Between 1998 and 1999, he appeared in the video game magazine show Game Over on BSkyB's computer and technology channel .tv.^[4] The episodes contained a large number of comedy sketches with Berry as the main performer.

Berry's first prominent television role was Todd Rivers/Lucien Sanchez in the cult 2004 comedy series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and its 2006 spin-off, Man to Man with Dean Learner.^[5] He later appeared as eccentric, sinister tycoon Dixon Bainbridge in The Mighty Boosh.^[6][7] He met the show's Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding while performing at the Hen and Chickens Theatre, where they were resident in 2000.^[8] He can be seen in a cameo performance in The Mighty Boosh Live DVD.^[9]

After meeting Rich Fulcher while filming The Mighty Boosh, Berry wrote and starred in the comedy series Snuff Box with him on BBC Three.^[10][11] Fulcher had co-starred as Bainbridge's lackey Bob Fossil in The Mighty Boosh.^[12] Berry also starred with Fulcher and Simon Farnaby on E4's The Golf War in November 2007.^[13]

In 2007, Berry joined The IT Crowd during its second series as Douglas Reynholm.^[14] He was nominated as Best Male Comedy Newcomer in the 2007 British Comedy Awards for the role.^[15]

In 2008, he became the face of Adult Swim's spoof charity appeal "Save the Workers".^[16][17]

In 2010, Berry played journalist Michael Duffy in the BBC production Five Daughters, about 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". He appeared in the British comedy panel game Shooting Stars, portraying Vangelis.^[18] He appeared as an antiques expert in the ITV sketch show Monkey Trousers with Vic and Bob and Steve Coogan.^[19]

Berry appeared in a number of films during this period, including The Devil's Chair (2006)^[20] and Moon (2009). He 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".^[21]

In 2012, BBC Radio 4 aired his comedy series I, Regress, where he portrayed Dr. Berry, a brilliant but unorthodox regressive therapist. In each 15-minute episode, Berry explored the psyche of a guest patient, attempting to treat their problems in surreal dreamlike sequences.^[22] Berry appeared in the film adaptation of the David Nicholls novel One Day as Aaron, Dexter's agent. He was briefly featured in the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, introducing ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky" by way of a mock weather forecast.^{[citation needed]}

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, and the first episode was broadcast on 20 October 2013, and it brought Berry the 2015 BAFTA Award for Best Male Comedy Performance.^[23] In 2015, Berry and Arthur Mathews published Toast on Toast: Cautionary Tales and Candid Advice, a spoof autobiography of Steven Toast. It was 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.^[24]

From 2014 to 2015, Berry co-starred in the BBC 2 series House of Fools, written by and starring Reeves and Mortimer.^[25] He portrayed Beef, "the highly sexual, flamboyant and blindly confident friend of Vic and Bob" who "will seduce anything in a skirt".^[26]

Berry appeared 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.^[27]

Since 2019, Berry has starred in the FX TV adaptation of the film What We Do in the Shadows as Laszlo, one of four vampires living in Staten Island.^[28] It was renewed for a second season in May 2019, and began airing in April 2020.^[29][30] The third season aired in September 2021.^[31] In an interview with collider.com, Berry said, "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."^[32]

In 2019, Berry 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.^[33] Citing budget cuts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Channel 4 reversed their decision in January 2021, casting doubt on the show's future. Layla Smith, chief executive of the show's production company OMG, said "Year of the Rabbit is a victim of the devastating effects of COVID. [...] IFC are very committed to the show, but we will need to find another partner — and we're working on that."^[34]

In April 2020, BBC Two commissioned Berry for a mockumentary series titled Squeamish About ... The four quarter-hour specials will be cowritten 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.^[35]

In 2021, after the second series of Year of the Rabbit was axed, Berry was commissioned by the BBC to make a "Steven Toast in America" series. The show was a six-part television programme for BBC One, broadcast under the title Toast of Tinseltown and co-written by Berry and Arthur Mathews.^[36]

Voiceovers

Berry performs as a voice actor. 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 its website on 18 May 2015. The show was moved to Netflix in December 2017.^[37][38] From 2015 to 2016, Berry narrated Matt Berry Does ..., a series of comedy shorts for the BBC.^[39] He provided the voice of Prince Merkimer in Matt Groening's animated series Disenchantment, which premiered in 2018 on Netflix.^[40]Berry's distinctive voice has seen him providing many voiceovers for both radio and television advertising, including Absolute Radio, Müller Corner adverts and characters on several adverts for The Natural Confectionery Company. He has 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 infeasible 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.^[41]

In 2014, Berry read out the teamsheets at Luton Town before the game. In 2015, he provided the voice for a satirical anti-war film by the UK branch of Veterans for Peace called Action Man: Battlefield Casualties.^[42]

Since 2019, Berry has narrated adverts for Moneysupermarket.com^[43] and voices inserts for Absolute Radio.

In 2019, Berry provided the voice of Moominpappa in the Finnish animated children's series Moominvalley.^{[citation needed]}

Berry provides the voice for the torture droid 8D8 in the 2021 Star Wars television series The Book of Boba Fett.^{[citation needed]}

In 2023, Berry narrated a train called Henry in an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver about freight trains.^{[citation needed]}

In 2024, he will voice Chester Arborday in the season 35 episode of "The Simpsons", "Lisa Gets an F1".^[44]

Music

Berry composed all the music for Snuff Box and Toast of London,^[45] as well as the music for AD/BC: A Rock Opera, which he co-wrote with Richard Ayoade.^[46] 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 stable. AD/BC was broadcast in December 2004 and featured Fulcher and Mighty Boosh stars Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Berry performed a song for an episode of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, "One Track Lover", a spoof of cheesy romantic 1980s songs.^[47]

Berry 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.^[48] He composed the theme song for the Channel 4 sketch show Blunder.^[49] He is also credited on The Peter Serafinowicz Show.^{[citation needed]}

Berry is friends with musical composer Dan McGrath and contributed to the Strictly Come Dancing theme song by playing guitar and providing the audible "Hey".^[50]

Berry has recorded nine studio albums: Jackpot (1995), Opium (self-released, 2008), Witchazel (2011), Kill the Wolf (2013), Music for Insomniacs (2014),^[51][52] The Small Hours (2016),^[53] Television Themes (2018), Phantom Birds (2020) and The Blue Elephant (2021).^[54] The most recent five have been released on Eddie Piller's Acid Jazz Records. In 2017, a "companion piece"^[55] to The Small Hours was released, Night Terrors, featuring remixes by artists such as Saint Etienne. Berry stated in the first issue of Bearded in 2007 that he was producing and collaborating on new material with 1960s soul singer Geno Washington and would record an album.^[56] It was Witchazel, which Berry originally released as a one-day-only free download in March 2009.^[57] It was later released as a CD and paid-for digital download.^[51]

Berry has toured with a number of bands including Jonas 3 and The Maypoles.^[58] The latter comprises former Bluetones singer Mark Morriss and singer/clarinettist Cecilia Fage.^[59] Rich Fulcher has joined Berry on stage for several appearances. Geno Washington has joined him onstage at London gigs for encores of the Snuff Box theme.

In October 2007, Berry provided a new track, "Cream Pie", to Bearded for readers to download free,^[60] followed by a cover of the Blur song "Sing" in November 2007. "Cream Pie" is still available to supporters of Beardaid.

Until 2010, Berry presented a show on Absolute Radio, where he still performs various voiceovers and was described as "the voice of Absolute Radio".^[61]

In 2015, Berry was the opening act for Steven Wilson's second Royal Albert Hall concert.^[62]

In July 2018, Berry released the album Television Themes^[63] on Acid Jazz Records, featuring covers of famous retro TV themes such as Sorry!, Doctor Who and Rainbow. It became his first UK Top 40 album chart hit.^[64]

In 2019, Berry was revealed as one of the contributing artists on The Desert Sessions album Vols. 11 & 12. He co-wrote, narrated, and played the organ on the track "Chic Tweetz".^[65]

In October 2020, Berry's album Phantom Birds (also issued by Acid Jazz) made the UK albums chart and eclipsed the number 38 peak of Television Themes by reaching number 31.^[66] In December 2020, he appeared in Gorillaz's live-streamed concert Song Machine Live, performing the narration for the spoken-word song "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head" from the album Demon Days.^[67]

On 14 May 2021, Berry released his ninth studio album, The Blue Elephant, distributed by Acid Jazz.^{[citation needed]}

Music videos

Berry starred in the video for the Super Furry Animals song "Run-Away" (2007), directed by Richard Ayoade.^[68] Other appearances include the videos for "Reset" (2011) by London-based experimental band Three Trapped Tigers^[69] and "What Are You Like" (2017) by Irish band Pugwash.^[70]

Film

Television

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Matt Berry.

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