Meet Matt Coleman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Coleman. 

Hi Matt, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I am Wiradjuri Man from Australia growing up in Temora and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. From there in my country towns, I dreamed of telling stories on stage and screen and to create a space for other First Nations artists and ‘kids from the country’ to have a place to develop their skills, create their art, tell their stories and live authentically. After high school, I moved to Melbourne Victoria where I honed in on my acting skills through classes, film and theatre work as well as live event hosting and Radio show presenting, producing, and editing. Fast forward to 2018 when I moved to Los Angeles where I found that I and many others were exactly that ‘othered’ in the eyes of the US. On forms, there is no ‘tick box’ for our ethnicity nor much or any knowledge of our existence and or stories, in our culture, community is such an important part of our survival and LA does not/did not breed that. So, I sought it out and found some other Blak Fullas in LA and created ‘United Stages Collective’. Through this collective, we have a mission to ‘un-other through art’. Not only finding, holding space to encourage each other’s creative pursuits and storytelling but to create a bridge for other First Nations peoples from Australia and over the world to be able to come to the States and be successful. Recently, myself and the ‘United Stages Collective’ founding members Sam Cook and Madison Prince took a staged reading of MILK by Indigenous Playwright Dylan Van Den Berg to New York as part of ‘The Australian Theater Festival’. This reading as part of the festival was extremely successful and allowed the start of conversation about the oldest continual culture on the planet and our collective stories, individual experience, and the many ‘shades of Blak’ there are. There is chatter of putting on the show in LA in the new year. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There is no such thing as a smooth road in making/creating/holding space for art. There is already a struggle and stigma around being an Aboriginal Man and Fair-skinned at that (compared to ‘tourism’ stereotypical version of one) Couple that with the fact that it costs quite a bit coin to get into the right rooms – from costs of training, headshots, showreels and the list goes on; plus moving to the other side of the world and leaving everything and everyone you know behind – creates its own swag of struggles for sure. Finding the other founding members of ‘United Stages Collective’ certainly helped ease some of those struggles, especially those which were felt at the core of who I am – that sense of community, connection to country, and to our old people. As First Nations peoples, we are tasked as Custodians of the Land and therefore there is something meditative about being back ‘on country’ so living away in a foreign land made that struggle all the more hard. 

My mother also past away from cancer a few years ago (about 6 months before I moved stateside) – She was my rock, my biggest fan, and the one who would keep me grounded. She could knock you down and lift you up in the same sentence. I had built an existence of WHO I am based on her being here and so, when she passed – the bedrock beneath me crumbled and the true struggles of who is MATT COLEMAN really started. What were my beliefs and what were told to me? What does life look like without them in it etc. Writing about it has really helped and there a few things in the pipelines (writing, performance pieces) to be finished and produced. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have been an actor for almost as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories was playing a horse in ‘Old McDonalds Farm’ in Kindergarten – I was maybe 5 years old and my nan my costume (and then any other costume for plays I was in moving forward) but remembered the feeling of electricity running through my veins. I had finally found my space to be me… but not me. Who would have thought, playing a horse would spark your interest in acting for the rest of forever. This was further cemented for me during orientation for high school. I was in the high school quad when we heard shouting from up a ramp and there was an extraverted drama teacher in overalls with sunflowers all over them, practically yodeling for us to come with her and experience drama for the first time. I had never felt soo seen in all my years in a small town as I did with that teacher within that class. Miss Lamont – Temora High School 1999. 

Fast forward all these years, I am an actor and acting coach. I have also dabbled in radio as an on-air presenter and brand ambassador, Live event host, and director. If I am not acting myself, I love to work with other actors to bring their characters to life in a ‘real’ and authentic way. 

I have a saying ‘You don’t choose the script; the script chooses you!’ (I am not claiming that I am the first to say this, in fact – I am sure it came from someone else… but doesn’t everything good already come from somewhere?) and I like to work with actor on understanding WHY the script/character/circumstances landed in their laps to share that particular story. 

In order to that, I work from a place of understanding ‘self’ first. We all walk around in this world with a mask on – sometimes MANY masks at once. The doting parent, the A grade student, the spiritual leader, the advocate, the judge, etc. in order to make it through our day. We are already playing a character or parts of ourselves. So, without understanding this and being able to draw upon it when you WANT to, you are already in character – thus being a character playing a character trying to be a real person. Get it?? maybe, maybe not. Point I am trying to make is that I work with the actor, singer, director, etc. on what the ‘truth of the scene is’ and how it connects to a part of you that you perhaps don’t even know exists and through the work, you heal both yourself and the character. 

Being Wiradjuri Man – I am most proud of the work I have done in recent years sharing the stories of our peoples. To be part of the oldest continuing culture is an honor and to do as ancestors have done for the past 60,000 + years; share stories, dance, teach is an incredible thing to do. Having worked with Ilbijerri Theatre and Eagles Nest Theatre to travel parts of Australia to share these stories was/is a dream. 

Since the beginning of the pandemic, creating community has been hard. It was already hard for people to build community in LA but especially for the ‘othered’ peoples in America (Indigenous peoples, Black, Blak, Brown, and other marginalized communities). Through this lack of community and connection – The UNITED STAGES COLLECTIVE was born. This was founded by Sam Cook, Madison Prince, Julia Moriarty, and Myself as a way to start to build community here in LA and USA with a vision to create bridges between First Nations Australians and the LA and then to other Indigenous communities already in the states and the world over. We have started working on strategies of building these ‘road maps to inclusion’ and build the community to get our seat at the proverbial table. 

Most recently I was given the opportunity to do just that. I along with the other founding members of United Stages Collective were invited to be a part of the ‘Australian Theatre Festival’ in New York City where we were able to do a staged reading of Palawa Man and Playwright Dylan Van Den Bergs play ‘MILK’. To be able to share this story of culture, our history, the longing to know buried/stolen history of our people and the desperate need to carry that history and keep it living was an honor and a privilege. To share this story on the world stage and shed light on stories that are unknown to other cultures around the world and assist in drawing parallels to their own Indigenous stories (the good, the bad, and the ugly) will inevitably have people asking questions, reflecting and hopefully working towards a more equitable life and understanding. 

What sets me apart from others… in my humble opinion – is that I want the collective win. I want each person; myself included to have a growth through the process, to learn something about themselves to add another layer of ‘humanness’ to them. Whether that be through the process of performance, audition, rehearsal, exploration of body and movement, or that of the lyrics to a song you are working on. 

Working with me will have you sitting on the precipice of uncomfortable as there is no creativity in safe and comfortable. We will dive into what makes you tick, where you have been, and where you are going, and continue to delve into the ‘WHY’ of every choice being made. We are a cacophony of complex moments – both environmental and biological which lead us to the now – our job as an actor is to piece together all the bits before the now to ensure that the now is a living, breathing, listening, and reacting being. 

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk-taking?
Risk-taking and I have a very complex relationship. Sometimes, I am a YOLO guy and will just ‘trust in the universe’ and pack myself up and move me across the world; yet other times – taking the risk seems too much for my brain to handle. I mean, do I get the pizza this time because I haven’t tried it and it reads to be delicious, OR do I not take the risk and just get the pasta because I get it every time and know that I love it. See – it makes no sense. Small, menial risks are really hard for me to ‘hit go’ on but big ones, life-changing ones… LET’s do it! 

I am learning to flex my risk-taking muscle. I think, in most households, especially if you come from smaller towns/communities – we are taught not to take risks, to do as others have done because ‘don’t you want what we have’, ‘Why would you want to do that for?’ ‘aren’t we good enough for you?’ types of responses are had by those around you. 

People fear what they do not know and therefore choose; either voluntarily or involuntarily to stay where it is ‘safe’. I’ll say it again, there is no creativity safe, that you have to get comfortable in the uncomfortable. 

Even saying the word Risk-taking sounds dangerous and somewhat taboo – it’s onomatopoeic in sound. Hard R, Hard SK, Hard T, Hard A and K… you get what I am saying. The word itself sounds like a series of small explosions which could reap great rewards; a quarry full of diamonds and opals and all the riches you could imagine OR it’ll cause the side of the mountain you are on to collapse and take you and all you love with it in one foul swoop. RISK. 

The long and short is, without Risk, there is no real reward. Without it, we would all continue doing what we have already been doing and that does not sound exciting to me. “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got” 

Contact Info:

• Email: mattcolemanofficial@gmail.com
• Website: https://www.unitedstagescollective.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/mattcolemanofficial
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matt.coleman.7524 https://www.facebook.com/mattcolemanactor

Image Credits
Alena Saz
Matt Davies