Matthew Holness

Born on 1st January 1975 in Whitstable, Kent, England, Matthew James Holness is an English actor, writer, comedian, and director. He is known for directing "Possum" (2018) and playing the role of Garth Marenghi, the central character of the series of stage plays and a TV show under the same name. At a young age, Matthew became obsessed with horror movies and was a huge fan of those produced by Hammer Film Productions, which has the likes of “ Dracula Dracula is an American and British horror televisi >> Read More... ”, “Frankenstein” and “ The Mummy Click to look into! >> Read More... ” series to its credits. The renowned actor Peter Cushing Peter Cushing, was an English on-screen character >> Read More... was once quoted saying that he was worried about six-year-old Holness when he had approached him for his autograph and opened his treasure trove of knowledge about horror movies. Holness completed his schooling from Chaucer Technology School in Canterbury and graduation from Trinity Hall, Cambridge with a degree in Master of Arts. In college, he was part of the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, and as its member, he performed in various stage plays, including many at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest arts festival.

He was elected the society’s vice president alongside David Mitchell as the president and a team boasting of talents such as John Oliver, Richard Ayoade and Robert Webb. His debut on television was with BBC’s six-episode comedy series “Bruiser” in 2000. Later that year Ayoade and Holness wrote comedy horror stage play, spoofing Stephen King Stephen King is a renowned American novelist, colu >> Read More... , and Garth Marenghi’s Fright Knight was born. The show revolved around a spoof horror author, Garth Marenghi, played by Holness, and was nominated for the Perrier Award. Next year, its sequel, Garth Marenghi’s Netherhead , won the honorary award. He re-appeared on the small screen in the second season of BBC’s “ The Office Story Coming Soon >> Read More... ” (2001) and on stage in “The Mighty Boosh”. In 2004, the third installment of the Garth Marenghi series, Darkplace, was moved from stage to television on Channel 4 and became a phenomenon worldwide. Four years later, its parody spin-off, Man to Man with Dean Leaner, was broadcast on Channel 4 where Holness appeared in the guise of various celebrities and is interviewed by the show host Ayoade.

Matthew was seen on several other comedy TV shows such as “Casanova” (2005), “Free Agents” (2009), “Friday Night Dinner” (2011), “Toast of London” (2014) and “Back” (2017). In 2016, he wrote, directed and composed “Smutch,” a Halloween themed short comedy series. His first act on the big screen was with the movie “Festival” (2005), which is a dark comedy based on judges and performers at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. After acting in “Cemetry Junction” (2010) and “A Gun for George” (2011), he wrote and directed his critically acclaimed movie “Possum” (2018). The movie was a detour from his works as a comedian and was his first project of intense horror drama. To disperse the viewers’ general belief that Possum would also be a horror comedy like his previous works, Holness tweeted and even released a public statement that the movie was not going to be funny. Besides acting and directing, he has also contributed to the radio shows of “The Department” (2004) as Keith Blik and “Angstrom” (2018) as Knut Angstrom.