Luke Matheny
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Luke Matheny (born December 23, 1976) is an American actor, writer, and director. Matheny is an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
winner, receiving the
Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film The Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is an award presented at the annual Academy Awards ceremony. The award has existed, under numerous names, since 1957. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate awards, ''Best Short Subject, On ...
for '' God of Love''.


Early years

Matheny was born in
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania Mechanicsburg is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The borough is west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area. As of the ...
and raised in
Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...
, the son of DiAnn and Mat Matheny, a pipe welder and furniture designer. He graduated from Wilmington's Concord High School in 1993 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1997 from
Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
's
Medill School of Journalism The Medill School of Journalism (branded as Northwestern Medill; formally the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications) is the journalism school of Northwestern University. It offers both undergraduate and graduat ...
. He later worked as a reporter and copy editor for a variety of trade magazines, including the respected television trade magazine, Electronic Media, and web sites in Chicago. His career includes stints as a synopsis writer for
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and as a story editor for the
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
series ''
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''. In 1998 Matheny developed a plan with three friends to shoot a movie about three under-appreciated losers from Chicago who quit their jobs, move to Paris, and become street musicians. Matheny and his friends quit their jobs, moved to Paris, and started shooting the film in May 2001. The film premiered at the 2003 Wilmington Independent Film Festival. Matheny recalled, ''"It was weird; we hit the ground and started casting people off the street. We were hanging out with Parisian models. It was like this weird Cinderella experience. At the end of it we were all completely broke and living with our parents. ... There're probably 33 funny minutes in it, but we really had no idea what we were doing at all. And at some point I decided that I really wanted to keep doing this."''


Career


NYU, ''Earano'', and ''God of Love''

Matheny moved to New York in 2004 and enrolled at NYU Tisch School of the Arts as a graduate student in the film program. His first student film at NYU was ''Earano'', a comic twist on ''
Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th ce ...
'', with the title character having unusually large ears instead of a large nose. ''Earano'' won the King Award for Screenwriting at the NYU First Run Festival and Best Student Short at the Dam Short Film Festival in
Boulder City, Nevada Boulder City is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is approximately southeast of Las Vegas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Boulder City was 14,885. The city took its name from Boulder Canyon ...
. In its review of ''Earano'', ''
New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...
'' wrote: "One of our favorites of recent years comes in the form of ''Earano'', a charming and hilarious short film directed by and starring Luke Matheny, in which our lead hero has not a giant proboscis but two giant ears, and longs for a beautiful librarian (Emily Young), who has eyes for a hunky Ukrainian janitor." For his thesis project at NYU, Matheny wrote, directed and starred in the
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
-winning film, '' God of Love''. The film is a comedy about a lounge-singing darts champion Raymond Goodfellow (portrayed by Matheny) "who finds his prayers are answered – literally – when he receives a mysterious package of passion-inducing darts." The catch is that the woman he loves, a drummer in his band, is in love with Ray's best friend, the guitarist in the band. Matheny funded ''God of Love'' with a combination of student loans, his savings and some production grants, and shot the film in 10 days. Matheny described the bohemian feel he sought to establish for the film as follows:
"I'm a huge jazz fan, and I've always loved jazz photography from the 1950s and '60s. I knew that the film would open in a kind of bohemian-ish jazz setting, so I thought that this kind of black-and-white visual treatment would give the movie an overall cool, romantic, nostalgic quality. And, of course, my cinematographer Bobby Webster was a key player in helping me bring that idea to life. We looked at lots of films that featured jazz scenes: '
I Want to Live! ''I Want to Live!'' is a 1958 American independent biographical film noir drama film directed by Robert Wise, and starring Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Virginia Vincent, and Theodore Bikel. It follows the life of Barbara Graham, a prosti ...
' and '
Paris Blues ''Paris Blues'' is a 1961 American musical romantic drama film directed by Martin Ritt, starring Sidney Poitier as expatriate jazz saxophonist Eddie Cook, and Paul Newman as trombone-playing Ram Bowen. The two men romance two vacationing Amer ...
' were two visual touchstones, in particular. The
French New Wave The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...
was an aesthetic influence, as well, in some of the film's montage scenes."


Academy Award

On February 27, 2011, Matheny won the
Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film The Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is an award presented at the annual Academy Awards ceremony. The award has existed, under numerous names, since 1957. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate awards, ''Best Short Subject, On ...
for "God of Love." The film had previously been rejected by Sundance and Slamdance. In a pre-Oscars interview, Matheny noted, "The Oscar nomination means a lot to me. I've been kind of a psycho Oscar fan my whole life and even, at one point, memorized every Best Picture winner -- which is still a pretty good party trick -- so to actually get a nomination is an amazing event in my life." Matheny's acceptance speech was considered one of the highlights of the Academy Awards telecast. Descriptions of Matheny's appearance at the award ceremony ranged from the merely descriptive ("mop-haired," "bushy-haired,") to the critical ("somewhat shaggy-looking," "Brillo-headed," and "a vast black bouffant that makes him look like an untidy microphone.") and even laudatory ("follicularly fecund," the "God of Hair").
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rated him as the "Worst Groomed" nominee. At the start of his acceptance speech, Matheny joked, "I should've gotten a haircut." He went on to thank his mother, who provided craft services on the film, the "great state of Delaware," and "the love of my life," the Russian-born composer, Sasha Gordon, who scored the film. The ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' reported it was "safe to say he was out of his comfort zone during the star-studded event," and noted that Matheny admitted he was "standing behind
Robert Downey Jr. Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965), also known as RDJ, is an American actor. One of the highest-grossing actors of all time, his films as a leading actor have grossed over $14 billion worldwide. In 2008, Downey was named by ''Time ...
, trying to get on TV." ''
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'' called him "a contender for the best acceptance speech." The ''
Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The C ...
'' reported, "We didn't know who Luke Matheny was before he won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short for ''God of Love'', but we fell in love with him the moment the mop-haired director opened his mouth ... The young filmmaker's enthusiasm was infectious, and even the Hollywood elite applauded when Matheny thanked his mother ..."


Career since

Matheny's first feature film writing credit, '' A Birder's Guide to Everything'', a coming-of-age comedy that was co-written with Rob Meyer, was released by Focus World and Screen Media on March 21, 2014. Matheny's feature film directorial debut, '' Lovesick'' (2014), a romantic comedy starring
Matt LeBlanc Matthew Steven LeBlanc (; born July 25, 1967) is an American actor. He garnered global recognition with his portrayal of Joey Tribbiani in the NBC sitcom ''Friends'' and in its spin-off series, '' Joey''. For his work on ''Friends'', LeBlanc ...
, was released in theaters and on demand in 2015. Between 2013 and 2015, Matheny also directed ten episodes of the comedy television series ''
Maron Maron, also called Maroun or Maro (, '; , '; ; ), was a 4th-century Syriac Christian hermit monk in the Taurus Mountains whose followers, after his death, founded a religious Christian movement that became known as the Maronite Church, in full ...
''.


Filmography


Film

* '' God of Love'' (2010) - Writer, Director, Actor (short) * '' Lovesick'' (2014) - Director * '' A Birder's Guide to Everything'' (2014) - Co-writer


Television

* ''
Maron Maron, also called Maroun or Maro (, '; , '; ; ), was a 4th-century Syriac Christian hermit monk in the Taurus Mountains whose followers, after his death, founded a religious Christian movement that became known as the Maronite Church, in full ...
'' (2013–2015) - Directed 10 episodes * ''
Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street ''Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street'' is an American live action, magic realism family television series created by David Anaxagoras that was initially streamed for two seasons (2014–16) on Amazon Prime Video. The series, follows young G ...
'' (2014) - Directed 11 episodes, wrote 4 episodes * '' The Kicks'' (2016) - Directed 2 episodes * ''
Me and My Grandma ''Me and My Grandma'' is a comedy series created by Eva Gutowski and Annie Stamell that premiered on March 22, 2017 on YouTube Red and Flying Bark Productions. The series stars Gutowski and Rhea Perlman and is executive produced by Stamell, Gu ...
'' (2017) - Directed all 6 episodes * ''
The Dangerous Book for Boys ''The Dangerous Book for Boys'', by Conn Iggulden, Conn and Hal Iggulden is a guidebook published by HarperCollins, aimed at boys "from eight to eighty." It covers around eighty topics, including how to build a treehouse, grow a crystal, or t ...
'' (2018) - Directed 2 episodes * ''
Ghostwriter A ghostwriter is a person hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...
'' (2019) - Directed 1 episode * '' Black Jesus'' (2019) - Directed 2 episodes * ''
The Baby-Sitters Club ''The Baby-Sitters Club'' (also known as the BSC) is a series of novels written by Ann M. Martin and published by Scholastic Corporation, Scholastic between 1986 and 2000. Collectively, the series has sold more than 190 million copies.Then, the f ...
'' (2020) - Directed 2 episodes


References


External links

*
Luke Matheny on Twitter

Luke Matheny on Facebook

Trailer for ''God of Love''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matheny, Luke Male actors from Wilmington, Delaware Male actors from New York City Directors of Live Action Short Film Academy Award winners 1976 births Living people Medill School of Journalism alumni Tisch School of the Arts alumni Writers from Wilmington, Delaware Student Academy Award winners Writers from New York City Concord High School (Delaware) alumni