Matthew Altman

WGAW writer on strike. Born and raised in New York City, I grew up with a love of reading, martial arts, comics, Dungeons & Dragons, Television, and movies, all of which started at a very young age. By the time I went to Stuyvesant High School, I had already earned my 1st Dan Black Belt (in Tae Kwan Do), and knew I wanted to be a writer. I graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the Honor's English program at SUNY Albany. While living in NY and writing in my spare time, I worked in theater on Broadway as a union stagehand running a followspot and working as an electrician like my father, on such shows as Les Miserables (7 years), Nine, Anything Goes, Guys And Dolls, South Pacific, The Light In The Piazza, The Coast of Utopia, Henry IV, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Smokey Joe’s Café, Crazy For You, and Putting It Together (to name a few). I have also earned a 8th Dan Black Belt in Chinese Hawaiian Kenpo, and a 3rd Dan Black Belt in Tae Kwan Do since starting martial arts when I was eight. Before moving out to LA, I placed in the top 30 semifinals of the Nicholl fellowship in 2008, and a Quarterfinalist with different scripts in 2009 and 2010 (the last year I was eligible). I was a top 4 finalist in the horror Slamdance competition in 2010, a finalist in American Zoetrope, Script Pipeline, Creative world Awards, and Page International Awards. In 2015 an action script I co-wrote won the action category of the Creative World Awards.
In early 2011, through the encouragement of my manager, I moved to LA and I’ve been a full time writer out here ever since.
Since moving out here eleven years ago (in January), I’ve written numerous TV pilots and feature screenplays, and sold the feature script SAM & LIZ: A KILLER LOVE STORY to Relativity, and the feature script RED WIDOW to STX (2016 Hit List). In 2019 I sold my action feature script, LOCKED & LOADED to Solstice Entertainment. I also adapted the YA novel, BLACKBIRD, for Lionsgate/Summit and Alloy entertainment, and I have optioned numerous feature scripts, including THE FEUD and FALLEN GRACE, written with my friend, Dave Matalon, and THE HOLLOW, which will go into production early next year. I have a produced horror feature, FEED THE DEVIL, that I co-wrote with the director, that is streaming on Amazon.
I have been a member of the WGAW for the last six years and I've been a member of the New York stage hand's union, IATSE Local #1 since I was twenty-five.