Childhood & Early Life
Matthew Jerome Barr was born on February 14, 1984 in Allen, a city located within the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area in Texas, USA. His father, Mike Barr, was a football coach at Purdue University and Southern Methodist University. His mother, Dede Barr, is a portrait artist.
Born eldest of his parents three children; he has a younger brother named Luke, and sister called Sara. Once, the two brothers saved Sara from drowning in the sea. Later, they used the incident as a great leverage, telling her all the time that she owed her life to them.
It is possible that Matthew began his education at Allen. When he was in his fourth grade, his family moved to Fairview, another Dallas suburb located close to Allen. However, he continued his education at Allen, eventually graduating from Allen High School in 2002.
While studying in Allen High School, he earned his pocket money by working in a local eatery. During this period, he also became interested in acting, eventually becoming active in the school theater group, appearing in major roles in many of its plays and musical productions.
Continue Reading Below
Early Career
Around 2001-02, while he was still in his high school, Matt Barr came to know that Richard Linklater, was planning to make a sports-drama film called ‘Friday Night Lights’ in Austin, the capital city of Texas. He decided to try his luck and auditioned for a role.
His audition must have impressed Linklater for although ‘Friday Night Lights’ was shelved for two years, the filmmaker offered him the lead role in his next film, ‘Levelland’. It was Barr’s debut film and in it he appeared in the role of Zach Stanley.
‘Levelland’, shot in Austin in the late spring and early summer of 2002, was released in theaters on 2003. Later, it was also shown at the 2003 Tribecca Film Festival. But by then, Barr had moved to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, he debuted with the ‘Impulse Control’ episode (2004) of the NBC medical drama television series, ‘ER’, appearing in it in the role of Billy. Later in May, he appeared as the cell phone bomber in the ‘Not Landing’ episode of ‘CSI: Miami’ (Crime Scene Investigation: Miami).
In 2005, he continued to do episodic work in various television productions. They include ‘Medium’ (as a seventeen year boy in the pilot episode), ‘American Dreams’ (as Nick in ‘California Dreamin' episode), ‘Over There’ (as Cracker in the pilot episode) and ‘Head Cases’ (as Will in ‘Malpractice Makes Perfect’ episode).
In 2005, he got his first recurring role, appearing as Mike Fleming in five episodes of ‘Commander in Chief’, a political drama television series aired on ABC. In the same year, he appeared in his first Hollywood film, appearing as Brandon Vandecamp in ‘American Pie Presents: Band Camp’.
In 2006, he appeared as Hooker Royce in the made-for-television crime film, 'Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise'. In the same year, he appeared as Logan Corman in the ‘The Woman in the Garden’ episode of ‘Bones’ and as Wes Seyfried in ‘The College Try’ episode of ‘The O.C.’
In 2006-2007, he once again appeared in a recurring role, enacting the role of Ian Banks (Derek) in seven episodes of ‘One Tree Hill’. Later in 2007, he was Thomas Brighton in the ‘Some Buried Bones’ episode of ‘CSI: NY’.
in 2007, he appeared in two films, as Brad in ‘Ten Inch Hero’ and as David Stanley in ‘Protecting the King’.
In 2008, Matt Barr got his first star role, appearing as David "Puck" Rainey in ‘Pedro’, a film based on the life of AIDS educator Pedro Zamora. Also in the same year, he appeared in two more films, as Jesus in ‘Open Your Eyes’ and as Tyler in ‘The House Bunny’.
In 2009, he got his first star role in a television production, appearing as Christopher "Sully" Sullivan in thirteen episodes of ‘Harper's Island’. In the same year, he appeared in his first web series, enacting the star role of Dean in six episodes of ‘Sex Ed: The Series’.
He appeared as as Dan Patch in eighteen episodes of ‘Hellcats’ (2010-2011). Side by side, he continued to make guest appearance in other television projects such as ‘Gossip Girl’, ‘Castle’, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Trauma’, ‘Friday Night Lights', ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', and 'Necessary Roughness’.
In 2012, Matt Barr returned to the big screen, appearing as Adam in the horror-thriller film, ‘Seven Below’. He appeared as Johnson "Johnse" Hatfield in History Chanel’s 'Hatfields & McCoys', a three-part Western television miniseries based on the Hatfield–McCoy feud.
In 2013, he appeared in the role of Paul Mikkelson in the historical drama film, ‘Parkland’. He starred as Christopher Porco in ‘Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story’. In 2014-2015, he appeared as Nick Hawley in nine episodes of ‘Sleepy Hollow’.
In 2016, he appeared in the role of Anthony in his eleventh film, ‘Undrafted’. It was followed in 2017 by two feature films, ‘Wild Man’ and ‘The Layover’, and one television film called ‘Dating Game Killer’. In 2017-2018, he starred as Captain Leland Gallo in the CBS drama series, ‘Valor’.
His latest major work is ‘Blood & Treasure’, an action-adventure drama television series aired on CBS since May 2019. In it, he appears as Danny McNamara. Because of its popularity, the project has since been renewed for a second season.
