Matthew Charles "Matt" Berry (born 2 May 1974) is an English actor, writer, comedian and musician. Berry is perhaps best known for his appearances in The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and The Mighty Boosh, he also had his own series Snuff Box. He is renowned for his deep, rich voice, which is often enhanced for voiceover work and comic effect on screen, though reverting to his regular voice during interviews. He has lent his voice to several advertisements, most notably Volvic and The Natural Confectionary Company, as well as Absolute Radio and Australian employment website, Career One.
Berry was born in Bromham, Bedfordshire to Pauline (née Acreman) and Charles Berry, Matt has one older sister, Johanna. He began his career as a runner before appearing in the videogame magazine show Game Over on BSkyB's computer & technology channel .tv, between 1998 and 1999. Though commissioned as an editorial show on the subject matter, episodes contained a large number of comedy sketches, with Berry as the main performer. They showcased a wide range of characters, one of which was a sketch about The Exorcist named 'Fear Pushed Through The Ring' It was this sketch and others like it that resulted in Berry, Rik Henderson and Richard Pitt (the producers) being fired from the show.
Berry's first prominent TV role was playing actor "Todd Rivers" playing Dr Lucien Sanchez in the cult 2004 comedy series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. In October/November 2006, Berry joined his Garth Marenghi colleagues in the Garth Marenghi spin-off Man to Man with Dean Learner for three out of the six episodes in the series.
He later appeared as the eccentric and sinister tycoon/explorer Dixon Bainbridge in The Mighty Boosh. Berry first met The Mighty Boosh duo while performing at the Hen and Chickens Theatre, where they were resident in 2000. He can be seen in a small cameo performance in the The Mighty Boosh Live DVD.
Berry wrote and starred in the comedy show Snuff Box on BBC Three with Rich Fulcher, whom he met during the filming of the first series of The Mighty Boosh. Fulcher co-starred as Bainbridge's lackey, Bob Fossil. The Series 1 DVD of Snuff Box was released on 16 June 2008.
Berry has starred as Douglas Reynholm since the second series of The IT Crowd. He was nominated as Best Male Comedy Newcomer in the 2007 British Comedy Awards for this role, but lost out to James Corden for Gavin and Stacey.
On 5 November 2007 he starred alongside Simon Farnaby and Boosh regular Rich Fulcher in The Golf War on E4. Film appearances include the horror film The Devil's Chair, released in 2006 and in the 2009 science fiction film Moon directed by Duncan Jones.
In 2008 he became the face of Adult Swim's spoof charity appeal "Save the Workers". Berry featured in Season 3, episode 9 of the Sarah Silverman Program, filmed in Los Angeles for Comedy Central. Berry stars in the video (directed by Richard Ayoade) for the 2007 Super Furry Animals song "Runaway," from their album Hey Venus! He also appeared as an "antiques expert" in the ITV sketch show Monkey Trousers with Vic and Bob and Steve Coogan.
Berry has provided many voiceovers for both radio and television advertising. Currently, he lends his voice to the voice of George the Volcano in Volvic mineral water's April/May 2007 UK adverts, Muller Corner adverts and characters on several adverts for The Natural Confectionery Company.
He has also been in the sketch show The Wrong Door as a recurring bit part character, who runs into a snooker hall and shouts "Stop playing snooker!" then whispers an implied impossible wager to one of the players, and completes an unfeasible trick shot.
He played the part of Overmeyers, a ruthless corporate executive, in the critically acclaimed 2009 British science fiction thriller Moon.
In 2010 Berry played journalist Michael Duffy in BBC production Five Daughters relating to the Ipswich prostitute murders of 2006.
He also provides the voiceover for the instructions in the Driving Theory Test in the UK and starred in a short film called "The Search", about "a lonely man's search for the existence of life outside our universe takes a remarkable turn when he connects with a recently bereaved family".
As a musician, he composed all music for Snuff Box as well the music for A Rock Opera, which he co-wrote with Richard Ayoade. AD/BC was a half-hour parody of overblown musicals in general and Jesus Christ Superstar in particular, telling the story of the innkeeper who allowed Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus to sleep in his manger. AD/BC was broadcast in December 2004 and featured Fulcher and The Mighty Boosh stars Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. The DVD was released in the UK on 19 November 2007. He also performed a song for an episode of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace entitled One Track Lover, a spoof of cheesy romantic 80s songs.
Berry also composed music for the BBC 2 Steve Coogan comedy Saxondale and appeared in the first and third episodes of the second series of the show. He composed the theme song for the Channel 4 sketch show Blunder. He is also credited on The Peter Serafinowicz Show.
He has released four albums: Jackpot in 1995, Opium in 2005, Witchazel in 2009 and Summer Sun in 2010. He toured with Jonas 3 several times in 2006 and 2007. He stated in the first issue of Bearded Magazine that he was producing and collaborating on new material with sixties soul singer Geno Washington and was to record a third album. This album turned out to be Witchazel, which Berry released online for a limited time free download on 11 March 2009. The album is now officially released and will be available in stores in late October 2009.
His touring band is composed of members of Brighton-based experimental rock group Jonas 3. They are George Baldwin (bass), his brother Charlie (drums) and Andy Vickery (guitar). Fulcher has joined Berry on stage for several appearances. Geno Washington has also joined Berry onstage at London gigs for encores of the Snuff Box theme.
In October 2007, he provided a brand new track "Cream Pie" to Bearded Magazine for readers to download for free, followed by a cover of Blur's Sing in November 2007. 'Cream Pie' is still available to supporters of Beardaid.
Berry voiced his appreciation of the television themes of Ronnie Hazlehurst in an episode of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, and his Band played out the Screenwipe Christmas special with a rendition of Hazlehurst's theme tune for 1980s British sitcom Sorry!.
Berry presents a show on Absolute Radio where he also performs various voice overs and is described as "the voice of Absolute Radio". His podcasts can be downloaded from the Absolute radio website or from iTunes. The Matt Berry Podcast regularly features in the Top Ten of the iTunes podcast chart and its producer Vince Lynch has been nominated for Best Online Producer at the Radio Academy Production award.
