Many Hats MORE THAN AN ACTOR, HE ALSO WRITES, TEACHES, DIRECTS AND DOES VOICEOVERS
BY JESSICA LASKEY ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
W
hen people use the term “Renaissance man,” they’re usually being generous. If you’re using it to describe Matt K. Miller, you’re being accurate. Miller is one of those rare artistic professionals who does more than just act. He also directs, teaches, writes award-winning plays and lends his expressive, resonant voice to everything from commercials to anime. Yes, you read that right: anime. “When I was living in Los Angeles, I submitted a cassette tape—that tells you how long ago it was—to an anime producer I knew,” says Miller, who was cast as Tenchi in the Cartoon Network anime series “Tenchi Muyô!” Matt Miller
“I really tried to do it all in L.A. I got a lot of anime work because I could record really fast. You have to be able to act, have a character and match the ‘lip flap’ of the animation." Miller’s cartoon work is just one fascinating facet of his career, which started back in his native Rockville Centre, N.Y. He did theater in high
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school and college, then looked for a place where he could spread his wings. He didn’t want to go straight to New York without a union card, so he headed to Chicago instead. It was the early 1980s, a good time to be an actor in the Windy City. With consistent acting work, it wasn’t long before he earned his membership card for all three unions: Actors’ Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. After eight years in Chicago, Miller moved to Los Angeles in 1990.
“I really tried to do it all in L.A.,” Miller says. “I got a lot of anime work because I could record really fast. You have to be able to act, have a character and match the ‘lip flap’ of the animation. It’s tricky, but I happened to have a knack for it.” There, he added to his résumé, working in anime, theater, television and film. He had roles on the soap operas “Santa Barbara” and “General Hospital” and appeared in the film “Gods and Generals.” But Miller wasn’t satisfied living in L.A. “I was working a lot but had no real artistic satisfaction,” he admits. “I wasn’t happy in L.A. My first marriage was breaking up, and I
found I was happier doing work out of town.” A majority of those out-of-town opportunities were coming from Sacramento Theatre Company, where Miller was performing regularly. (In fact, the first time I ever saw Miller onstage was at STC in 2003 in “Fully Committed,” a manic one-man show in which Miller played a total of 40 distinct characters.) STC’s thenartistic director, Peggy Shannon, loved working with Miller so much that she offered to keep him busy onstage if he moved to Sacramento. Move Miller did, in the one week he