Matthew Bancroft

Originally from North Wales and growing up on the shores of the south west coast, Matthew is a mix of a calm soul coupled with a vibrant presence. With a work history ranging from stable hand to cocktail barman, Doorman to Beach Control, he is widely experienced in the diversity of life, learning and adapting to whatever comes his way. This and much more has fueled Matthew's creativity; his thirst for acting and the humanity behind it. Matthew has trained extensively as an actor with solid experience in stages of all varieties and films of all sizes. Matthew has always acted and since a young age been lucky enough to play prominent roles in the majority of productions he has been involved in. He constantly showed promise and an affinity for the job. The family move from North Wales to the Jurassic Coast of Weymouth in Dorset would provide him with a freedom he relished as he grew up. After school & college Matthew was due to go on and pursue his acting and writing but found himself as an IT professional at the age of 18. At 21yrs he founded his own IT Consultancy working for global conglomerates with major offices around the UK and in the City. The lure of acting proved too strong and so Matthew ended his successful IT career. He enrolled back at college to study performance, theatre, sociology and psychology. All of which he thought useful to string his bow as an actor. It was during this period Matthew taught himself to play guitar and took singing lessons. Whilst studying acting Matthew returned to martial arts training which has featured constantly in his life since age 8. He was to train under the renown Martial Arts instructor Mo Teague. Matthew relished the hard physical regime and mindset that this mixed martial arts demanded, finding it added to his presence and ability onstage. Matthew co-founded a production company at college and successfully toured plays that were to gain the group their passing grades for the degree, and mark Matthew out as being a successful practitioner in tight ensemble work as well as an individual presence. After graduating Matthew took a year out. He worked the nightclub doors as a Door Supervisor ('bouncer'), constantly studying and observing the vast array of characters as though characters from a play, and the diverse situations and stories that bombarded him nightly. His martial arts training underwent real world scrutiny and proved solid. During the daytime he worked Beach Control on the busy sands of Weymouth Beach, another job that demanded an ability to understand and empathise with people, opening him up to people from all over the world. These experiences have been invaluable to Matthew when building on characters and scenes, a deep source of inspiration through experience. For Matthew creatively, something was still lacking. The move toward London was decided on one uneventful night on the door and in a week, he was headed for the capital. Matthew now resides in north London and has found success on the stage at the Edinburgh Festival and in films.