About Matt Markey: 'Truth Be Told'
I was born and raised in the City of White Plains, New York to James and Sofia Markey. It wasn't until I was twenty years old and attending Westchester Community College that I took my first acting class and found what was truly going to motivate me in life. After transferring to the University of Rhode Island and being accepted into their theatre program, it became even more apparent to me, that the arts is what I strived for. This would strike a significant chord; U.R.I. is also where I met my inspiration to make my first feature film RICKY.
"Since my childhood I have been enamored by the concept of a powerful locomotive train."
Every Sunday my Mother and I would visit my Aunt Catherine on 108 Harlem Avenue. Right across the street from my Aunt's house stood the North White Plains Train Station. I was drawn to the trains and the mysteriousness of their journeys; where were these trains coming from, and more interestingly where were they going?
The presence of the oncoming trains brought such movement that it would shake my Aunt's house from top to bottom. Throughout college and into my adulthood I would ride that very Metro North blue line train into Manhattan for my acting adventures. One Christmas Eve my college girlfriend gave me a pink slip and told me to make some permanent "tracks" of my own. But If it weren't for that pink slip and the tenacity of my idol Rocky Balboa there simply would be no RICKY movie.
"Eventually in between being an inspired actor and struggling waiter I feverishly wrote. Then wrote some more putting my heartbreak pain into my pen. This creative expression allowed me to pull and muscle through some of those hard times."
In 2004 I had a Co-Starring role in the railroad drama TRACKS starring John Heard and Ice-T. Later on when TRACKS was in post production I loaded up my dented red Chevy and hauled my life across country to California. The time had come to "follow that dream" of mine.
My homesickness of the East Coast would be the fuel to labor the jobs I truly loathed. After much rejection I was eventually hired for small acting gigs here and maybe there. My lack of accomplishment in the entertainment industry would then reach a significant turning point. I landed a national commercial role portraying "Shoeless Joe Jackson" that led the opening ceremony to the 2005 World Series of Baseball. That year the Chicago White Sox would then go on to victoriously win the Series.
After a few more years of writing what was originally called 'Everybody Plays The Fool' the story would later move on to become an award winning romantic comedy entitled RICKY. My favorite scene in the movie is when fighting underdog "Ricky McDown" is running along side the railroad tracks mirroring my hero, the great Rocky Balboa. Four Best Romantic Comedy Awards later, RICKY is now featured worldwide- Hard Work Wins.
"When I was a child, I was a dreamer. I watched movies, and I was the hero in the movie. I learned very early in life that: ‘Without a dream, the day would never end; without a dream, a man ain't got a friend; without a dream, the road would never begin - without a dream. So I'll keep following that dream."
"I can remember very early on in my young life looking into the hopeful eyes of my Father Jimmy and the sound of his voice singing to me the Elvis song "Follow That Dream". Without the support of my family I could have never followed my dream."
