Matt Walsh (comedian)

Matt Walsh
Walsh at the New York PaleyFest 2014 for the TV show Veep
Born	Matthew Paul Walsh (1964-10-13) October 13, 1964 (age 52) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, Comedian, Director, Writer
Years active	1996–present
Spouse(s)	Morgan
Children	3

Matthew "Matt" Paul Walsh (born October 13, 1964) is an American actor, comedian, director, and writer best known as a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade improvisational sketch comedy troupe and currently for co-starring as Mike McLintock on the HBO comedy series Veep, for which he has received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He also previously starred in short-lived comedy programs such as Dog Bites Man on Comedy Central and Players on Spike TV. He also starred in the 2014 disaster movie Into the Storm.

Walsh was born in Chicago, the fourth of seven children of Dick and Audrey Walsh. He graduated from Hinsdale South High School in 1982. While in high school he played on the football team as a backup tight end. He attended Northern Illinois University, where he graduated with a degree in Psychology, also spending a year studying abroad in Austria at Salzburg College.

After college, his interest shifted to performing when he started taking improvisational comedy classes in Chicago, where he would become a regular performer at the Annoyance Theater and ImprovOlympic, where he studied under legendary improv teacher Del Close. In 1991, he met comedian Matt Besser, with whom he began performing stand-up comedy. Along with Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, and Ian Roberts, he is a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade improv comedy troupe and played "Trotter" in the troupe's sketch comedy series, which ran for three seasons on Comedy Central. Before the show, the UCB comedy foursome had already been doing improv shows at their theatre in New York, which used to be a burlesque house before they remodeled it to become a theatre. To date, they have founded four successful Upright Citizens Brigade comedy theaters located in New York at UCB Chelsea and The East Village UCB, and Los Angeles with UCB Franklin and UCB Sunset.