Ben Mathews is an award-winning filmmaker, actor and coach. As a director, his work has won over 25 international awards for film, television, comedy, advertising and documentary, and screened at film festivals all over the world, including Cannes. Ben is the only Australian ever nominated for the Student Academy Awards for his short film Emily. As a writer, he was nominated for an Australian Writer’s Guild AWGIE Award. In addition to film, he has written and directed television for the ABC and MTV, such as BedHead and Deadbeat Dads, documentaries, web series and commercials for clients including Microsoft, TedX, AMP, TMGM, Pilot, Murdoch Books, OzHarvest and DiDi.

As an actor Ben has appeared in over 30 plays, on film and in television. He has worked at the Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir Street and the Darlinghurst Theatre Company, among others. His film and television credits include Love My Way (Fox), In a Woman’s World (ABC), the TruTV pilot Happy People Suck, the award-winning film Nineteen and the upcoming feature film Everything in Between. He has worked alongside the likes of Academy Award nominee Jackie Weaver, Rose Byrne, Neil Armfield, Wayne Blair, Barrie Kosky and Brendan Cowell.

Ben is also one of the country’s most sought-after acting coaches. He is the founder of ACTING MASTERY in Sydney. He also currently teaches for AMAW Sydney, founded by the world-renowned acting teacher, Anthony Meindl, as well as NIDA, the Diploma Course at Screenwise, the Bachelor of Arts students at AFTRS and at The Hub Studio. He has coached clients to great success on a multitude of shows and films, including Neighbours, Home & Away, Les Norton, Sabrina, Stargate Origins, Ash vs. The Evil Dead, Hacksaw Ridge, Puberty Blues, Cleverman, A Place to Call Home, Here Come the Habibs, and Reckoning among others, as well as productions for the Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir Street, Melbourne Theatre Company and QTC.

Ben is an acting graduate of the Atlantic Theater Company, New York, where he studied under David Mamet, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, and Clark Gregg, among others. He is both a directing & screenwriting graduate of the Australian Film, Television & Radio School (AFTRS) in Sydney where he was awarded the Kenneth B Myer Scholarship for Exceptional Talent in 2010 and won the Foxtel Scholarship for Exceptional New Talent in 2012. 

AWARDS

Nominated for the Student Academy Awards 2012 Short Foreign Film Award - ‘Emily’
Winner, Best Short Film, Newport Beach Film Festival California - ‘Emily’
Winner of the Gold Shorts Award, Shorts Film Festival, Adelaide- ‘Emily’
Winner of Best Director & Nominated for Best Short Film at the China International KingBonn New Media Film Festival - ‘Emily’
Winner of the Audience Award & Nominated for Best Short Film, Festival International des Ecoles de Cinéma in Belgium - ‘Emily’
Winner of the 2012 Camério Award for Best Short Film at Festival International de Cinéma Jeunesse de Rimouski in Canada - ‘Emily’

Winner of the MTV ONE80PROJECT - ’Deadbeat Dads’
Judge’s Choice, Public Vote, Best Student Entry

Nominated for the Australian Writer’s Guild AWGIE Award for Web Series - ‘BedHead’
Winner of Best Comedy Director LA WebFest - ‘BedHead’
Nominated for Best Comedy LA WebFest - ‘BedHead’

Winner of the Shark Island Prize for Documentary - ‘Chrysalis’

Winner of the AWARD Award for Advertising - ‘OzHarvest’
Nominated for the PR Sabre Award for Advertising - ‘OzHarvest’

Winner of the Silver Telly Award for Advertising - TMGM - ‘Santa Max’

Winner of the Silver Telly Award for Advetising - Manscaped -’You’re the Man, man!’

Third Place Winner of the ITS Best Sketch Competition - ‘Work from Home’

Winner of the Foxtel Scholarship for Exceptional New Talent
Winner of the Kenneth B. Meyer Award for Exceptional Talent

Winner, Best Supporting Actor at the Festival of the Arts - ‘Guildenstern and Rosencrantz Merely Mishandled’
Winner, Best Actor, New South Wales University Theatrical Society - ‘Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs’
Winner Best Theatre Director, New South Wales University Theatrical Society - ‘Oleanna’