Matt Schatz is a writer and a composer for stage and screen. His play THE BURDENS(2016 O’Neill New Play Conference) will receive its World Premiere at City Theatre in Pittsburgh (directed by Tyne Rafaeli) in spring 2019 (with a subsequent National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere TBA). Two of Matt’s new musicals, AN UNTITLED NEW PLAY BY JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE(2017 O’Neill Finalist), and, WHERE EVER IT MAY BE BEST(EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Commission) were developed as part of SPARK 2018, Pittsburgh CLO’s inaugural festival of New Small Musicals. Other plays and musicals include: GEORAMA(five 2017 NYMF Awards including “Outstanding Lyrics”), DUNKFEST ʼ88, I BATTLED LENNY ROSS (book by Anna Ziegler), and THE TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD. Matt is currently working on a commission for an original grunge musical from Seattle Rep and BMG Music with director Wendy C. Goldberg.

Matt won the $100,000 Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre for LOVE TRAPEZOID in 2012. He has been a nominee for the Lanford Wilson Award, a runner-up for Austin Film Festival Playwriting Award, and a finalist for the P73 Playwriting Fellowship, Jonathan Larson Award, and Fred Ebb Award. His work has been commissioned, developed or produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville, Ars Nova, Astoria Performing Arts Center, CLO, City Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Florida Rep, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Jill Furman Productions, Luna Stage, New York Musical Festival, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Seattle Rep and others.

Matt is a proud member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Playwrights Union, and Writers Guild of America, West. He is an alumnus of Youngblood and Interstate 73 writers groups and the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. MFA: Carnegie Mellon. BFA: University of the Arts. As a TV writer, Matt has developed for Fox Television Studios, USA/Universal Cable Productions, TBS/Will Packer Productions, and Fullscreen. He is currently developing a musical mystery series for Entertainment One/Free Association and he has been selected as one of six playwrights for The Geffen Playhouse’s Writers’ Room in Los Angeles. Born in Camden, NJ, Matt currently lives in Los Angeles, with his wife Jenna.