Mathew A. Cherry Biography
Matthew A. Cherry is an American film director, writer, and producer. He wrote and directed two films, and is an executive at Monkeypaw Productions.
He is best known for the animated short film, Hair Love, which was picked up by Sony Animation in March 2019 for distribution.
The Kickstarter campaign for Hair Love raised over $200,000 and broke the record for the highest amount raised for any short film on the platform.
In 2007 he retired and moved to LA to pursue a career in entertainment landing work as a production assistant on over 40 commercials and as a director for over 20 music videos. Matthew received his first credit in 2008 when he directed a music video for R&B artist Terry Dexter.
Mathew A. Cherry Age
He was born on December 14th, 1981 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He is 37 years old as of 2019.
Mathew A. Cherry Early Life And Education
He was born and raised in Chicago. He attended the University of Akron, where he played on the football team and earned a bachelor’s degree in media
Mathew A. Cherry Career
Time starring Reagan Gomez-Preston & Terri J. Vaughn and recently released a new short film entitled Forward which premiered on Ebony.com. Matthew also writes & directs web series like the award-winning series “Almost 30” and “Almost Home”.
Matthew is also a feature filmmaker and first feature film The Last Fall starred Lance Gross, Nicole Beharie, Vanessa Bell Calloway Keith David, Harry Lennix and Darrin Dewitt Henson.
The Last Fall made its world premiere at SXSW Film Festival and received awards at the African American Film Festival for Best Screenplay and Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival for the HBO Best Feature Film Award.
After a limited theatrical release, The Last Fall was acquired by Image Entertainment in Fall 2012 and made its television premiere on BET in December 2012 and is currently streaming on Netflix Hulu.
Matthew’s latest feature film 9 Rides premiered at SXSW 2016 in the Narrative Spotlight category and stars Dorian Missick, Omar Dorsey, Robinne Lee, Xosha Roquemore, Amin Joseph, Skye P. Marshall, Thomas Q. Jones & Tracie Thoms and is about a Uber driver who gets life-changing news on New Year’s Eve.
Most recently Matthew directed upcoming episodes of the TBS series ‘The Last OG’ With Tracy Morgan and Tiffany Haddish, the CBS drama event series ‘The Red Line’ executive produced by Ava Duvernay & Greg Berlanti.
The hit new ABC action-comedy series ‘Whiskey’ Cavalier which stars Scott Foley & Laura Cohan. Matthew was also an executive producer on the Academy Award-nominated film BlackKklansman from Spike Lee and is a Co-Producer on the TBS series The Last OG.
Mathew A. Cherry Hair Love
His current project is titled “Hair Love” and it is an animated short film about an African American father trying to do his daughter’s hair for the first time and he recently partnered with Sony Pictures Animation on the project. The campaign surpassed its initial goal of $75,000 and raised over $300,000. According to Kickstarter, that exceeds the amount raised by any other short film project on the platform.
Matthew A. Cherry co-directed the film with Everett Downing. On March 20, 2019, Sony Animation announced they had picked up Hair Love. Which is slated to be released to audiences later in the year. Written by Matthew A. Cherry and illustrated by artist Vashti Harrison, which was released on May 14, 2019.
The book was on the New York Times Book Review Children’s Best Sellers list. Matthew A. Cherry works at Jordan Peele’s production company Monkeypaw (Us, Get Out, Twilight Zone) as a film and television executive.
Mathew A. Cherry NFL
The fact that Matthew Cherry was a wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Panthers, and Baltimore Ravens is the least most interesting thing about him. He was a star at the University of Akron. He still holds the school record for most yards on punt returns in a season, with 305 in 2003, the same year he was named second-team All-Mid-American Conference.
But Cherry gave up the game in 2007. He walked away from the Ravens, his final team, with a $30,000 pretax settlement for a shoulder injury after being placed on injured reserve. His professional career lasted about three seasons — some of it on practice squads, some of it on a roster. It was time for a pivot.
The settlement money helped him move to Los Angeles. Where he was just another kid from the Midwest trying to make a go at this Hollywood dream. He worked at it hard. For 12 solid years, including a stint of unemployment that sent him back home to Chicago to live with mom and dad.
And finally, his grind paid off — and then some. Cherry is now a TV director, an executive at Jordan Peele’s highly successful Monkeypaw Productions, helping to bring some of Ava DuVernay’s vision to life on CBS’s new limited series The Red Line and working on an animated short in partnership with Sony Pictures Animation. He also directed an episode of ABC’s new series Whiskey Cavalier.
None of this came easy. Not when he set up fundraising accounts to finance his first feature film. Not when his mother died suddenly of an aneurysm — after telling him the previous night how proud she was seeing him begin to fulfill his dreams.
Mathew A. Cherry Twitter
#HairLove is now available everywhere books are sold! Pick up a copy today and tag us in your pictures. @VashtiHarrison @KokilaBooks @Tweetpathi @Monica_aYoung @penguinkids pic.twitter.com/mWk5RBcccD
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) May 14, 2019
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1525794/
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