I was up late last week and stumbled across an episode of MTV’s “Ridiculousness,” which is basically the poor man’s version of Comedy Central’s “Tosh.0.” The special guest on this certain episode was none other than Matt Shively, a child star who’s grown up to do a number of horror flicks and big television roles. Of course, I’ll always remember him as Ryan Laserbeam in “True Jackson, VP,” a teen drama-comedy that aired on Nickelodeon from 2008 to 2011. Matt Shively was a Nickelodeon baby, one of their prototypes and favorite stars; as seen with his involvement in the “Winx Club” franchise from 2007 to 2014 and his co-starring roles in “The Troop” and “Bucket and Sinner’s Epic Adventure.” However, it should be known that Matt Shively got his start in the horror genre as Nathan in Ulli Lommel’s The Tomb (2007). Though he needed to remain squeaky clean for the Nickelodeon machine, Shively appeared in 2012 horror anthology Barrio Tales before bouncing from the big network.
Next, Matt could be found as the male lead, Ben, in Paranormal Activity 4 (2012). The film debuted at #1 in its first week of release, and gave Matt his first Blockbuster hit. A year later, he briefly appeared as Terry in zombie horror-comedy April Apocalypse. Making the leap back to television, he took on more adult roles with episodes of “Aquarius,” “CSI,” and “Teen Wolf,” which culminated in a co-starring role in short lived series “The Real O’Neals.” Although his role as Damo was incredibly brief, Shively was featured in one of my guilty pleasures of last year, the mega-hyped reboot – Power Rangers. Later in the same year, he appeared as Toby in a horror film titled Spook, but it’s hard to find any information on that movie and I don’t think it ever saw release. Most recently, Matt saw a three episode stint on Drew Barrymore’s zombie hit series “Santa Clarita Diet.”
Looking toward the future, Matt has three comedies coming out within the next year – 25, Father of the Year, and Underwater Upside Down. Not bad for a dude that’s not even 30 yet!
