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MattWhelan

  • Actor
Matt-Whelan-profile-image.jpg

Christchurch-raised Matt Whelan got his screen break in 2008‘s Show of Hands; but it was his role as the lovesick Brad on Go Girls that brought him a wider audience. Three award-nominated, starring roles in films followed: cross-cultural romance My Wedding and Other Secrets, travel drama Most Fun You Can Have Dying, and Radio Hauraki tale 3 Mile Limit. In 2017 he was Hugh Hefner in Amazon series American Playboy — before flying to Columbia to chase drug cartels, for Netflix hit Narcos. Since then he's featured in local TV dramas The Gone, A Remarkable Place to Die and Under the Vines, horror film The Tank and romance Workmates. 

Screenography

2026 As: Cam Film
2025 As: Tom Film
We Bury the Dead
2025 As: Mitch Film
Lost Boy
2024 As: The Inspector Short film
Figment
2024 As: Dan Short film

Awards

2014 Rialto Channel NZ Film Awards (The Moas)
Nominated for Best Actor: for 3 Mile Limit

2012 Sorta Unofficial New Zealand Film Awards
Nominated for Best Actor: for The Most Fun You Can Have Dying

“I got it through my agent. I saw it and thought, perfect, this guy is tall and skinny and he has to speak a bit of Mandarin.”

Matt Whelan, on hearing about the male lead's requirements for 2011 movie My Wedding and Other Secrets