Matthew Arkin

Matthew Arkin is an American actor, acting instructor, and author born on March 21, 1960, in Brooklyn, New York. He is the son of actor Alan Arkin and nurse Jeremy Yaffe, and the younger brother of actor Adam Arkin. His half-brother is Anthony Dana Arkin, whose mother is actress Barbara Dana. After his parents separated during his infancy, Arkin was raised by his mother in California until age seven, at which point he moved to Greenwich Village to live with his father and stepmother. At age eight, he and his brother Adam appeared in the Academy Award-nominated short film People Soup, directed by their father. Arkin completed his secondary education at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York, before earning a degree from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. Though raised in a non-denominational household, he identifies as Jewish. He married Pamela Newkirk in May 1993; the couple had two children before divorcing in 2011. Arkin currently resides in Pasadena, California.

Following his law degree, Arkin spent five years practicing with small firms in Tarrytown and White Plains, New York, before leaving the legal profession to pursue acting. He trained at the HB Studio under Uta Hagen, Austin Pendleton, and Sheldon Patinkin. His Broadway career spans from 1995 to 2006 and includes three productions. He made his Broadway debut in 1993 in Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor, subsequently joining the production's national tour. In 1997, he portrayed Ben Silverman in the Broadway revival of The Sunshine Boys. His final Broadway credit came in 2006, when he played Reggie Ellis in Losing Louie.

Beyond Broadway, Arkin received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Gabe in the 1999 Off-Broadway premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Dinner with Friends. His regional theater work includes the South Coast Repertory in Orange County, California, where he originated roles in the world premieres of Richard Greenberg's Our Mother's Brief Affair in 2009 and Steven Drukman's The Prince of Atlantis in 2011. In 2013, he played the 600-pound central character in the West Coast premiere of Samuel Hunter's The Whale at the same theater. His screen credits include recurring appearances on Law & Order between 1991 and 2009, as well as roles in 100 Centre Street in 2001 and All My Children in 2007.

Arkin has also built a career as an acting educator. Beginning in 2008, he taught acting technique at the HB Studio in New York City and later at the Actors Studio in Los Angeles. In 2015, he became Director of the Acting Intensive Program at South Coast Repertory in Southern California. In 2016, he expanded his creative work further with the publication of the detective novel In the Country of the Blind.