Matthew Porretta

Matthew Charles Porretta, born May 29, 1965, in Darien, Connecticut, is an American actor whose career spans Broadway, television, film, and video game voice acting. He grew up in a family with deep roots in performance: his father, Frank Porretta, was a tenor, opera singer, and musical theater actor, while his mother, Roberta Palmer Porretta, a former Miss Ohio 1956, was a spinto soprano who later pursued an international opera career after graduating from the Juilliard School of Music. Porretta has four siblings, including his eldest brother Frank Porretta III, an opera singer, and brother Greg, who has worked across multiple artistic disciplines and has guest-starred alongside Matthew on television. His sisters Anna and Roberta are also in the entertainment industry; Anna worked as a writer for Talk Soup.

Porretta's stage career began with the national tour of Les Misérables, where he played Marius Pontmercy between 1989 and 1994. By the age of 25 he was already considered a Broadway veteran and was studying at the Manhattan School of Music. His Broadway credits, spanning 1987 to 2004, include Les Misérables and Passion. In 1994 he joined the original Broadway cast of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, portraying Count Ludovic. Although he did not appear in the filmed version of the production, Porretta reprised the role for the original Broadway cast recording, which won Best Musical Theater Album at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards.

In 1990, Porretta transitioned into television with recurring roles on Wings and Beverly Hills, 90210. His first significant film role came in 1993, when he played Will Scarlet O'Hara in Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He subsequently starred as Robin Hood in the first two seasons of The New Adventures of Robin Hood beginning in 1997, and has continued working in independent films, commercials, and television since that time.

Beginning in 2010, Porretta took on the voice role of the titular character in Remedy Entertainment's psychological action thriller video game Alan Wake. He returned to the role in Alan Wake's American Nightmare in 2012 and again in Alan Wake 2 in 2023, as well as in a Dead by Daylight DLC chapter released in 2024. He also voiced Dr. Casper Darling in Remedy's Control and portrayed Marco Graziani in Starfield.

In his personal life, Porretta has two sons, Luigi, born May 22, 2001, and Enzo, born April 13, 2008, with his former wife Gleice. The couple married in 2012 and divorced in 2014, and Porretta continues to live in Darien with his sons. In December 2016, he was struck with a beer mug during a bar altercation, sustaining cuts to his left eye and cheek, a facial fracture, spinal injuries, and damage to his nasal septum. Emergency surgery was required to preserve his vision, and he has continued to experience vision issues as a result. Porretta filed a lawsuit in March 2017 against both the bar owner and the alleged attacker. The case moved forward in June 2019, and in 2023 the attacker pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, receiving a five-year jail sentence suspended after serving between six and 18 months, along with up to five years of probation.