Born and raised in New Orleans, Matt moved to northern Louisiana
after high school. Originally a theater major with dreams of directing
films, soon a reality check switched his focus to the business world.
Eventually, he would stumble into the world of television with a
two-year stint at a three station televison group in Shreveport. It was
in this position that he learned the skills of media buying, video
editing, and field production.
After long days and late nights
filled with hard work, an unexpected opportunity arose in sunny Southern
California. Deep in the desert of Palm Springs, a brand new CBS
affiliate was built, and among thousands of applicants, Matt was hired
as the station's Promotions Coordinator. Charged with marketing the
nation's first new CBS affiliate in over twenty years, Matt and the
station's staff successfully developed the reputable image for KPSP-TV
through numerous on-air contests, media advertising, and local charity
work. In addition to traditional promotional duties, Matt often took on
additional production roles for the station.
Four years later, he
joined the staff of The Desert Sun, the Gannett-owned newspaper for the
Coachella Valley. Here, he helped tranform the newsroom into a 24-hour
Information Center, which adopted non-traditional forms of media,
including video, live chat, and mobile messaging. His contributions to
the workload earned numerous local, regional, and national awards for
the newspaper. In 2008, he launched the area's Metromix.com
site, a portal for entertainment information and coverage catered to
young web users. More recently, Matt has spearheaded all of the paper's
social media efforts and created two microsites - one for local real estate
agents, one for visitors and tourists heading to the Coachella Valley
In addition to his work addiction, Matt has a
major love affair with music and travel. A proud native of the South,
he feels very comfortable in the kitchen - although his current workload
means that far too many of his meals are of the take-out variety. While
his childhood dreams of being a rockstar may be long gone, there are
still many years left for him to create his first of hopefully many film
masterpieces - and you can see some of his early film (ok, it's really
video) work at YouTube.com/mikehatton, which features comedy
sketches performed by his friend Mike Hatton. Matt owns a cat named
Pantera (it's the Italian word for Panther), who he rescued from the
mean streets of Beverly Hills, and a small dog with awesome black hair
named Gizmo. He owns too many electronics and computers, and watches
too much crappy reality TV.
What does all of this mean? Basically,
that he's a normal guy who likes to have fun and you would probably love
to hang out with.