
Acting
Matthew Shear
Born 1984-10-10 · New York City, New York, USA
Matthew Louis Shear is an American actor known for his work in independent film and frequent collaborations with director Noah Baumbach. He began his career with a small role in Taking Woodstock (2009) and appeared in Mistress America (2015), The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017), and Marriage Story (2019), and played Lucius Isaacson on The Alienist (2018–2020). In 2025, he made his directorial debut with Fantasy Life, which he also wrote and starred in.
Acting credits
6.3A group of families on a tropical holiday discover that the secluded beach where they are staying is somehow causing them to age rapidly – reducing their entire lives into a single day.
Old
2021
7.7A stage director and an actress struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal extremes.
Marriage Story
2019
6.5An estranged family gathers together in New York for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father.
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
2017
6.2The story of Elliot Tiber and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was. When Elliot hears that a neighboring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers thinking he could drum up some much-needed business for his parents' run-down motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbor’s farm in White Lake, New York, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life–and American culture–forever.
Taking Woodstock
2009
5.6A grief-stricken cantor in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher re-enters his life as his new adult Bat Mitzvah student. The two forlorn souls develop a special connection.
Between the Temples
2024
6.5A college freshman cures her disappointment and loneliness by allowing herself to be pulled into the wacky schemes of her future stepsister.
Mistress America
2015
6.0An uptight documentary filmmaker and his wife find their lives loosened up a bit after befriending a free-spirited younger couple.
While We're Young
2015
3.8An ordinary guy delves deep into counterculture, conspiracy theories and the like as he tries to discern the structure of society.
Don Peyote
2014
6.2An anxious New York law school dropout stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist's three granddaughters and falls for the girls' mother, an actress in a rocky marriage.
Fantasy Life
2026
When a homeless man crashes a Passover Seder, the tension between dark comedy and serious social issues erupts. Elijah explores the unexpected clash of humor and discomfort as the guests wrestle with their own assumptions and the complexities of charity, belonging, and identity.
Elijah
—
4.7A misanthropic 20-something gay visual artist, Mark, finds himself unwittingly in New York City after he lies to his mother about a job at a prestigious art gallery. He then takes a survival job babysitting for 6-year-old Milo, whose faith in Mark is empowering and ultimately, transformative.
Cubby
2019
6.0A young woman is forced to reflect on her first relationship when she inadvertently moves into her ex boyfriend's apartment building.
The Boy Downstairs
2018
NRAfter finding a gun on the beach, a young woman is caught up in a night of cascading misadventures as she teams up with her rich ex-boyfriend and his fiancée to return the gun to the Russian mob in exchange for her kidnapped dog.
Treasure Trouble
2019
6.0The narrator of our story, Nate, an emotionally detached statistician with a penchant for reducing everything to percentages and probabilities, guides us through the relationship of Ben and Sarah, chronicling its chance origins with the algorithm of a dating app. What is the probability of Ben reviving his relationship with Sarah?
The Statistical Analysis of Your Failing Relationship
2015
Behind the camera
6.2An anxious New York law school dropout stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist's three granddaughters and falls for the girls' mother, an actress in a rocky marriage.
Fantasy Life
2026
6.2An anxious New York law school dropout stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist's three granddaughters and falls for the girls' mother, an actress in a rocky marriage.
Fantasy Life
2026