Matt Rippy

Matt Rippy (born January 26, 1968) is an American actor, born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in Houston, Texas.[1] He is most known for the recent Netflix series Glória, his role as the 'real' Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood in 2007 and his comic stage performances with the Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Matt Rippy
Rippy on location in London, April 2021.
Born	Matthew Damon Rippy January 26, 1968 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Other names	Rip
Education	High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1990–present
Website	www.mattrippy.com

Rippy began acting at an early age putting on performances in the family living room for family and friends which led to his first public performance at The Country Playhouse at the age of 12. He attended the drama department at Houston's prestigious High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) and was a member of the Alley Theatre repertory company for three seasons.[2]

In 1994 Rippy moved to England where he joined the Reduced Shakespeare Company for a record breaking run in London's West End, performing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), The Complete History of America (abridged) and The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged). In 2002 he was a Helen Hayes Award nominee for Outstanding Lead Actor for his role in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He toured with the company on numerous occasions around the United States, UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.[3] Rippy would continue off and on to perform, direct and help develop new plays with the Reduced Shakespeare Company for the next twenty years.

Rippy launched his TV and film career in 1995 with a guest appearance on Goodnight Sweetheart with Nicholas Lyndhurst for the BBC.[4] He has worked extensively in UK television, including appearances in Cracker, Jonathan Creek, Ultimate Force, Doctors, Holby City, Secret Diary of a Call Girl and The Crown. In a 2007 television appearance, Rippy portrayed the namesake of Jack Harkness of Torchwood in the first series' twelfth episode, "Captain Jack Harkness".[5] In this critically acclaimed episode, Captain Jack (Rippy) was a young American volunteer serving as an RAF Group Captain stationed in Cardiff. He was in a heterosexual relationship, and was eventually revealed to be attracted to Torchwood's Jack, who after an unfortunate "temporal shift", landed in 1941 during the height of the Cardiff blitz. The episode was the favorite selected by fans for the 2020 Radio Times Watch-along simulcast.[6]

He also appears in the films Day of the Dead, Boogeyman 3, Beyond the Sea, The Monuments Men and Black Beauty.[7] Rippy starred in the cult B-movie Roboshark released on the SyFy Channel in 2015. SciFi & Scary gave the film 5/5: "Overall, Roboshark was a delight to watch and to interact with, because, yes, folks, Roboshark will follow you on Twitter."[8] In 2016, he appeared in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as Corporal Rostok. Almost all of his scenes were cut from the film, however there is a Lego mini-figure of his character.[9]

Rippy is most recently seen as CIA agent James Wilson in the Netflix series Glória.