BIO
John Matthew Riopelle is an American, actor, playwright, lyricist and screenwriter. He is the winner of the Gilman Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theater Award, a two-time Richard Rodgers and Jonathan Larson Grant finalist and a Fred Ebb Musical Theater Award finalist. His musical, Streets of America, with score by Tony Award Winner, Michael Rupert, was developed at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in conjunction with American University as part of their Inaugural Page to Stage Series on the Millennium Stage. It was further developed in New York City and premiered at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.
Matthew grew up in Detroit, Michigan and studied acting at the Cranbrook Theater School and Actor’s Alliance Theater Conservatory. After lying about his age, he went on to become the youngest pupil of the acclaimed actress and teacher Uta Hagen. He continued his training at Webster University, Wayne State University, The Studio Theater in Washington DC. and later with acting coach Bob Krakower in New York City.
After graduating from the Boston Conservatory of Music with his BFA in Musical Theater, Riopelle moved to New York where he pounded the pavement and finally got his elusive Actor’s Equity card. In between auditions and call-backs, Matthew supported himself as a waiter, a personal trainer and eventually the assistant to cosmetic mogul Bobbi Brown.
The trajectory of Riopelle’s career changed after seeing John Cameron Mitchell in the ground-breaking musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
“As an actor, I was being told I was not enough of this or too much of that. I never seemed to be able to find the right box they wanted me in. After seeing Hedwig, it all made sense. I wanted to do what he was doing. I didn’t want have to wait for someone to give me permission to be creative or tell the stories I wanted to tell.” (Riopelle, Pittsburgh Gazette)
PROJECTS
Feature Films
The Camel Knows the Way (optioned)
2021 BDCF Pictures/Ginger Sledge
(Where’d You Go Bernadette?)
Love, Olivia (optioned)
2017 Beachfront Films/Tracey Becker
(Finding Neverland, Hysteria)
Goodbye, Arthur (optioned)
2015 Tilting Windmills Entertainment/Matt Ratner
Chavez (optioned, page one rewrite)
2013 Lily Bright, Dan Halsted, EP
(Nixon, Garden State, The Virgin Suicides)
TV Movies
Zoe, Gone
2014 Lifetime Entertainment
The Good Mother
2013 Lifetime Entertainment
Pilots
Blind Pig
2021
MedWest
2019
Clean (optioned)
2018 Mark Canton/David Hopwood, EP
Left (optioned/set-up)
2017 Warner Horizons/ Offspring Ent.
Broken Doll
2016
Theatre
Immaculate Heart
- 2021 Blank Theater Company L.A. Reading
- 2020 New York Reading; 42nd St. Studios
- 2017 L.A. Reading; Henry Fonda Theater
Streets of America (book/lyrics)
(Music by Tony Award Winner Michael Rupert)
- 2011 New York Reading
- 2008 Pittsburgh Playhouse Premier
- 2007-2008 Point Park University Workshops
Rancho Cucamonga (book/lyrics)
- 2007 NYC Workshop; Producers Club
Education
MFA Point Park University, Screenwriting and Playwriting ‘21
BFA Boston Conservatory of Music, Musical Theater/Directing ‘96
Script Anatomy, Margaux Froley, 2014 Present
Pilar Alessandra/Lee Jessup 2013 – 2018
Glynn O’Mally (Edward Albee’s protégé́) 2006 – 2011
Dan O’Brien Playwright 2004–2006
Webster Conservatory (Acting) 1991-1992
Uta Hagen (Acting) 1989-1991
Awards
Richard Rogers Musical Theater Finalist, 2008
Fred Ebb Musical Theater Award Finalist, 2008
Ed Kleban Musical Theater Finalist, 2006
Jonathan Larson Award Finalist, 2004 and 2005
Gilman Gonzalez- Falla Commendation Theater Award, 2002
Artist Essay
Excerpt from the upcoming memoir "Son Of A Nun"
It was hookup, nothing more, an anonymous exchange of desire that brought us together in a Chelsea Bathhouse on a Monday night. He was Italian or Polish. Definitely blue collar. His gold crucifix gave him away and was enough to convince me he was trustworthy. He smiled, invited me into his room, offered me some coke and within moments we were tangled in each other’s sweaty bodies, holding on like it was the end of the world. He gently put his hand on my heart. “You okay?” I nodded trying to be cool. He smirked, “No you’re not.”
“125th and Riverside,” he told the driver. The Hudson flew by along with fragments of the wreckage I left behind in DC three weeks earlier. Six years of lies suddenly hit me like the rain on the windshield. Twenty-minutes later we were in bed listening to Joni Mitchell.
He was a closeted New York Firefighter who came out at thirty-nine. After complimenting my blue eyes, he asked what I did. “ Writer,” I said. “What do you write about?” “Survival. Identity. The collision of fate and grace.” Who cares if I was making it up? It sounded good. He seemed impressed. I qualified it. “And I work as an assistant at a brokerage firm in the Twin Towers.” We discussed our Catholic upbringings and God. I asked about his gold crucifix. It was his mother’s. He put it around my neck and asked if he could take me on a “real date” the following night. “Sure.” I said. It all felt like a Bruce Springsteen song. “How you feeling?” “Safe,” I said. “Good,” he replied. Then we fell asleep.