Matthew Byam Shaw

After training at RADA and working as an actor for ten years, Matthew thought he had better try his hand at producing and has since brought many award-winning revivals, new plays and musicals to the West End and Broadway. Passionate about work that is forward-looking and engaged with the issues of the moment, Matthew is interested in finding new forms of popular theatre which will engage and entertain the audiences of the future. Longstanding relationships with some of the UK and US’ most prestigious subsidised theatres have realised landmark productions including Hilary Mantel’s multi-Olivier award-winning Wolf Hall trilogy and the UK premiere of Spring Awakening. He was a producer on the Oscar®-nominated Universal/Working Title film Frost/Nixon, based on the stage production which he produced, and is an Executive Producer on Emmy® award-winning Netflix series The Crown, based on Peter Morgan’s play The Audience starring Helen Mirren. Alongside his work at Playful, Matthew is a Trustee of Sheffield Theatres, the George Devine Award and a member of the RADA Training Committee.