Matthew Shear

Matthew Shear was an American actor who made a name for himself by working with some of the biggest auteurs of the 21st century, including Ang Lee, Noah Baumbach, and Cary Fukunaga. In his acting career, Shear hit the ground running right out of the gate, making his film debut in Ang Lee's hippie period piece "Taking Woodstock" (2009). That same year, he appeared in the short films "Red Light, Green Card" (2009), and "Milked" (2009). After appearing in the films "Beware the Gonzo" (2010) and "Hunters" (2012), Shear caught the eye of writer/director Noah Baumbach, who cast him in a small role in his midlife crisis dramedy "While We're Young" (2014), before giving him a bigger role in his next film, the collegiate comedy "Mistress America" (2015). Shear next appeared on the first (and only) season of Louis C.K.'s divisive sitcom "Horace and Pete" (LouisCK.net, 2016), as well as the films "Delinquent" (2016) and "The Boy Downstairs" (2017), before once again reuniting with Baumbach for a small but memorable role in his familial dramedy "The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) " (2017). Shear landed his biggest role yet when he was cast alongside Luke Evans, Daniel Brühl, and Dakota Fanning as Police Sergeant Lucius Isaacson in Cary Fukunaga's 1890s New York-set psychological crime series "The Alienist" (TNT, 2018-).