Matthew Holness

Matthew James Holness (born 1975) is an English comedian, director, author, plus actor. He is known for creating and portraying the fictional horror author Garth Marenghi.

Matthew Holness
Holness in 2023
Born	Matthew James Holness 1975 (age 49–50) Whitstable, Kent, England
Alma mater	Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Occupation(s)	Actor, comedian, writer, director
Known for	Garth Marenghi

Early life and education

Born in Whitstable, Kent, Holness became a fan of Hammer horror films at a young age, to the extent that when, at the age of six, he asked Hammer star and fellow Whitstable resident Peter Cushing for his autograph, Cushing expressed concern that the child knew so much about the films.^[1] Holness received the Master of Arts from Cambridge, graduating in absentia due to his comedy work.^[2]

Holness attended Chaucer Technology School in Canterbury and went on to read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. As a member of the Cambridge Footlights, he appeared in a number of shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the mid-1990s. He also served as vice-president when David Mitchell was president. Other contemporaries included Robert Webb, Richard Ayoade and John Oliver.^[1][3]

Career

Holness first appeared on television as a cast-member of the short-lived BBC Two comedy series Bruiser in 2000.^[4] In the same year, Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight, a stage show written by Holness and Ayoade and starring the pair along with Alice Lowe, was nominated for the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe.^[5] The show was built around a spoof horror writer named Garth Marenghi. The sequel, Garth Marenghi's Netherhead, won the Perrier Award the following year.^[6]

He played the role of Simon, an arrogant and sarcastic computer technician in series two of The Office, which aired in 2002.^[7] About the same time, he appeared in the comedy stage play The Mighty Boosh, filling the role of Bob Fossil while regular cast member Rich Fulcher was overseas.^[8]

In 2004, the character of Garth Marenghi transferred to television with the Channel 4 horror comedy Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Despite critical acclaim and later, a cult following, the series suffered from relatively low ratings when first broadcast.^[1]

In 2009, he appeared in the Channel 4 sitcom Free Agents. A year later he played the part of a bandleader in Cemetery Junction, a dramedy film by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

In 2011, he played a minor role in the first episode of the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner. The same year, "A Gun for George" was released. This was a short film written and directed by Holness in which he plays an angry loner who writes pulp-fiction crime novels about a vigilante called the Reprisalizer. He played the part of a smug lawyer in Life's Too Short, a sitcom starring Warwick Davis.^[7]

Holness wrote and directed a 2012 short film for Sky Arts' Playhouse Presents series entitled "The Snipist", which depicted a dystopian alternative 1970s Britain stricken by rabies. Douglas Henshall starred, with John Hurt providing the voice of the Ministry.^[9]

Holness wrote and directed the 2016 "Smutch", a Halloween Comedy Short shown on Sky Arts, in which he played an embittered author haunted by a ghostwriter.^[10]

In 2018, he played the part of brooding Swedish detective Knut Ångström in the BBC Radio 4 Nordic noir parody Angstrom.^[11]

The following year, he played Prince Hector of Bulgaria in an episode of the Channel 4 sitcom Year of the Rabbit.^[12] The same year, Holness made his debut as a feature director with Possum, a psychological horror film set in Norfolk. He described the film as "not remotely funny".^[1] In interviews to promote Possum, Holness said he had written a script for another horror film which he was also hoping to get made.^[13]

In 2022, Holness announced a short fiction collection entitled Garth Marenghi's TerrorTome. This was written as Marenghi and presented as one of the character's own works, which Marenghi began working on in the 1980s. It was also released as an audiobook narrated by Holness as Marenghi. The collection was released in November 2022.^[14]

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Festival	Roger
2010	Cemetery Junction	The Band Leader
2011	A Gun for George	Terry Finch	Short film; also director, writer and composer
2018	Possum	—	Director and writer[15]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Bruiser	Various roles	6 episodes; also writer
2002	The Office	Simon	Episode: "Motivation"
2004	Garth Marenghi's Darkplace	Garth Marenghi / Dr. Rick Dagless M.D.	6 episodes; also co-creator and writer
2005	Casanova	Landlord	Episode #1.1
2006	Time Trumpet	Himself	6 episodes
	Man to Man with Dean Learner	Various roles	6 episodes; also co-creator, writer and executive producer
2009	Free Agents	Dan Mackey	6 episodes
2011	Friday Night Dinner	Chris	Episode: "The Sofa Bed"
2011	Life's Too Short	Ian Wold	3 episodes[16]
2012	Playhouse Presents	—	Episode: "The Snipist"; director and writer
2014	Toast of London	Max Gland	Episode: "Buried Alive"
2016	Smutch	Oswin	Television short; also director, writer and composer
2017	Back	Laurie	4 episodes
2019	Year of the Rabbit	Prince Hector of Bulgaria	Episode #1.4
2020	The Haunting of Bly Manor	Dominic Wingrave	2 episodes
2021	Bloods	Phil	1 episode
2021	We Are Lady Parts	Gameshow Host	Episode: "Sparta"
2022	Toast of Tinseltown	Richard Chickentoss	Episode: "Doctor Grainger"
2023	Dodger	Sir Denholm Havers	1 episode

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	The Department	Keith Bilk	14 episodes
2018	Angstrom[17]	Knut Ångström	4 episodes

Bibliography

Year	Title	Book	Notes
2007	?	Phobic: Modern Horror Stories[18]	Anthology
2008	'Possum'	The New Uncanny[19]	Anthology
2008	'The Toad and I'	Black Static 3[20]	Magazine
2014	'Possum'?[21]	Dead Funny: Horror Stories by Comedians[22]	Anthology
2014	'Introduction'	Reminiscences of a Bachelor[23]	Reprint
2016	(voiceover)	From Frazzled to Fabulous: How to Juggle Fatherhood, a Successful Career, 'Me Time' and Looking Good[24]	Audiobook
2017	(voiceover)	The Scarifyers: The Gnomes of Death[25]	Audiobook
2017	'The Mastiff: A story of The Diggers'[26]	Protest: Stories of Resistance[27]	Anthology
2017	(cast: Eric Drazen)	Doctor Who: The Lure of the Nomad[28]	Audiobook
2022	(Original author; audiobook narrator)	Garth Marenghi's TerrorTome[29]	Novel; audiobook
2023	(Original author; audiobook narrator)	Garth Marenghi's Incarcerat[30]	Novel; audiobook