Tony-Nominated Skylight Star Matthew Beard on the 'Mystical' Carey Mulligan & His NYC Insomnia

Age: 26

Hometown: Sheffield, England

Current Role: A Tony-nominated Broadway debut as 18-year-old Edward Sergeant, who begins and ends David Hare’s Skylight sharing scenes with Carey Mulligan as the ex-lover of his character’s grieving dad (Bill Nighy).

Stage & Screen Cred: Beard made his stage debut in the London and Broadway revivals of Skylight. On screen, he played the youngest code-breaker in the Oscar-nominated film The Imitation Game and has appeared with Mulligan in two movies, When Did You Last See Your Father? in 2007 and An Education in 2009.

“The best thing about being a Tony nominee is that it’s not just me: It’s Carey and Bill and Stephen [Daldry], our director; Bob Crowley, who did the set; and Natasha [Katz], who did the lighting. When the whole team gets recognized, it’s extra special. But for me, it was a total surprise.”

“I knew from the first time I worked with Carey Mulligan [on the film When Did You Last See Your Father?] that she had this mystical element of charisma. Even when she was just sitting in the green room with a cup of tea, you wanted to watch her and talk to her. I have no idea what that quality is, but I’d like some of it!”

“I got my first TV job when I was four. My mom looked at me and thought, ‘How do I deal with all this energy?’ and put me in a drama club for an hour a week. A casting director came looking for kids to be in TV dramas shot in Yorkshire, and I just kept doing it.”

“Where I’m from, nobody is an actor and I always thought I would eventually get a proper job. I did stop for three years to study English [at the University of York]. It felt like my last opportunity to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. Inevitably, I found myself pulled back into acting.”

“There’s a pulse to New York that I really key into. I’m living in the East Village, and when I come offstage and can’t sleep, I like walking by the various cafes and bars that are open 24 hours. It feels like the city whizzes by your window, and all you have to do is step out your front door to join the wave.”

“Having gone through awards stuff [with The Imitation Game] the whole experience is wonderful and strange, because it has nothing to do with your actual job. You put on a beautiful suit that’s been lent to you and talk to people with a glass of champagne in your hand. It’s not a terrible way to spend a night!”