Matthew Lillard

Matthew Lyn Lillard is an American actor, director, and producer known for high-energy character work, horror and comedy roles, and a long association with the Scooby-Doo franchise. He was born on January 24, 1970, in Lansing, Michigan, and grew up in Southern California. Lillard attended Foothill High School and Fullerton College before studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena and the Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York. His training and early screen work prepared him for a career that has moved between cult films, studio comedies, television drama, voice acting, and directing.

Lillard began appearing on screen in the early 1990s after co-hosting the short-lived television program SK8-TV. His early film credits included Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College, John Waters's Serial Mom, and the computer-culture thriller Hackers. He achieved a breakthrough in 1996 as Stu Macher in Wes Craven's Scream, a role that helped define the film's mixture of slasher violence, self-aware comedy, and volatile teenage performance. He followed with roles in SLC Punk!, She's All That, Spanish Judges, Thirteen Ghosts, and Without a Paddle, often playing characters whose humor, anxiety, or bravado made them stand out in ensemble casts.

In 2002, Lillard was cast as Norville “Shaggy” Rogers in the live-action film Scooby-Doo, opposite Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, and Rowan Atkinson. He reprised the role in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and, after Casey Kasem retired from the part, became the principal animated voice of Shaggy in many television series, direct-to-video films, specials, and crossover projects. His work as Shaggy has connected him to one of American animation's most durable characters and made him one of the few performers to carry the same franchise role across live-action and animation.