Matt Besser (born September 22, 1967) is an American comedian. He is perhaps best known for his work on the Comedy Central sketch comedy show, Upright Citizens Brigade.
Besser was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Upright Citizens Brigade, which started out as a Chicago sketch and improv comedy group in 1991, earned a cult following from the start. Original members included Ali Farahnakian and Adam McKay. In 1997, the Upright Citizens Brigade relocated to New York City. Here, they produced their three seasons of Upright Citizens Brigade on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2001. The cast consisted of Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh. It originally included a voice-over by Del Close.
Since then Besser, along with the rest of the UCB crew, moved on to other projects. He was the creator of the MTV hidden camera show Stung, and created and starred in his second Comedy Central show, Crossballs which mocked news debate shows by pitting fake experts against real people.
He has also appeared in films such as Martin & Orloff (written by UCB cohorts Roberts and Walsh) and Junebug, in addition to a number of sitcoms. In 2005 the UCB improvised a movie together, Wild Girls Gone, and performed their signature brand of longform improv (ASSSSCAT) in a special on Bravo.
The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatres are located in Chelsea, Manhattan and Los Angeles, California. Besser performs several times a week at the Los Angeles theater.
