Matt Gehring is a director, educator, and creator of comedy.

Over the last decade, Matt has directed 100+ shows, ranging from sketch comedy to solo performance to musical theater. Highlights include Pop Roulette’s Amazing Earth featuring Bowen Yang, Chrissy Shackelford’s Diane Shangri-La, and Ellie Macpherson’s Happy Birthday, Mr. President which received five stars at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Matt will return to Edinburgh in 2023 to direct Lane Kwederis’ Sex Job and Salma Hindy & Danielle Deluty’s Parallel. He created and directs SHIZ: Broadway Meets Sketch Comedy, which has written two opening numbers for BroadwayCon and has featured special guests including Jeff Hiller, Jenn Colella, and Tony winner Nikki M. James. Matt will pursue his MFA in Directing at Brooklyn College in the class of 2025.

After transplanting to New York from northeast Ohio, Matt cut his teeth as a writer/performer in Hammerkatz, NYU’s premiere sketch comedy group, alongside Rachel Bloom and Donald Glover. While at school, he studied with downtown theater legend Elizabeth Swados, whom he worked with as an associate director and teacher for many years. Soon after graduating, Matt rose through the ranks at the Upright Citizens Brigade to become part of numerous running shows and house teams, including the Maude Team Lover with Catherine Cohen. In 2017, he was selected for the prestigious Just for Laughs: New Faces Montreal Character showcase, which led to roles in Amazon’s The Tick, Disney Plus’s The Big Fib, Netflix’s acclaimed rom-com Set It Up and a memorable appearance in Tim Robinson’s episode of The Characters. He also once played (and lost) charades with Jennifer Aniston on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. 

As a creator, Matt made and starred in At The Office Microwave, Comedy Central’s Digital Series, and was lead writer for The Prom: Tonight Belongs to You, a Netflix live event hosted by Jonathan Van Ness from Queer Eye. For five years, Matt wrote for and performed in Political Subversives, a musical sketch comedy group with popular weekly shows at the People’s Improv Theater, and regular features on MSNBC. He holds a Screenwriting Certificate from NYU and his original television pilot Tim and the Ancient School was a finalist in the 2022 Screencraft Pilot Competition. 

Matt has worked as an educator in many capacities - teaching Improvisation (Tisch School of the Arts), Writing for Actors (NYFA, Playwrights Horizons Theater School), and Sketch Writing (UCB). As a comedy writing coach, he has built a robust roster of clients through his independent business Page to People. Matt is also a longtime member of the Story Pirates, an arts education company that takes the words and ideas of kids and turns them into musical comedy shows. He has performed and led workshops in countless New York City schools with the Story Pirates and has been featured as a voice actor on their award-winning podcast.

Matt is passionate about creating community for comedians, and in partnership with the renowned theater company Ars Nova and artist Mahayla Laurence, he co-created CAMP, the Comedy Artist Makers Program. CAMP is the only residency of its kind for comedians in New York City, providing resources, development, and opportunity for emerging comedy artists. The program looks forward to a fourth year in ‘23/’24.

Matt lives on the Upper West Side with his wife, Shaina.