Matt Letscher

American actor and playwright

Matt Letscher is an American actor, director and playwright, known for his roles as Captain Harrison Love in the 1998 American swashbuckler film The Mask of Zorro and as Colonel Adelbert Ames in the 2003 American film Gods and Generals. He co starred in the 2016 Michael Bay film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, playing Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. He has also portrayed Eobard Thawne / Reverse Flash in The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.

Letscher attended college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity and a drama major.

Letscher got his first professional acting job with a role in The Tropic Pickle, during the second season of Jeff Daniels' Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, Michigan. Letscher impressed Daniels enough that the veteran arranged a meeting for Letscher with Ron Maxwell, the director of Gettysburg. After appearing in a small role, Letscher took advice from Daniels and moved to Los Angeles. He quickly found work in guest roles on television. Despite the series receiving negative reviews, Letscher and Constance Zimmer were standouts in the series and eventually paired up as a combative couple. But the show was canceled midway though its second season due to low ratings. His performance in Good Morning, Miami led to him being cast in the lead in the film Straight Jacket, opposite Carrie Preston, about a gay Hollywood actor forced to marry a beard in the 1950s. His flair for classical farce also led to him being cast in the leading role of Capt. Jack Absolute in the Lincoln Center theater production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals. Letscher was praised for his spirited performance and his costar Robert Easton referred to Letscher as "a perfect classical actor." The show ran for two seasons from 2013 until 2014. He appeared in the 2013 films, Atom Egoyan's Devil's Knot (about The West Memphis Three) and Spike Jonze's comedy Her, opposite Amy Adams. Letscher portrayed Eobard Thawne / Reverse Flash, initially in a recurring role on The Flash and later as a regular in season two of Legends of Tomorrow, and reprised the role in two episodes of its seventh season.

In June 2007, Jeff Daniels' Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, Michigan, staged the world premiere of Letscher's original play Sea of Fools, a farce set in Joseph McCarthy era Hollywood. Film director Elia Kazan is a character in the play. Daniels initially planned to direct the play but pulled out, allowing Letscher to also direct the play. In 2009, his play Gaps in the Fossil Record was staged at the Pacific Resident Theater, then had its world premiere production at the Purple Rose Theatre in 2016. In 2010, he co wrote (with Nipper Knapp and Andrew Newberg) and starred in the comedy pilot Gentrification, which won best writing at the Comedy Central New York Television Festival.

Letscher has a wife, Jennifer, with two children.