Matthew Becker

Matthew Becker is an American actor. Becker portrayed Griffin Sundin on Pureflix series Up on High Ground.

## About

**Matthew Ryan Becker** (born August 10, 1999) is an American actor.

His most recognizable acting role is as Griffin Sundin on the television series Up on High Ground (2014–2015).

## Supporting roles and Theater

Becker started taking acting as a child and has has danced competitively since age 6. One of his first roles was in the stage play Wizard of Oz (as a Lollipop Guild Munchkin).

Early childhood and teen stage supporting roles include: Princess and the Pea, Oz, and 110 In the Shade in the St. Charles county Missouri area.

He was cast into his first film acting role as young Hercules in the St. Louis independent feature film "Hercules: The Brave and the Bold" in 2012 which was released in 2013.

In 2015, after also taking vocal lessons, he was selected to be a Muny teen player after rigorous auditions in vocal and dance at the St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre (Muny).

## Up on High Ground

Matthew Becker and Erin Morris, both whom performed in a deleted scene together in the 2013 film Hercules: The Brave and The Bold, were the first two actors cast in Up on High Ground. Becker was added as a twin character with Molly Cravens, portraying high school freshmen even though he was a year and half older than her. He's the second to last actor billed in the opening credits sequence and was not present for the 1st of only 2 full main cast publicity posters due to timing of the shoot around a Christmas trip. He's the fifth billed character in the main cast for the family and faith based TV series *Up on High Ground*, playing the character Griffin Sundin.

Becker appeared all nine episodes of the series that ran on several The CW TV affiliates in syndication and Pure Flix Entertainment from 2014-2015.

For Becker, *Up on High Ground* marks the second time that Brayden Patterson, Joe McGettigan, and Bryan Kreutz have worked together that also included working alongside sisters Rylee and Molly Cravens. The first was the 2013 Indie feature film *Hercules: The Brave and the Bold.*

Many of the producers recognized Becker's strong performance in his film debut and after casting him and Morris first for "Up on High Ground", there were high expectations to play freshman high-school-ers later in the year. Producers were well aware the two worked together a lot which would help on screen chemistry as an on screen kissing couple later in the series. Becker and Morris not only had their first TV and film roles together they would see each other at Mozingo (Fine Arts academy) because they're in plays and signing lesson classes together often before and continuing throughout the run of *Up on High Ground*.

Knowing future scripts would have show choir performances, Becker was going to be a focal point as a leading East Valley Academy Show Choir member at the fictional school. Due to an out of state Christmas trip planned months in advance, his schedule would make him unavailable to make the longest taping day on December 21, 2013. This taping day was largely focused on cast members using their vocal, musical and dancing talents within their characters to audition for the new fictional show choir team which Becker was a necessity to be apart of. Director Thomas Callahan strategically angled the camera into an offstage position to capture Becker talking about the show choir and how his twin Hayley is going to fail out of jealousy. Knowing his character Griffin would not be able to show his performance on screen for this episode, writers re-wrote that he gets talked into joining by teachers with him standing there. The teachers and others with this camera trick make it appear all cast were standing by waiting and watching the show choir performances where Griffin will eventually join with his best friend Khalil.

Matthew Becker choreographed an entire dance duo scene with Jessica Jordan to the Elvis Presley song Stuck On You in the sixth episode *Underlying agreements.*

Matthew Becker and Erin Morris were the final two lead actors together in a scene. The final scenes of solo performances were by Jessica Jordan and Molly Cravens when the series on set production ceased in October 2015.

## Personal life and career

Becker finalizing his high school musical theater career; had his final two performances in November 2017 with a starring role in *Almost, Maine* andon February 2018 in *Little Shop of Horrors.*

Becker is actively pursuing musical theater through his adolescence and is attending Roosevelt University’s Chicago College Of Performing Arts starting in fall of 2018.

## Filmography

**Film**

**Television**

## External links

\* Matthew Becker at TV.com