Matt Adler

The Supporting Actor Who Survived the Hairspray Era

Matt Adler walked onto the set of Teen Wolf in 1985 without knowing his face would end up in magazines across Europe. He wasn't the lead, but his role as Lewis gave him a visibility few supporting actors achieved in that decade of hairspray and synthesizers. That same year, he shared the screen with Michael J. Fox and learned that in Hollywood you can do very well as the hero's best friend.

In 1986 he shot Flight of the Navigator, and his name started turning up in casting offices looking for reliable young actors. But teen movies have a shelf life. Adler knew it before the phone stopped ringing with offers for the high school heartthrob roles.

Filmmaking is a job for ants.

During the shoot of White Water Summer in 1987, the actor crossed paths with a young Sean Astin. It was a tough production that taught him the industry isn't always a red carpet. So Adler decided to diversify his career before his 90 years caught up with him, as they did with so many promising actors of his generation.

The goldmine of post-production

Many actors panic when leading roles dry up. Adler didn't. Instead of fighting for scraps in second-tier TV series, he moved into dubbing studios and sound post-production. It's invisible work that pays the bills and gives him a longevity the camera sometimes denies.

He specialized in ADR, the process of re-recording dialogue in a studio to improve the quality of the original sound. It is a technical discipline that demands watchmaker-level precision, because matching breathing and tone to an image recorded months earlier is an art few in the American industry master.

Nobody recognized him on the street that year.

In 2014 he worked on post-production for The Fault in Our Stars, and in 2015 he took part in Jurassic World. His name appears in the end credits, in blocks of text the general public ignores but industry professionals respect. He has worked on more than a hundred big-budget productions without ever needing makeup.

Married to director Ria Pavia since 1993, he has kept a low profile that has allowed him to work steadily for four decades. That is the real victory in an industry that chews up washed-up stars every season. In 2023 he joined the additional voices team on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. In 2023 he also lent his voice to the production of The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

2023's contract with Sony Pictures Animation covered his work on projects that grossed more than a billion dollars at the global box office.