Matthew J. Avant is a writer, director and editor who began working in the television and film industry in 1998 at the age of 19. From early childhood he loved the craft of storytelling, and pursued this passion by writing scripts and short stories, drawing comic books and eventually producing short film projects as often as possible. His official career began directly out of high school when he was hired by a production company in his Louisiana hometown as a sound engineer for studio sessions, recording and mixing albums for artists ranging anywhere from country to rap. Through this experience he moved into sound production for television and commercial projects, trying to learn every facet of the technical end of the business from the ground up along the way. During this time he served as the sound engineer for a speculative TV series called "Songwriters in the Round", later renamed "Legends and Lyrics" which aired on PBS.In 2001 Avant was brought on board to the ABC affiliate KATC TV-3, where he was responsible for working directly with clients to conceive and create on air television commercials. This included writing scripts, shooting, lighting, casting, post production audio and video editing, etc. His work during this time regularly won numerous local and regional awards, including several Telly Awards, a Videographer Award, Aurora Award, Addy Awards and a Davey Award.In 2004 at the age of 23, he was recruited to a competing network and offered the opportunity to build and manage a creative team for the local CBS affiliate KLFY TV-10. Here he spent several years writing and producing hundreds of advertising campaigns for advertisers all over the state, as well as producing self-promotional image campaigns, performing as voice talent, and assisting with technical supervision for graphics and logo elements for on-air broadcasts. During the course of these years he continued to pursue his creative passions in every way possible, producing two short films, a world war 2 documentary, and co-hosting a local radio show called "Liquid Lounge" for new and upcoming artists.Writing remained an important part of everyday life, and after several years completed a script for his first feature length film project "Lunopolis", a mock-documentary that connected many well established and modern day conspiracy theories into a single story line. This film was very well received at film festivals and underground film review sites across the internet, and is often attributed as being the first film to deal with (and offer an explanation of) the phenomena now known as "The Mandela Effect". The film was released officially in 2011, and was available on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and other streaming services for several years.In 2011 Avant was brought on board with the team producing another speculative TV series called "Ghostbreakers", as Senior Editor, Sound Designer and eventually a story consultant. The series, featuring the lead performances of Joey Greco (Cheaters), Bryan Massey (Drive Angry, W, Year One), Shanda Munson and Gabriel Horn, was produced as an 18 episode pilot season. The show was picked up by the fledgling "YouToo" network, and was later syndicated on Amazon Prime.During a brief return to television production at the ABC affiliate in Lafayette, Louisiana in 2014, he wrote and produced a self promotional campaign for the network which earned him a National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Suncoast Chapter) Emmy Award. Soon after he was offered a Senior Producer position with the RFD-TV cable network in Nashville, Tennessee to write, direct, shoot and edit a new television series entitled "Debbe Dunning's Dude Ranch Roundup", which airs nationally on "RFD-TV" and "The Cowboy Channel". Show less «