Being born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley, Matthew Vaz has always had a passion for storytelling and fictional worlds and yearned to pursue a career in these fields despite the lack of filmmaking opportunities within his hometown. Being a huge fan of fantasy, science fiction and drama, movies such as "The Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars" motivated Matthew to seek out an education in film. Inspired by famous film directors and novel writers such as James Cameron, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Matthew enrolled in the Art Institute of Silicon Valley at the age of 17 to study filmmaking, hoping to learn more about writing and directing for film. Unfortunately, the campus closed down two years later and Matthew was forced to complete his education at the Art Institute's Sacramento-based campus. In 2017, Matthew wrote and directed his first student short film "Disillusioned", starring Logan Wildey, Tyler McDanniel and Jen Floor Mathews. Matthew has graduated from the Art Institute of California - Sacramento, with a Bachelors degree in Digital Film and Video Production. Show less «