MATTHEW NICOLAU as SCARZA

Matthew Nicolau was born in 1976 to a devout Catholic, Irish-Italian mother in Fresno, California. His father, a Muslim economics student at the local university returned to his native Iran shortly after Matthew was born. They soon lost touch.

Matthew grew up in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood known for its poverty, extreme gang violence and ethnic intolerance. In order to protect himself, he never admitted his fathers identity or race. Instead, he called himself Italian to conjure up the “cool violence” of movie tough-guys like Pacino, De Niro and Stalone. More than anything else, those formative years spent emulating gangsters, drug dealers and prize fighters, prepared Matthew for the villain roles he plays today.

In 2003, after graduating from New York University, Matthew began directing a feature length documentary about traveling to Iran to find and meet his father for the first time. The film, “Calling from Tehran” is in post-production now.
His previous jobs have included Iditarod sled dog training, mountain bike patrol for the U.S. Forest Service, teacher of emotionally disturbed junior high school students and first assistant to acclaimed pop artist/photographer, Peter Beard. Matthew spends his free time cross-country mountain biking, fishing, and riding his motorcycle.