Mat Fraser | |
|---|---|
 Mat Fraser performing in 2008, removing his artificial arms | |
| Born | 1961 or 1962 (age 63–64) Colchester, Essex, England |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Spouse | Julie Atlas Muz (2012–present) |
Mat Fraser (born 1961 or 1962) is an English rock musician, actor, writer and performance artist. He hasthalidomide-inducedphocomelia.
Mat Fraser was born in 1961 or 1962[1] inColchester, Essex.[citation needed] He was born with a disability known as phocomelia, after his mother had taken the drug thalidomide during her pregnancy, before its side-effects had been fully realised.[1]
Between 1980 and 1995 Fraser was a drummer with several rock bands including Fear of Sex, The Reasonable Strollers, Joyride, The Grateful Dub, and Living in Texas, who had a number one single in Italy.[2] Fraser played the drums withGraeae Theatre Company's "Reasons to be Cheerful" at the2012 Paralympics opening ceremony, where he also hosted the pre-televised section,[3][4] and withColdplay during theclosing ceremony.[5][6]
Fraser left drumming to joinGraeae Theatre Company, Europe's leading disabled theatre company, after their production ofUbu inspired him to change careers.[7] He worked in forum theatre for Graeae for several months, then landed the part of Dr Prentice inJoe Orton'sWhat the Butler Saw.[8] He is now[when?] a patron of Graeae.[9] Subsequent theatre roles in the 1990s included the Group K production ofMarisol and the title role inJohnny Sol at the Croydon Warehouse.[10]
His first major television role was in ITV's 1998 three-part World War II drama seriesUnknown Soldier (ITV, 1998).[10]
In 2003 he appeared as the seerCalchas in the television miniseriesHelen of Troy based on Homer'sIliad. In 2009 he appeared in Channel Four'sCast Offs, a six-part comedy-drama series satirisingreality television.[11] Fraser has been associated with the use of the term "spacking up" to describe when a non-disabled actor plays the part of a disabled person rather than the part going to a disabled actor, as a play on"blacking up", used to describe the controversial practice where non-black actors take on the characters of black people. The term was actually coined by one of the show's writers, in the line "spacking up is the new blacking up".[12]
Fraser has appeared on television in a number of other productions, includingMetrosexuality[citation needed] andEvery Time You Look at Me (2004).[13][14]
He wrote 2005'sThalidomide!! A Musical, in which he and Anna Winslet played all the roles.[citation needed] After leading in Lou Birks's short film "Stubborn & Spite", written for him in 2009, he released his own filmKung Fu Flid starringFaye Tozer (formerly of pop groupSteps),Frank Harper, andTerry Stone.[citation needed]
Fraser appeared in theRTÉ One soap operaFair City in June 2011,[15] playing Esther's sonDavid.[16]
In 2012 he appeared inKaite O'Reilly's stage playIn Water I'm Weightless as part of the2012 Cultural Olympiad.[17]
Fraser was one of the regular cast members in the fourth season of the US TV seriesAmerican Horror Story: Freak Show.[18]
For three seasons, from 2017 to 2020, Fraser played the character Roger Frostly on the American comedy-drama television seriesLoudermilk.[19]
In May 2017, Fraser was cast as Shakespeare's King Richard III, "a disabled guy gets cast as a disabled guy", a role he discussed with Emma Tracey, presenter forBBC Radio's service for disabled people, "Ouch".[20][21]
In 2019, Fraser played Raymond Van Geritt in theBBC Oneadaptation ofPhilip Pullman's fantasy trilogyHis Dark Materials.[22] In 2020, Fraser wrote and curated theBBC Four disability seriesCriptales.[23][24] Also in 2020, he played Jim Bell in episodes 1 and 2 ofSilent Witness, Series 23. In 2023 he played a minor role as the hospital administrator, Steve, in ITV'sMaternal.[25]
Also in 2023, Fraser appeared inSister Boniface Mysteries in Series 2, Episodes 5 and 10, as Clement Rugg.[citation needed]
In 2024, Fraser played the role of Daedalus in theNetflix seriesKaos, a modern comedic adaptation ofGreek mythology.[citation needed]
Fraser was one of the original co-hosts of theBBC'sOuch! Podcast.[26] He presented the short-lived Channel 4 seriesFreak Out.[27] He presented the 2004 Channel 4 documentaryHappy Birthday Thalidomide, documenting how the drug was being used in Brazil to treatleprosy, but that its use in a country with low levels of literacy and a black market in drugs was leading to new thalidomide births.[28]
Fraser played the lead character, Sparky, in BBC Radio Four's Saturday Playhouse production, "Inmates" (1997), by Allan Sutherland and Stuart Morris.[29]
He was a regular performer on the BBC Radio Four sketch show "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie".[27]
Fraser has released two rap albums:
Fraser has shown a continuing interest in freak shows.
His 2001 playSealboy: Freak draws on the life history of Stanislaus Berent, a sideshow performer with naturally occurring phocomelia who worked under the stage nameSealo.[32]
Fraser's 2002 television documentary,Born Freak, looked at this historical tradition and its relevance to modern disabled performers. This work has become the subject of academic analysis in the field of disability studies.[33]
As part of the documentary, Fraser performed in a Coney Island freak show. He was invited to return to work there professionally and has since worked several summer seasons there.
Fraser's 2011 show,From Freak to Clique, charted the history of portrayals of disability, including freak show performers.[34]
In 2014, Fraser went on to have a role as Paul the Illustrated Seal inAmerican Horror Story: Freak Show.
Fraser was commissioned by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at theUniversity of Leicester to create a new artistic work, shaped out of a collaborative engagement with museum collections, research and expertise in medical history, museums and disability. The resulting performance, "Cabinet of Curiosities: How disability was kept in a box" was performed at the Thackray Medical Museum,Leeds; the Silk Mill Museum, Derby; and Manchester Museum. It won theObserver Ethical Awards, Arts and Culture 2014.[35]
The Guardian's Lyn Gardner stated that, "by making a spectacle of himself, Fraser is not only raising the spectre of the Victorian freak show but also subverting it by questioning what is exhibited and what isn't, and making us confront what we are shown and what we are not shown, both in art and in life".[36]
On 6 December 2017 Fraser and his wife Julie Atlas Muz presentedJack and the Beanstalk, the first large-scalepantomime to be presented in New York for over a century, at thePlayhouse Theatre ofthe Henry Street Settlement.[citation needed] The production closed on 23 December 2017 and enjoyed a revival the following year at the same theatre, running for three weeks during the 2018 holiday season.[citation needed]
On 4 December 2021 a follow-up,Dick Rivington and The Cat, adapted from the traditional pantomime story ofDick Whittington, was presented by the pair.[citation needed]
Fraser marriedJulie Atlas Muz, an American neo-burlesque star, in May 2012 in New York City.[3][4]
Mat, now 47,
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