Matthew Briggs is an award-winning Wollongong-based producer and director. He first began his career as a stage manager for Emily Steel’s award-winning plays, Sepia (2012) and Rocket Town (2013).

For Under The Microscope, his producing & directing credits include Guthrak by Natalie Hockey & Alysha Herrmann, 30,000 Notes by Josh Belperio (under the mentorship of Carl Crossin OAM & Emily Steel), Mental As Everything by Damon Smith & Adam Coad, and Scarred For Life by Josh Belperio (under the mentorship of Michael Griffiths & Amelia Ryan). Other producing credits for Under The Microscope also include Happy-Go-Wrong by Andi Snelling, Louise & Sally on Tin Pan Alley by Louise Page OAM & Sally Greenaway, and Dear Malcolm Turnbull by Josh Belperio, which received over 250,000 views on social media and raised over $3,000 for QLife, a free and anonymous national phone and web chat counselling service for LGBTQIA+ people.

As a scientist, Matthew most recently collaborated with designer, Bianka Kennedy, on a visual art exhibition inspired by his scientific research into sugar, which was supported by an Inspiring South Australia Science-Art Collaboration Grant and won a Weekly Best Visual Art & Design Award (2021 Adelaide Fringe).

Other awards for Under The Microscope include a Weekly Best Cabaret Award (2018 Adelaide Fringe), a Weekly John Chataway Innovation Award (2019 Adelaide Fringe), a Best Emerging Producer Award, presented by MILKE (2019 Adelaide Fringe), an Adelaide Festival Centre inSPACE Development Award (2019 Adelaide Fringe), a Weekly Adelaide Critics Circle Award (2021 Adelaide Fringe), a Weekly Best Theatre Award (2021 Adelaide Fringe), and The Advertiser’s Best Theatre Award (2021 Adelaide Fringe).

Most recently, Guthrak was shortlisted for Outstanding Work, Event or Project for Young People at the 2023 Ruby Awards.

Matthew has also received two Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund Grants, one for 30,000 Notes by Josh Belperio (2019) and one as a South Australian Producer (2021) to employ an Associate Producer for Under The Microscope.

Other than Matthew’s producing & directing credits, he currently works as an Associate Research Fellow in the field of Mass Spectrometry Imaging at the University of Wollongong under Associate Professor Shane Ellis. Previously, Matthew worked as a Research Associate at the Mass Spectrometry & Proteomics Facility at the University of South Australia under Professor Peter Hoffmann.