Matt Mullins

Matt Mullins
Born Matthew Mullins
(1980-11-10) November 10, 1980
Naperville, Illinois, United States
Residence Toluca Lake, California, United States
Nationality American
Style Okinawan Shōrei-ryū Karate
Teacher(s) John Sharkey, Jr.
Rank 4th degree black belt in Shōrei-ryū
Occupation Martial arts instructor, actor, Stuntman
Website http://www.matthewmullins.com/

Matthew "Matt" Mullins (born November 10, 1980) is an American five-time martial arts world champion and actor. At the age of sixteen, in 1997, he won his first World Kickboxing Association title in Dublin, Ireland. This would be his first of five championships in the next three years.[1]

Martial arts career

Mullins was featured in the Discovery Channel mini-series Extreme Martial Arts alongside Mike Chat. As of 2006, he holds a 4th degree Black belt in the style Shōrei-ryū and studies under martial arts instructor John Sharkey at Sharkey's Karate Studio in Naperville, Illinois.[2] While an underbelt, he met Mike Chaturantabut and together they created a martial arts style which later became known as Extreme Martial Arts (XMA). Their style's growing popularity prompted the Discovery Channel to produce a documentary called XMA: Extreme Martial Arts. In this documentary, the producers covered the XMA style with modern technology such as motion-capture technology and 3-D imaging to show how a martial artist can use his body. As a side story, they focused on Matt Mullins' attempt to come back to the competition world of sport karate.[3]

Mullins also holds seminars and martial arts camps. The most predominant ones are the Winter and Summer Camps at Sharkey's Karate in Illinois. He also teaches an extreme martial arts class in California.

Matt Mullins is also the leader of Sideswipe, a martial arts based performance team which travels the United States performing with their combination of martial arts moves, aerodynamics, and gymnastics. Sideswipe has appeared on such shows as The Jerry Lewis Telethon, The Wayne Brady Show, America's Got Talent (Season 2) and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, as well as sporting events, live action shows and karate tournaments.

Acting career

Mullins has appeared in national commercials for Motorola, America Online, Applebee's, Nike, Hanes and Pepsi as well as a lead actor in several films including Kung Fu Love Triangle, Bloodfist 2050, and Adventures of Johnny Tao: Rock Around the Dragon. He had a lead role portraying the character Len/Kamen Rider Wing Knight on the in-production TV show Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. He also helped Mike Moh get the role of Hunt/Danny Cho/Kamen Rider Axe in the same show through their shared martial arts training.[4]

Mullins was a reporter for LX TV 1st Look television program introducing DJ Hapa, as well as Shinkendo. He starred as Johnny Cage in the Kevin Tancharoen directed short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth.[5] He reprised the role for the first season of the YouTube series based on Rebirth, Mortal Kombat: Legacy. His home videos were used for a fictional documentary of Johnny Cage.

Mullins was a contestant on MTV's martial arts competition show titled Final Fu.

Filmography

Films

Stunt work

Video games

Television

Director

Producer

References

  1. "Matt Mullins: The New KAMEN RIDER". Kung Fu Magazine. Retrieved February 6, 2010.
  2. "Extreme Knight". Otaku USA. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
  3. "Extreme martial arts on the verge of mainstream invasion". College News. Retrieved February 6, 2010.
  4. "New Mortal Kombat Promotional Featurette Delivers the Goods". DreadCentral.com. Retrieved 2015-09-06.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, October 09, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.