SHS alum with plans on making it big in the acting business

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Photo contributed by Lytle

Matt Lytle (left) plays Turner in the movie the 15:17 to Paris.

Katie Berry, Reporter

Starting out in high school, one boy’s high school career is made up of baseball , basketball, choir and National Honors Society. He also became junior homecoming prince and senior homecoming king and wrote for the sports section in  newspaper and eventually became the sports section editor. However, doing theater sparked the most interest in his life. Alum, Matt Lytle, was apart of productions during his time at SHS, eventually becoming an actor.

Lytle’s passion for doing theater started out when he landed the role of Prince Charming in “Cinderella” and he continued on to do “The Music Man.” After he graduated from SHS back in 2012, he attended Ball State University for a year for tele-communications. Realizing it wasn’t for him, Lytle moved to Detroit, Mich. and attended film school.

“I’ve been in stuff from the musical in high school to short student films to feature independent films all the way to acting with Clint Eastwood,” Lytle said.

Lytle had an opportunity to audition for a feature role in the film, “15:17 to Paris” and he ended up landing the role of Turner. Lytle said that working on the film was intimidating, but stress free, and the crew for the film was very professional. During his time on the set, Lytle got to hang out and talk with one of the main leads of the movie, Spencer Stone. Lytle said that Stone had told him that he wanted to continue acting after the movie was over, and Lytle gave him some acting advice for when he pursues other projects. Nowadays, Lytle still talks with Stone, but only on occasion.

“Clint Eastwood had a lot of guts to get the actual people that it happened to as the lead actors,” Lytle said. “It wasn’t just hiring them and them doing their job, it was hiring them and then having to train them to act.”

Even though Lytle’s career started out in Detroit, Lytle ended up also having agents in Indianapolis and Atlanta. Owner of Acting on Instinct acting studio, Michael Maurice was one of Lytle’s acting teachers and has known Lytle for about three years. Maurice says that Lytle is a capable young man who applies himself well, and that he is very concentrated on his work.

“He is a very fine actor,” Maurice said. “He pays great attention to his craft. He worked very hard with me on his craft for I think over a year.”

Maurice relocated to Michigan and, when he did, Lytle relocated with him so that he could teach him more. Maurice said that he originally hired Lytle for a project that focused on interviews and camera presentations for businesses. Maurice also says that out of all of his students, Lytle was the one he thought of first when he had the project.

Since then, he has relocated to Indianapolis to pursue a serious relationship. He hopes to have his own ghost hunting television show. For people who wish to pursue acting, Lytle advises them to take risks. Lytle says that he is currently working behind the scenes on a house flipping show called “Good Bones.” In the future, Lytle plans to build up his resume for his acting career.

“I’m very proud of Matt as a teacher,” Maurice said. “…To me, he has a very bright future because he is intelligent, he’s creative and on top of that, he’s a good person.”