Matt Di Angelo

Mario Angelo Constantinou (born 1 May 1987),^[1][2] commonly known as Matt Di Angelo, is a British actor and singer, best known for his role as Dean Wicks in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He also starred as Sean Kennedy in the BBC drama series Hustle.^[3]

Early life

Di Angelo was born in London, England, to parents of Greek and Irish descent. He attended Southgate School, and started studying acting, singing and dancing at Boden Studios (Enfield/Barnet), and went on to Sylvia Young Theatre School. He started a BTEC in Performing Arts but did not finish it.

Career

Di Angelo's first acting role was as Robbie in the television series Harbour Lights in the episode: "Rites of Passage" which first aired on 28 May 2000. Then he played Felix in the CBBC musical comedy series I Dream in 2004. This resulted in him making a few appearances in the Sunday morning children's TV show Smile. He appeared in the film Telling Lies in 2006.

That same year he got his best-known role as Deano Wicks in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders where he made his first appearance on 2 January 2006. When he heard that he had got the role of Deano, Di Angelo was working in a shoe shop.^[4] It was announced on 18 August 2007 that Di Angelo would be leaving EastEnders following the departure of Phil Daniels (who played his on-screen father Kevin Wicks). He described his departure as "a shock".^[5] Di Angelo finished filming EastEnders 12 December 2007 and his last appearance in the series aired on 7 February 2008.

Di Angelo's portfolio includes television commercials and modelling, and he has been a guest on a number of programmes, such as The Paul O'Grady Show, Saturday Kitchen, Ready Steady Cook, Hole in the Wall, Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong, Weakest Link and The Friday Night Project.

From 11 December 2008 until 31 January 2009 he played the character of Hal in the play Loot in north London's Tricycle Theatre, then at Theatre Royal, Newcastle 3–7 February 2009.^[6]

He played Sean in all six episodes of the 2009 series of the hit BBC1 series, Hustle. He played Fitz Kreiner in the Doctor Who audio play The Company of Friends.

In 2008, Di Angelo confirmed on Something for the Weekend his participation in the upcoming film Function at the Junction. However, this has yet to happen.

On 20 April 2009, Di Angelo's agent announced on their website^[7] that he would be filming a guest lead in Casualty. This will be the series two-part finale 'No Fjords in Finland' which is due to air on Saturday 25 July and Saturday 1 August 2009. The agent advised that he was busy recording a new pilot show called Fried Brain Sandwich about a stand up comedian, to be directed by Guy Jenkin (Outnumbered and Drop the Dead Donkey).

On 21 July 2009, Di Angelo's agent announced on their website that he would be playing the lead role of Jack Stradler in the low-budget film Following Footsteps. He films throughout August for Perry Pictures.^[8]

Earlier in the year Di Angelo supported 'A Night Less Ordinary' a free ticket scheme for young people launched by Arts Council England in February 2009.^[9]

Di Angelo is a supporter of the 'Connected to British Films and TV Campaign' urging internet users to pay for their downloads.

In May 2010 Di Angelo was filming Whiskey Robber for Parallel Pictures and series 7 of Hustle.^[10]

More recently, Di Angelo was cast as the voice-over for the Giffgaff advert, sponsoring The Big Bang Theory on E4, which aired between February and May 2012.

In April 2012, industry trade daily Screen International announced Di Angelo had been cast as the lead in British crime thriller Two Days in the Smoke alongside Stephen Marcus, Alan Ford, Lili Bordan and Velibor Topic.^[11]

In April 2014, Di Angelo returned to EastEnders, to reprise the role as Dean Wicks.^[12] In October 2015, it was announced that he would once again be leaving EastEnders.^[13] His last episode was on 5 February 2016.

On 30 March 2016, it was announced that Di Angelo had been cast in the second series of Ordinary Lies.^[14] Filming began in Cardiff, Wales on 21 March 2016.

Strictly Come Dancing

In 2007, Di Angelo competed as a contestant in series 5 of Strictly Come Dancing, where he was partnered with professional dancer Flavia Cacace. He and Cacace finished the competition as the runners-up, losing to Alesha Dixon and Matthew Cutler. They later competed in the 2007 Christmas special of the show, landing in third place.

They also competed together in the Strictly Come Dancing live arena tour from January to February 2008, and had won more shows than any other couple by coming first overall sixteen times and second ten times.^[15]

Awards

Filmography

Films

TV

Radio

References

External links

• Matt Di Angelo at the Internet Movie Database