Life and Career

Ignacyo Mateusz Matynia was born on May 29, 1992 in Busko Zdroj, Poland . His family moved to the United States in 1995 whilst his father completed his work study program in Pensacola, Florida. After relocating multiple times, the Matynia family settled in Brooklyn, NY where Ignacyo was raised. With his eyes set on medical school, Ignacyo attended SUNY Albany in 2010. There, he discovered his passion for acting. With only a few credits shy of his Bachelor's Degree, Ignacyo left the collegiate life and began investing his time into his craft whilst working part time as a DJ/MC/Dancer at Trio Productions.

     During this period Ignacyo attended workshops and classes across Manhattan until he was ultimately discovered by Lee Strasberg's Sedly Bloomfield in 2014. With no expectation of financial compensation, Sedly "made an investment" and mentored Ignacyo, giving him all the tools necessary to breathe life into any character. With Sedly's guidance, Ignacyo took his newfound skills and went on to perform in over 40 short films, further developing his craft.

     Ignacyo began his professional career by booking his first audition for a speaking role on ABC's Forever (2014) in 2015 . He continued to working on television, guest starring in Scorned: Love Kills (2012) , Dietland (2018) and sharing the screen with Academy Award Winner Mahershala Ali on Marvel's Luke Cage (2016) 

     After quitting his day job and moving to the west coast to work full-time as an actor, Ignacyo immediately landed a leading role in Randy Van Dyke's Feature Film Like Dogs (2019) . Within a week of wrapping, Ignacyo booked his next starring role in the Lifetime TV movie My Nightmare Landlord (2019). Ignacyo continued to impress Hollywood Casting Directors thus booking a leading role in Felipe Cisneros’s One and the Same in Baja, Mexico as well as the leading role in Gerald Waddell’s Feature Film debut. Upon wrapping he immediately booked television work appearing alongside Melissa Barrera on the Starz Television show Vida (2019). 

     Ignacyo’s leading television debut of the charming landlord caught critics attention during its release in March on Lifetime and HBO Internationally. Movie Magg’s Mark Gabrish Conlan stated “Matynia managed to capture the complexity of his character, genuinely attractive, appealing and fun to be with. He’s managed the rare double balance of being charming and evil at the same time.” His performance in the Lifetime movie caught the attention of industry professionals, opening new doors for his career. 

    In September of 2020, Ignacyo hit the ground running starring in Hamza Zaman’s The Institute; one of the first films to proceed with production during the pandemic. Upon wrapping, Matynia made his way to West Virginia to star in Break Every Chain, the Jonathan Hickory story based on the award winning book. Under the direction of Tim Searfoss, Ignacyo starred alongside Dean Cain playing officer Jonathan Hickory. Matynia’s depiction of PTSD, Alcoholism and Depression garnered the film multiple awards during the festival season.

In 2021, Ignacyo was hired to perform on a ten episode ark of A Good Cop then immediately achieved every New York actor’s dream of guest starring alongside Mariska Hargitay and Kelli Giddish in on Season 23 of Law and Order: SVU (2022) as fighter Ricky Nowak, the episode’s main antagonist.