Matt Olsen is a videographer and along with his wife runs a digital marketing and social media businesses. 

“I have been doing that for nearly twenty years, that’s been my day job,” he said. 

“Acting wasn’t the first performing instinct, it was very much singing. 

“I was a late starter, kids today start singing if they have the aptitude or desire when they’re in early high school.”

Mr Olsen said he was shy and reserved, but once he hit his early twenties he decided to have a ‘crack’. 

“I was lucky because there was a pretty vibrant live music culture in Wagga,” he said. 

“I was very quickly able to perform a lot and two or three nights a week I was able to sing live in places.” 

Due to developing as a performer in Wagga, Mr Olsen was asked to audition for Wagga’s 2004 production of Les Misérables. 

“It blows my mind that was 14 years ago,” he said. 

“I hadn't done any real sort of acting, I had only been a band leader, a rock star on stage. 

“I auditioned and got the role of Marius and it was a big challenge, it really threw me in a whole other direction to this day.”

As the leader of a revolution, Marius was a rock star in his own way, a mentality which Mr Olsen applied to the role. 

“I was myself in the boots of this character,” he said. 

Mr Olsen said he is a different person to who he was in his thirties. 

“I hadn’t really had any long-term relationships,” he said. 

“Since then I have been married twice, I have had a daughter and I am about to have a baby. 

“As a performer, everything about what you do has got to do with your life, who you are and what you do.”

Right now, Mr Olsen is taking the time to taken up being soloist again. 

”I have really re-embraced doing gigs again,” he said. 

“I don’t define myself as an actor or singer though. I try not to put a circle around what I do because at the end of the day I am just trying to make people happy and feel something with what I do.” 

Mr Olsen encouraged anyone who wanted to get into the industry to give it a go. 

“It is never too late,” he said. 

“I have met people who haven’t embraced that thing inside them until their thirties or forties.” 

Need to know more about things to do in Wagga? Check out the latest here: What’s On