Q & A webinar with Mat Fraser

We were delighted to host Mat Fraser, disabled actor, writer and musician to take part in a live Q & A webinar with ONSIDE participants in February, 2022.

Mat is a leading disability rights activist who’s acting, writing and music career spans over 30 years. Mat has written and appeared in major television dramas on BBC, Channel 4 and RTE. Mat’s screen and stage appearances include: CripTales, American Horror Story: Freak Show, His Dark Materials, Silent Witness, and he played Richard III.

In 2020 Mat curated, wrote for, and acted in a series of monologues written by disabled writers for disabled actors to perform “CripTales”, for BBC 4 & BBC America, which won a Prix Italia, and was nominated for a BAFTA, and an NAACP award.

We shared an entertaining hour and a half with Mat, first he had an honest and open interview with our MC Peter Kearns, ILMI ONSIDE Coordinator in which Mat explained his thoughts on disability activism, how his position has changed over the years, how he feels disability is portrayed on screen and stage and the need for authentic disabled voices and faces to be represented, and he kindly offered his advice for budding disability actors. This was followed by a lively Q&A session with our participants, the content mirrored the topics covered in the interview. 

We’ve captured the full interview which is available on our You Tube Channel and below. Why not grab a cuppa, sit back and let yourself be entertained by the effervescent Mat regale a colourful account of his career to date, how he survived lockdown and his plans for the future.  It’s also jam packed with wonderful anecdotes from his critically acclaimed career, this is one not to miss!