Mateusz (Matt) Ozog

I'm a first-generation Polish-American. My family immigrated to the United States in 1997 in search of a better life, settling outside Chicago. I grew up in Harwood Heights, Illinois, where I attended grade school, before we moved to Roselle, Illinois, where I started high school.

A rough upbringing cut my education short, and I dropped out of high school. It was a low point, but it became the starting line for everything that followed.

Answering a post-9/11 call to serve, I enlisted in the United States Army in 2005 and earned my place as an Infantry paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment. I deployed to Iraq from 2005 to 2007, returning home a combat veteran.

Drawn to the human side of conflict, I was selected for Psychological Operations, deploying again (to both Iraq and Afghanistan) in support of special operations missions.

My path then turned technical. Selected to become a Warrant Officer in the Army's Cyber branch, I earned the title of Cyber Warfare Officer, conducting defensive cyber operations and supporting offensive missions at the national level. Over nearly two decades I was assigned to and supported units across the Army: the 82nd Airborne Division, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne), the Combined Special Operations Joint Task Force, Levant, the Cyber Protection Brigade, and U.S. Army Cyber Command. I retired from the Army in May 2025.

I never stopped learning. While serving my country, I climbed all the way back from high-school dropout, and then some:

• 2016B.S., Information Systems Security · American Public University System
• 2017Graduate Certificate, Cybersecurity Management · Fayetteville State University
• 2024M.S., Cybersecurity · Georgia Institute of Technology

From leaving high school to a master's degree from one of the nation's top engineering schools. Full circle.

Acting was always the dream, but there was simply never time for it. Between deployments, missions, and a demanding career, the screen had to wait.

Now, with my service complete, I'm pursuing that passion with everything I have. I bring something few actors can: real lived experience, the weight of combat, the discipline of an operator, and the authenticity of someone who has actually done the things the camera asks me to portray.

I'm also a dreamer and entrepreneur who has both succeeded and, just as importantly, failed at various ventures. Those highs and lows give me a perspective on life that I carry into every role.

I'm a genuinely versatile performer and craftsman. I'm hands-on mechanical (I'll fix just about any vehicle or machine), I ride motorcycles like I rolled straight out of Sons of Anarchy, and I can command a boat like Jack Sparrow (minus the rum… usually). I'm also military static-line parachute qualified (jump-style, not freefall). On the technical side I bring deep computer skills, website development, and design. I train in method acting and I'm fully bilingual in Polish and English.

Off set, I'm happiest staying hands-on. My passions run from beekeeping, gaming, and building things to traveling, helping people, and kicking back with a classic 80s flick, and above all, time with family. I also genuinely love to cook.

I'm an avid gym-goer, and I live by a simple rule: short and bald I can live with, but not short, fat, and bald. So I train to stay healthy and look my best, for myself and my health. That said, I'll never turn down a good cheeseburger.

Behind the lens, I'm a passionate videographer and cinematographer, shooting on a fully rigged Sony α7 V with a 24–200mm G Master II lens, ready for professional-grade work on either side of the camera.

None of this happens without Izabela: my wife, my ride-or-die for 23 years, and the true hero of this story. She's been through every chapter with me: holding our world together through deployments, worrying through every long silence, and raising our children on her own while I was half a world away. Every role I'll ever play, I owe to the woman who played the hardest one for real.

Together we're raising two amazing kids, Nathan and Zoe, both living their best teenage lives, plus our awesome dog, Gus.

Friendly and passionate about everything I do, I live by a simple code: treat people right, and expect the same in return.