Matthew Lillard

Matthew Lillard (also credited as Matthew Lyn Lillard and Matt Lillard) is an American screen actor, director, and producer born on January 24, 1970, in Lansing, Michigan. He first drew attention in the mid-1990s with sharp-edged film work, including Serial Mom and the cult techno-thriller Hackers, where he played the memorable “Cereal Killer.”

Lillard’s mainstream breakthrough arrived with his scene-stealing turn as Stu Macher in Scream, cementing his place in modern horror history. He followed with a run of popular late-’90s and early-2000s titles such as She’s All That, Thirteen Ghosts, and the adventure comedy Without a Paddle, while also appearing in genre fare like Wing Commander and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.

For many audiences, he’s synonymous with Norville “Shaggy” Rogers, playing the role in Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed before becoming Shaggy’s voice in animation after Casey Kasem stepped back. In the 2010s, Lillard leaned into more dramatic parts, with appearances in projects like The Descendants, Twin Peaks: The Return, and the series Good Girls.

He gained fresh pop-culture momentum as William Afton in Five Nights at Freddy’s (and its 2025 sequel), alongside later work including The Life of Chuck and Daredevil: Born Again.