MATT CEDENO |  
It is an age-old myth in Hollywood that the path to stardom can begin when a stranger stops you on the street and says he is an agent. For Days of our Lives newcomer Matt Cedeno, the myth became a reality when a chance meeting with an agent in Seattle ultimately led Matt to Los Angeles and the role of mystery man Brandon on NBC's top rated daytime drama.
Born in a small town in Washington State, Cedeno was raised in Seattle back and forth between his father, Ruben, and his mother, Connie, after his parents divorced when Matt was six years old. "My father is Black Cuban and my mother is of Irish and English heritage, so they definitely had obstacles," candidly states Cedeno. "But I never had any problems fitting in at school, probably because I was always very involved in sports."
Acting was really the furthest thing from the accomplished high school athlete's mind. In yet another Hollywood myth, the road to show business began when a debilitating knee injury for the first string running-back abruptly halted Cedeno's aspiring football career during the fourth game of his senior year. After reconstruction surgery on his knee, Cedeno had to kiss his hopes for a football scholarship goodbye and opted to enroll in a community college in Seattle "to wait for further inspiration."
The inspiration came on an ordinary day, in between classes, when a manager stopped Matt on the street with connections to Seattle's most reputable modeling agency. That very afternoon, Cedeno signed with the agency, shot some Polaroid's, and before the semester ended, took a week off from school to go on his first modeling assignment in Naples, Italy.
Several modeling gigs soon followed in Milan, Spain, New York and Los Angeles, which Cedeno juggled with academics until he finished school. An invitation to crash at the LA apartment of a high school friend encouraged Matt to give Los Angeles and his aspiring acting career a try. Within Matt's first year in LA, he landed a theatrical agent and began studying with some of the industry's most respected acting coaches. Besides landing his role on Days of our Lives, Matt recently completed shooting the feature film Prince of Glory for New Line Cinema, portraying a young boxer (Jimmy Smitts plays the same character years later.) Matt is also featured prominently in the upcoming Sony Pictures release The Suburbans, portraying a Hawaiian surfer-turned-model. The romantic comedy also stars Ben Stiller, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Amy Brennerman.
Matt resides in the San Fernando Valley. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, boxing, traveling, hanging out with friends, and spending as much time as possible with his girlfriend Charissa, who is on a whirlwind world tour dancing with pop sensation Britney Spears. He remains close with his father and mother, who still reside in Washington, and his older brother Ray and half brother Scott.
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