Coach / Artist / Author / Listener / Speaker

Benjamin draws upon his 15 years of creative development, artistic leadership, and social entrepreneurship to help senior executives, management, and sales teams increase their creative capital in business leadership and team building, individual productivity, and presentation acumen. His out-of-the box approach and result-oriented process have proven effective in numerous industries including healthcare, automotive, fitness, financial services, entertainment, and non-profit, as well as multi-faceted organizations.

Benjamin has been an actor for over 20 years. On film, television, and stage he has worked with artists such as Academy Award-winning director Clint Eastwood, Academy Award-winning actor Alan Arkin, Sam Raimi, Bradley Cooper, Andy Garcia, Chris Rock, and Academy Award-winning producer Brian Grazer.  He received his MFA in Acting from the University of California, Irvine.

He serves as Head of Production for Seine Pictures, a film finance and production company in Hollywood, overseeing the creative development and production of each film.  Recently, he Executive Produced the dark comedy, Murder of a Cat (starring Greg Kinnear, J.K. Simmons, and Nikki Reed), and the biopic, Pele (in partnership with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment). 

As a teacher, he has been on faculty or taught workshops at Auburn University, Cal State Northridge, University of San Diego, University of Lima, Peru, Catholic University of Lima, Theatre of Arts in Hollywood, University of California–Irvine, and the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. He is a certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®, and has served as vocal and dialect coach for major motion pictures, network television, and theatres around the country. 

His acting studio, CRASH ACTING, inspires a guerrilla approach to acting driven by the idea that service is the context for artistic greatness. His students have won or been nominated for Tony, Emmy, Grammy, and Ovation Awards, and have appeared on Broadway, as guest stars and series regulars on television, and in major motion pictures. His studio has helped raised over 10,000 for charities worldwide.

Benjamin is the author of two books detailing and investigating the creative process. The first, Thought Lozenges for Artists, is a daringly optimistic, “open-where-you-want” look into the creative process, and the second, CRASH {Unstuck Yourself}, is a guided journal designed to directly combat the blocks holding us from our creative potential.  Both are beautifully hand made with recycled materials by JOURNAL JUNKY in Asheville, North Carolina.

Benjamin is the founder of Urban Confessional: A Free Listening Movement. Started as a way to challenge conventional actor training, Urban Confessional is a community of artists who believe people should be heard. They stand on street corners all over the world with signs that say "Free Listening" — and you can imagine what happens next. Their work has been featured in magazines, academic publications, and blogs, and on radio and television.

Benjamin Mathes is a speaker who helps people maximize their creativity. He has delivered keynote addresses and led workshops for schools and organizations across the country, including Citrix, Vistage, Girl Scouts of America, PrimePower Services, WeWork, AdVentures, DePauw University, Auburn University, University of California–Irvine, and many more.