Matt Barse (Wichita and Affiliated Tribes) is an alumnus of the University of Oklahoma with a major in Integrative Studies and minor in Film Media Studies. He also received a Certificate of Mastery in Digital Cinema Production from Oklahoma City Community College. He is currently enrolled in UCLA's Professional Program in Screenwriting. His work encompasses both narrative fiction and documentary with recent projects centering on horror and sci-fi.
Barse has written, directed, and edited eight shorts and one feature. Fiction short films include Lovely Day (2012), a drama about an estranged couple, Epilogue (2020), a horror/thriller featuring a young woman haunted by her troubled past, and Distance (2023), a pandemic drama with an emphasis on the undead. Non-fiction work is based on Indigenous stories with I Said I Would Never Paint This Way Again (2013), focusing on established artists from various tribes and backgrounds, and Shan Goshorn: Reclaiming Our Power (and More) (2019).He has also been cast on the sets of major motion pictures and television series as background, stand-in, and non-speaking roles, notably Reservation Dogs (2022) for FX on Hulu, Tulsa King (2022) for Paramount+, indie feature Fancy Dance (2023), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) for Apple+. Projects in development include Indigenous sci-fi drama Nebula Unfolding with Sunrise Tippeconnie, the A.I. sci-fi drama Saavie with Elizabeth Drew, zombie horror/romantic comedy Dawn of the Bed, and The Boy from Enemy Swim, the story of a young Dakota man growing up on the Lake Traverse Reservation in the early twentieth century.