As a star and mainstay on The Good Wife, Matt Czuchry ’99 is perhaps one of the most recognizable faces in College of Charleston history. His breakout performance last season on the critically hailed drama staked his claim for being one of the top talents in this new golden age of television.


The Awakening

Epiphanies are rare. They happen in a flash, like a lightning strike on the psyche. They occur anywhere, anytime – on a bus, in the shower, along the road to Damascus. For those lucky enough to experience them – to truly have the scales fall from their eyes and a once hazy future now appear in pristine, high definition – that moment is nothing less than life altering.

Matt Czuchry '99

Matt Czuchry ’99

For Matt Czuchry ’99, his moment of before and after happened backstage in Sottile Theatre his senior year at the College. His lightning-bolt shock wasn’t religious in nature, but it did show him the way forward: unveiling a path that was wholly unexpected. At least to most. Maybe there was somebody in the audience there in 1986 in East Tennessee, where Czuchry spent half of his childhood. Maybe that somebody saw a glimmer of star power in the 9-year-old boy performing as a California raisin for local school and church groups around Johnson City. Maybe that discerning audience member recognized something more, getting past the white gloves, the oversized shoes, the tights, the round, paperfilled trashbag body grooving mostly in time to “I Heard It on the Grapevine.” Maybe. But not likely.

There was one person, however, who did see his acting potential well before Czuchry did. Not in the audience of his childhood, but in his Introduction to Theatre class. Professor Joy Vandervort- Cobb, a talented actor and director in her own right, has for years helped shape and expose students to the power of the stage. Known for her melodic voice and offbeat sense of humor, students have flocked to her because, as her first name suggests, joy is at the heart of theatre – the joy of human expression.

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Among Czuchry’s earliest acting gigs was performing as a California Raisin for local school and church groups.

“In one of the first projects of that semester,” Vandervort-Cobb recalls, “I noted that Matt had tremendous talent and presence. Whenever I bump into those kids in this non-major humanities class, I try to encourage them to come play in the Department of Theatre and Dance.”

Unfortunately, Czuchry couldn’t come to play. All of his “playtime” was dedicated to the men’s tennis team. But Vandervort-Cobb’s encouragement did not go unnoticed. On his final paper for the class, Vandervort-Cobb jotted a line, “saying I should change my major to theatre,” remembers Czuchry, who was already double majoring in political science and history at that point. “However, her note stuck with me, deeply. But it went beyond that. She had a huge impact on me because as a person, she has an incredibly infectious, positive personality and generous spirit. So, her being so beautiful as a person made me associate acting with light, goodness and embracing who you are as an individual.”

But his epiphany would have to wait a year or so…

Read the full profile of Matt Czuchry in College of Charleston Magazine.