Who Is Matthew Noszka

How did you get into modeling?

I was playing college basketball in Pittsburgh at a D2 school, and I was in my junior year–I was playing ball, and I was going to play overseas. I had an offer to play in Germany but wanted to finish my degree. I was on a full scholarship.

And what was your degree in?

Sports entertainment management with a business degree. And so I was going to go over after I graduated, but [during] summer training I got a direct message from Luke Simone. He was with Wilhelmina, but he’s at Women now. So he sent me a direct message and was like “hey have you ever been interested in modeling” and I had no clue what Wilhelmina was, so I didn’t even really think twice about it. And he asked for shirtless digitals — I remember that precisely because I was like “who is this guy asking for shirtless photos?” So I looked him up, he was legit, and I ended up signing with them within like a week. I sent the photos over, and he sent me a message saying I had booked a Nike job. Off of those photos. Like I hadn’t even been to New York yet, and the rate was $1500 for the day. [So] I just ended up just dropping out of school and moved to New York, and it’s worked out so far.

That’s fast. Very fast. Was acting something you always wanted to do?

No. I ended up at a performing arts college on a whim. I was supposed to go to a bigger school, had a scholarship there, but things just didn’t work out. I went to this division two school because I got offered a full ride. And I wasn’t expecting to take any acting classes or anything, but I went to my advisor — I was late enrolling for school — and the advisor was like you have one choice: there’s an elective, but it’s an acting class. I was like acting class? What am I going to do in that? And I ended up falling in love with it, I really love it.

So far what has been the highlight of your modeling career?

Being able to travel. We weren’t that financially well off growing up, so I never thought about going out of the country. Our vacations were like Lake Erie, or maybe North Carolina, so getting to do that was incredible. So now I can take my family there — that’s probably the best part.

Where’s your favorite place you’ve been?

Lake Como. It was incredible. I took a trip to Italy with two friends for fashion week — we went to Milan and one day we had the day off and we were like yo, let’s just go rent a car and drive up to Lake Como. And it was the best trip I’ve ever done. It was so beautiful. It was a little cold, but the scenery was incredible. So I definitely want to take my mom there.

So tell me about Tales and what it’s about, and your role in the show.

Tales is amazing. Tales is a hip-hop anthology. They take legendary hip-hop songs, and they make them into a scripted show. My episode was NWA’s “Fuck The Police.” There’s Meek Mill’s “Cold Hearted,” there’s “Queen” by Fetty Wap, there’s a lot of really cool songs, and they just dive in to what that musician or artist was trying to convey, what message he’s giving across in his music, and write it into a show. My episode is very…I don’t want to say controversial, but it was very prevalent [to] today’s society. It has to do with police brutality, prejudice, and racism.

What are you listening to right now?

What am I not listening to? Young Thug, Future, Jay Z’s new album, Meek Mills’ new album is cool. I used to listen to a lot of Ed Sheeran, James Bay, that’s when I was in a relationship. And now it’s more so like hip-hop, and kind of just like feel good, money-makin music.

Money-makin’ music. Alright, if you could be in any T.V. show or movie what would it be?

T.V. Show or Movie. Well for movies I would love a role in like a romance or a drama, kind of like Dear John, The Notebook, The Vow. But for a T.V. show? I really like Ballers. I’d like to play like a quarterback on Ballers. I think that’d be dope, ’cause I’d get to work with The Rock, who is one of my idols, and I think that I really like the concept of the show. It’s kind of cool.

So what is your career goal?

My career goal is to leave a positive influence. Someone to look up to [as having] made a change in the world, [to] have done like great things for so many people, and have seen the other side, how other people live. I want to leave people with an impression of — he not only was talented and left home, but he affected people in his life that needed that, or were less fortunate than others.

What do you want to do?

Right now, I have two different things that I’m working on. There is a company called Revive that a friend of mine and I started — we created a solar powered pack that [goes] to foreign countries that need sustainable light and electricity, so kids [who] need to study at nighttime and don’t have electricity have these solar powered lights that you click on, that’s why it’s “Little Sun”. And then they have these charging packs that are solar powered as well. It’s kind of like a Toms deal, where you buy one bracelet, we donate a bracelet. And then breast cancer is something near and dear to my heart. My mom had it, and my grandmother had it. I have a tattoo, on my body, that…this is in my mom’s handwriting, and then the breast cancer ribbon is for her. So it’s something I’ve been wanting to work on forever, so I want to create a foundation. I’m working on it right now; this October is going to be my first launch. So I’m pretty excited about that.

Originally published at barkerrr.com on July 28, 2017.