Mathew James Willis (born 8 May 1983), previously known as Matty Jay, is an English musician, singer, songwriter, television personality and actor. He is known as co-founder, bassist and co-vocalist of the pop-punk band Busted. Willis released his debut solo album Don't Let It Go to Waste on 20 November 2006. It contains three top-20 singles.
In December 2006, Willis won the sixth series of the ITV reality series I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. He co-presented the ITV2 spin-off show with his wife Emma in 2007 and 2008. In 2014 Willis played the role of Garth Stubbs in the revived ITV sitcom Birds of a Feather and Luke Riley in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders.
Early life
Willis was born in Tooting in London on 8 May 1983. He has an older brother, but their parents separated when he was only three years old. His mother later remarried and had his half-sister.
Willis had three different last names legally while growing up. His original last name was Willis, after his father; this was changed to Woods after his parents split, and later it changed to Sargent after his mother remarried.
Willis has noted he was a "problem" child, regularly sneaking out of the house by climbing down drain pipes. He also as a child suffered from tunnel vision, asthma and hyperactivity problems. Willis attended Woking High School after being asked to leave his previous secondary school, before leaving to attend the independent fee-paying Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, London, where he met his now friends Lee Ryan, Tom Fletcher, Billie Piper, Jodi Albert and the late Amy Winehouse.
Career
Music career
Busted
Willis first found fame in the music industry as one third of the pop band Busted. The band's bassist and vocalist, Willis formed the band as well as co-writing almost all of their songs along with Charlie Simpson, James Bourne and Tom Fletcher, although the latter was a member of McFly. During their career, the trio became successful in the UK and began an upsurge of pop popularity. They had several chart successes and released two studio albums, one live album and a compilation of their greatest hits, available in the U.S.. The band disbanded in 2005 when Simpson left to pursue other projects.
On 10 November 2015, Busted announced on their official website and social media that they would reform with a 13-date starting in 2016. Due to demand more dates were subsequently added. Busted released their third studio album, Night Driver, on 25 November 2016. It was then followed in 2019 by Half Way There. In the latter end of that year, Busted began their first hiatus since the split to give space for the members to pursue other projects.
Solo career
After a brief stint in rehab after Busted split, Matt launched a solo career on Mercury Records, releasing singles in 2005 and 2006, "Up All Night", "Hey Kid", "Don't Let It Go to Waste", and a cover version of The Primitives song, "Crash" for the film Mr Bean's Holiday. Just as he was about to depart on his first solo UK Tour with support band The Riverclub, he sacked his agents of six years, 'Prestige Management'. Willis was later dropped by Mercury.
McBusted
Willis' return to music saw him reunite with one of his ex-Busted bandmates (James Bourne) and with McFly to form the group, McBusted. After a successful tour, they released their debut album McBusted. On 10 November 2015, it was announced that Simpson had decided to rejoin Busted after 10 years away from the band, as a consequence Willis confirmed that McBusted had parted ways for the time being putting the band on hiatus.