Matthew James Moy Bio
Matthew James Moy (born February 3, 1984) is an American actor and artist best known for portraying Han Lee on the CBS comedy series 2 Broke Girls and for voicing Lars Barriga on Steven Universe and Steven Universe Future. Born and raised in San Francisco, California, Moy has built a versatile career spanning television, film, and voice acting. He studied Japanese at the University of California, Davis, where he earned a bachelor’s degree with a minor in linguistics. His career began in 2008, and he has since appeared in numerous television series and films while also pursuing visual arts. Moy resides in Los Angeles, California, where he continues to work as an actor and artist.
Early Life and Background
Moy was born and raised in San Francisco, California. He comes from a fourth-generation Chinese-American family. His father worked as a high school teacher, and his mother was a language therapist. Moy has one older sister. His upbringing in the San Francisco Bay Area provided him with exposure to diverse cultural influences that would later inform his artistic pursuits.
Moy attended the University of California, Davis, where he pursued his studies in the Japanese language. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Japanese and a minor in linguistics. His academic background in language and communication proved valuable for his future work in acting, particularly in voice performance. During his time at university, Moy developed skills that would serve him well in his entertainment career.
Beyond his academic pursuits, Moy has always maintained a passion for visual arts. He enjoys drawing and painting as creative outlets, and this artistic side has remained an important part of his life throughout his acting career. He has credited Rebecca Sugar, creator of Steven Universe, with providing him with additional painting lessons during his time working on the animated series.
Path to Acting
Moy launched his professional acting career in 2008, beginning with voice work in video games. His first major video game role was voicing Firefly in the 2009 game G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. He continued building his voice acting resume with roles in White Knight Chronicles as Raus and in the Skylanders reboot franchise as Shroomboom. These early voice acting positions helped him develop skills in a different dimension of performance that would later prove valuable.
Transitioning to on-screen work, Moy began appearing in guest roles on popular television series. He made appearances on shows including How I Met Your Mother, Criminal Minds, and Zeke and Luther. He also appeared on Good Luck Charlie and had a recurring role as Shawn the Mathlete on iCarly. Additional television appearances included The Middle, where he played Takayuki, a Japanese foreign exchange student living with the Heck family, and Big Time Rush, where he appeared as famous blogger Deke. He played Trang in the ninth season of the medical comedy Scrubs.
Matthew James Moy Career
Early Career (2008–2013)
Between 2008 and 2013, Moy steadily built his television resume with guest appearances and supporting roles across various genres. His work on iCarly brought him recognition as Shawn the Mathlete, a recurring character that showcased his comedic timing. The television landscape of early television appearances demonstrated his ability to adapt to different show formats, from sitcoms to drama series to children’s programming.
In 2010, Moy ventured into feature film work with an appearance in the independent film The Grover Complex, playing Ron, Grover’s best friend. The following year, he appeared in the mainstream comedy film No Strings Attached (2011), starring alongside Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. These film roles expanded his experience beyond television and provided exposure to larger production scales.
Breakthrough (2011–2017)
Moy’s most prominent role came when he was cast as Han Lee, a main character on the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls. The series premiered in 2011 and ran until 2017, with Moy appearing in all seasons as the dapper and short-statured manager of the dessert shop where the main characters worked. The character of Han Lee was known for his deadpan humor and memorable one-liners, and Moy’s performance became a signature element of the show.
During the run of 2 Broke Girls, Moy faced a significant personal challenge. In 2012, while filming the second season of the show, he suffered a minor stroke in his sleep that caused weakness and motor skill loss on his right side. Moy drove himself to urgent care, where doctors discovered bleeding in his brain. The incident required a year of physical therapy, during which he walked with a cane on set and had to relearn writing with his right hand. He kept this health crisis private until revealing it in 2017, and he has since made a full recovery.
While working on 2 Broke Girls, Moy also began voicing Lars Barriga on the Cartoon Network animated series Steven Universe, starting in 2013. He continued the role through the original series and in Steven Universe Future, earning critical praise for his voice performance. The animated series allowed Moy to showcase a different range of acting skills, bringing depth and emotion to the character of Lars, a surfista who becomes a central figure in the show’s narrative.
Notable Works and Milestones
Moy’s most notable works include the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls, which ran for six seasons and established him as a recognizable television presence. His role as Han Lee became synonymous with his career, providing audiences with memorable comedic moments throughout the series. His voice work on Steven Universe demonstrated his versatility as an actor, earning praise from critics and fans of the animated series. The combination of live-action and voice work illustrates his range across different acting mediums.
In 2017, following the conclusion of 2 Broke Girls, Moy was cast as Zack Smith, also known as Microbe, in the Freeform series New Warriors. A pilot was filmed, but Freeform ultimately dropped the series before it aired, and the show was cancelled after languishing in development for a year. This project represented a potential next step in his career that did not come to fruition.
Matthew James Moy Family
Moy comes from a family with strong educational backgrounds. His father was a high school teacher, and his mother worked as a language therapist. He has one older sister. As a fourth-generation Chinese-American, Moy’s family has deep roots in the United States while maintaining connections to Chinese heritage through family traditions and cultural upbringing.
Personal Life
Moy resides in Los Angeles, California, where he continues to pursue both acting and visual arts. When not working on film or television projects, he dedicates time to drawing and painting. His artistic pursuits remain an important creative outlet alongside his acting work. He has spoken about the therapeutic value of visual art, noting that it provides a different form of expression than performance acting.
In terms of relationships, Moy has chosen to keep his personal life relatively private. Publicly available information does not include details about current partnerships or children. His focus remains on his career and artistic endeavors while maintaining boundaries around certain aspects of his personal life.