Matt Johnson grew up in New England. He got a degree in Communications and Technology from Stanford in California, and then an MFA in Film Production from the University of Texas at Austin. At UT he was privileged to be involved, as part of the technical solutions team, during the critical years as the school --like the industry at large-- struggled to evolve from the old film and tape techniques into the head-spinning new world of computer-based post-production.
At UT in 1993 he began collaborating with fellow film student Athina Rachel Tsangari, eventually culminating in the formation of Haos Film.