Matthew gets his biggest exposure
IT IS not every day that you get to see a Rhondda boy on one of the biggest billboards in the world.
But that is exactly what has happened to a New York-based model and musician from Wales.
Matthew Hitt is one of the models who appears on a massive billboard in New York’s Times Square in an advert for American online clothing company Express.
He says that if you blink you will miss him playing guitar and opening a letter in the advert that has been seen by the thousands of people who visit the Big Apple tourist spot every day.
But the clip of Matthew in action was caught by a family friend and posted on Facebook.
Born in the Rhondda, Matthew has posed for some of the world’s leading glossy magazines after being spotted aged 19 by a model agency while on holiday in New York.
Proud aunt Carolyn Hitt said: “He sent me a jokey text and said ‘blink and you’ll miss me’. I’m proud of him because he’s talented in all sorts of ways.
“He studied English literature at Cardiff University and writes really well, he’s an excellent musician and songwriter and has had a lot of success with his band Drowners. And since being scouted by a model agency when he was on a trip to New York as a student, he’s ended up living there and has modelled all over the world.
“We’re used to seeing him in magazines and in television adverts but nothing on the scale of this giant Times Square advert. A friend of the family happened to be in New York this week and took a video of it.”
The singer-songwriter from Pentre fronts American-Welsh rockers Drowners. He began playing guitar with school bands before joining Pontycymmer emo outfit Kids In Glass Houses.
The 29-year-old, who is signed to Wilhelmina model agency, also once dated Fifty Shades of Grey actress Dakota Johnson.