Matthew "Matt" Parkinson is a comedian, actor and radio presenter. He began acting at school and studied Theatre Arts at W.A.I.T.. His professional career began in Perth at the Hole in the Wall Theatre Company where he appeared in Hamlet, The Cherry Orchard, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the title role in Ben Johnson's The Alchemist. He is often referred to as simply "Parko". He was formerly one member of the comedy duo The Empty Pockets, along with Matthew Quartermaine, who featured regularly on television show The Big Gig. Parkinson was also a champion winner of television game show Sale of the Century in the 1990s. He was one of the hosts of popular Triple M breakfast program The Cage in Melbourne. After the axing of The Cage in the Sydney market at the end of 2006, he moved to Melbourne to continue to co-host the show. Parkinson is a regular member of the "Brains Trust" on the ABC quiz show The Einstein Factor, hosted by fellow Cage member, Peter Berner and was also a judge on Comedy Slapdown hosted by HG Nelson which appears on The Comedy Channel in 2008. In 2010 he was a writer on the comedy murder-mystery game show Sleuth 101 on the ABC.