Matt Wilkins was born in Scott County, Iowa and has lived in Illinois, Kentucky, Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Washington. He graduated from the University of Iowa in 1991 with a B.A. in English and one short super-8 film. He drove out west with his wife, Eliza, and son, Wiley, in the summer of 1992 in search of cheap babysitting from Eliza's 3 cousins. He started making videos at public access using their free 3/4" tube cameras and tape-to-tape editing system. His first grant came from the Seattle Arts Commission in 1994 based on a short skit called "The Poet Gets a Ticket." With that, he made a collection of shorts and his first good film, a super-8 silent black and white comedy, "The Gods Looked Down and Laughed." This work lead to a grant from the King County Arts Commission and his second good film, "Interior Latex," which has played over 20 and venues, including Italian television channel RAI Uno. It won a Judges' Award from Matt Groening at the Northwest Film and Video festival in 1999. In turn, this lead to his selection as the year 2000 Start-To-Finish Grant recipient from the Northwest Film Forum and WigglyWorld Studios. "Buffalo Bill's Defunct," his first feature endeavor, was completed in 2004, in conjunction with support from the 4Culture, The Allen Foundation for the Arts, The Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and Artist Trust. "Buffalo Bill's Defunct" premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on Memorial Day of 2004, and went on to play The Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

"Animals" the second Sisyphus Production feature is in pre-production.