Born: 1st July 1956 (as Matthew JB Jacobs)
Episodes Broadcast: 1996

London-born Matthew Jacobs was the son of actor Anthony Jacobs. When the elder Jacobs played Doc Holliday in The Gunfighters, a 1966 adventure for William Hartnell as the First Doctor, nine-year-old Matthew got to visit the Doctor Who set. Soon thereafter, Jacobs made his own television debut in 1968's Point Counter Point. He later appeared in an installment of Play For Today, before deciding to focus on directing. Jacobs initially trained at Hull University, and then the National Film and Television School. It was as a writer, though, that he initially found success. Jacobs authored several movie screenplays during the Eighties, most notably 1989's cult classic fantasy film Paperhouse. He moved into television with a 1989 entry in The Jim Henson Hour, followed by episodes of Ruth Rendell Mysteries.

Jacobs then relocated to Hollywood, where he co-wrote the 1994 movie version of Lassie, and contributed to The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. Jacobs soon found himself recruited for Philip David Segal's Doctor Who project which, at one point, had been housed at Amblin. The BBC co-production had already struggled through several writers, and it was Jacobs who developed the final script for Doctor Who (1996), with Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor; he also served as a co-producer. Later work in America included involvement in the story for the 2000 animated feature film The Emperor's New Groove as well as several video games, such as Star Wars: Starfighter.

Returning to the United Kingdom, Jacobs concentrated on independent film, working variously as a writer, director and actor. He was occasionally seen in wider releases, such as 2018's critical darling Vice, starring Christian Bale as US Vice President Dick Cheney. Jacobs' latter work has included a documentary about Doctor Who in America called Doctor Who Am I.