bio

Matt Morris is one of the rare songwriters and musical collaborators who artists trust to give words to their innermost truths.

Morris has spent over twenty-five years inside the creative process, writing songs and accompanying artists through the most vulnerable moments of their work. His songs have been performed by Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Justin Timberlake, Reba McEntire, Mary J. Blige, Cher, Sarah McLachlan, Joy Williams, Rachel Platten, Kimbra, Selena Gomez, Idina Menzel, Jason Mraz, James Bay, Ethan Gruska, and Freya Ridings, among others. His most recent notable credit is "Better Broken" — the title track of Sarah McLachlan's 2025 album and the name of her headlining tour, a song he and McLachlan first wrote together around 2011, set aside unfinished, and which was completed more than a decade later with Benjamin Bock for McLachlan's tenth studio album and first of original material in eleven years.

His studies in theology and divinity gave him language for the interior life that many songwriters never develop. He has always been drawn to the systems human beings build to make sense of themselves — religion, spirituality, mythology, music — and the moments when those systems break open into something true. What he looks for in a lyric is the same thing he looks for in life: honesty, vulnerability, and uniqueness. Morris earned a Master of Divinity from Iliff School of Theology in Denver, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the Masters Student of the Year award. He was ordained an Episcopal priest on May 9, 2020, at Trinity Cathedral in Portland, Oregon, by The Rt. Rev. Michael Joseph Hanley, 10th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon. He served in the Diocese of Oregon until requesting release from ordained ministry on the third anniversary of his ordination; he was granted release on June 1, 2023, by The Rt. Rev. Diana Akiyama. From December 2010 to December 2013, he had written publicly about his spiritual life under the name Teo Bishop at BishopInTheGrove.com, documenting a journey through Paganism and Druidry before returning to Christianity; he legally changed his name to Teo Bishop in 2012 and back to Matthew — adding David as a middle name — in March 2014.

Morris has been performing since the age of seven, when he first took the stage alongside his father, country legend Gary Morris, who charted a string of hit songs throughout the 1980s. As a teenager he was cast in The All New Mickey Mouse Club (Disney Channel, 1991–1995) — seasons 4 through 7 — alongside a generation of artists who would go on to define popular culture: Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell, and JC Chasez. After the show ended, Morris returned to Denver, attended Kennedy High School, and stepped away from the entertainment industry before the songwriting found him again.

His early collaborations in the 2000s established him as a songwriter other artists sought out for the most personal material. He co-wrote five songs on Christina Aguilera's landmark 2002 album Stripped — "Can't Hold Us Down" (with Aguilera, Scott Storch, and Kimberly Denise Jones), "Walk Away," "Infatuation," "Loving Me 4 Me," and "Underappreciated" — and a co-write with Aguilera and producer Rhett Lawrence that didn't make that album became "Miss Independent" for Kelly Clarkson's 2003 debut Thankful, which reached number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 1 on Mainstream Top 40, and earned Clarkson her first Grammy nomination. His collaboration with Justin Timberlake extended beyond their Mickey Mouse Club years: Morris co-wrote "(Another Song) All Over Again" for FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006), which debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, and "The Only Promise That Remains" for Reba McEntire's Reba: Duets (2007), performed as a duet with Timberlake. In 2011 he co-wrote "Need Someone" for Mary J. Blige's My Life II... The Journey Continues (Act 1). In 2013, "Woman's World" — written with Paul Oakenfold and Anthony Crawford — became the lead single of Cher's Closer to the Truth, reaching number 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.

Morris co-wrote "Song for My Father" and "Love Beside Me" (both with McLachlan and Tom Douglas) for Sarah McLachlan's Shine On (Verve Records, 2014), which reached number 4 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and number 1 on the Canadian Albums Chart. When Joy Williams needed a collaborator for her first solo album after the dissolution of The Civil Wars, a tip from Justin Timberlake led her to Morris; he executive-produced and co-produced Venus (2015), co-writing nine of its eleven songs with Williams: "Sweet Love of Mine," "Woman (Oh Mama)," "One Day I Will," "What a Good Woman Does," "You Loved Me," "The Dying Kind," "Til Forever," "Welcome Home," and "We Can Never Go Back." Also in 2015, Morris co-wrote "Stand By You" with Rachel Platten, Jack Antonoff, and Joy Williams for Platten's major-label debut Wildfire; the song reached number 1 on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart in February 2016. Additional credits include "90s Music" and "Love in High Places" on Kimbra's The Golden Echo (2014); "Me & My Girls" on Selena Gomez's Revival (2015); "Better to Be Loved" and "Call" on Francesco Yates' self-titled debut (2015); "I See You" (with Andrew Hollander and Dana Parish), the lead single of Idina Menzel's idina. (2016); "Little Secret" (with Yanofsky and Adam Dornblum) on Nikki Yanofsky's Little Secret, produced by Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton; "Holy Water" on Freya Ridings' self-titled debut (2019); "Take Me Alive" on Michael Franti & Spearhead's Stay Human Vol. II (2019); "Gratitude" on Jason Mraz's Look for the Good (2020); "Teenage Drug" and "Crash Cart" on Ethan Gruska's En Garde; and "One Life" on James Bay's Leap.

In 2010, Morris released When Everything Breaks Open on Tennman Records/Interscope — a genre-spanning record produced by Charlie Sexton and Justin Timberlake, recorded at Public Hi-Fi in Austin, Texas, and supported by performances on Late Show with David Letterman, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Lopez Tonight. That same month, his performance of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" with Justin Timberlake and Charlie Sexton on the Hope for Haiti Now telethon reached number 1 on the iTunes chart and number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Morris is queer. He was previously married to Sean Michael Morris (2008–2022), and on February 10, 2026, married Michael Louis Caruso, known professionally as M.C. Flux. He is based in Denver and Los Angeles, where he continues to write and collaborate.