Honestly, if you were a teenager in the UK—or a very dedicated Tumblr user—around 2011, you remember the specific, slightly unwashed energy of Matty Levan. Sebastian de Souza didn't just walk into Skins; he basically materialized out of a cloud of mystery and lingering stares.
It’s been over a decade since the third generation of the E4 drama ended, and yet people are still arguing about Matty in Reddit threads at 3 a.m. Why? Because the character was a walking contradiction that the writers eventually seemed to give up on. You've got this guy who was introduced as a "bag of drugs that will clean your heart out like bleach," and by the end, he was basically a plot device for other people's trauma.
The Mystery of the Missing Episode
One of the weirdest things about Sebastian de Souza's time on the show is that Matty never actually got his own centric episode. Think about that. Every other main character in Generation 3—even the polarizing ones like Franky or the late-addition Alex—had their name in the title card at least once.
Matty was always the "plus one." He was the brother, the boyfriend, the fugitive.
Sebastian de Souza has actually talked about this. He once mentioned in an interview with Digital Spy that he would have been confused if Matty had received an episode. He felt the character worked better as an enigma. But for the fans, it felt like a missed opportunity to understand why he was so "f**ked up" (to use his own words about the character). We saw the friction with his brother Nick, played by Sean Teale, and the overbearing pressure from their father, but we never got the deep dive into Matty’s actual psyche.
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That Morocco Incident (And Why Everyone Hates Him)
If you mention "Matty" to a Skins fan today, they usually bring up one thing: Grace.
The start of Series 6 was a total tonal shift. The gang is in Morocco, things are messy, and Matty ends up in a reckless car chase to "save" Franky from a local dealer named Luke. It ends in a horrific crash that ultimately kills Grace Blood, the literal heart and soul of the group.
Here is the kicker: Matty ran away.
He didn't just run from the crash; he fled the country. Sebastian de Souza played those later scenes with a kind of haunting desperation, but it was hard for the audience to forgive a character who left his friends for dead in a foreign hospital. Honestly, the writers did him dirty here. They turned the "mysterious bad boy" into someone who felt genuinely cowardly. While characters like Cook or Tony did awful things and got redemption arcs, Matty just got... a prison sentence and a lot of side-eyes from the rest of the cast.
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Why Sebastian de Souza Was Actually Brilliant
Despite the writing hurdles, Sebastian brought a very specific "indie-movie" weight to a show that could sometimes feel like a soap opera.
- The Look: He had that curly hair (which the producers apparently made him straighten constantly, much to his annoyance) and a gaze that made him look like he was permanently thinking about 18th-century philosophy.
- The Chemistry: His scenes with Dakota Blue Richards (Franky) were intense. Even if the love triangle with his brother Nick felt forced by the end, the early "headf**k" chemistry between Matty and Franky was arguably the best part of Series 5.
- The Realism: He didn't play Matty as a hero. He played him as a kid who was trying way too hard to be deep because he didn't know how to just be.
It’s funny looking back now because Sebastian is so clearly "not cool" in real life—his own words, not mine. In a 2024 interview on the Ameliarate Through Wine podcast, he described himself as a "self-deprecating aviation enthusiast." He’s a writer, a producer, and a novelist now. He’s gone from the "mysterious guy on the wasteland" to a guy who writes books like Kid and stars in Netflix hits like The Great and Fair Play.
The Legacy of the "Levan" Dynamic
The most underrated part of Matty’s arc wasn't the romance; it was the brotherhood.
The dynamic between Matty and Nick Levan was probably the most realistic portrayal of sibling rivalry in the whole show. You had Nick, the "golden boy" rugby captain who was secretly falling apart, and Matty, the black sheep who was actually the only one who saw through their dad's BS.
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There’s a scene where they’re playing rugby and it’s clear Matty is actually the better player, even though he doesn't care. It perfectly encapsulated their relationship: Matty effortlessly had everything Nick wanted, and he didn't even want it.
What You Can Do Now
If you’re feeling nostalgic or just want to see how much the "Skins-to-Stardom" pipeline actually works, here is how to track the Matty Levan energy in 2026:
- Watch "The Great": If you want to see Sebastian de Souza do something completely different from the moody Matty, watch him as Leo in The Great. It shows off the comedic timing he never got to use in Bristol.
- Read his book: He wrote a YA novel called Kid. It’s weird, futuristic, and feels a bit like the kind of story Matty would have been reading in the back of the bus.
- Check out "Fair Play": It’s a 2023/2024 era thriller on Netflix. He’s a supporting actor, but it shows he’s still got that "guy you can't quite trust" vibe down to a science.
- Listen to the "Are You Michelle From Skins?" podcast: April Pearson (who played Michelle in Gen 1) has interviewed several cast members. While the Gen 3 coverage is rarer, it’s the best place to hear the behind-the-scenes reality of how messy those filming years actually were.
Matty Levan might be the most hated character of his generation, but Sebastian de Souza's performance is the reason we're still talking about him. He took a "mysterious stranger" trope and turned it into a deeply flawed, occasionally frustrating, but ultimately memorable human being.
Actionable Insight: If you're re-watching Generation 3, pay attention to Matty in the background of other people's episodes. You'll notice he reacts to things much more than he speaks—Sebastian was doing a lot of heavy lifting with just his eyes while the script focused on the louder characters.