Matt Shively recently landed the role of Ryan on the newest Nickelodeon comedy, True Jackson, VP, opposite Keke Palmer (Akeelah and the Bee). The show is set to air on November 8 at 9:30-10:00PM ET, right after the iCarly special, “iGoes to Japan.” The regular showing time is Saturdays at 8:30 PM ET.

“The show is amazing,” Matt stated. “And I’m not just saying that, because I’m in the show. For a Nickelodeon show, it’s a lot more mature. I wouldn’t say adult-ish. I’m just saying it’s more for the teens. Period. Pre-teens will love it. But teens will understand everything about it. And that’s just in my personal opinion. The humor, the plots. It does have that Nickelodeon humor where someone will fall or does a corny little move. It also has some things only adults will understand when it comes joke-wise. It’s a really good show.”

“My character is Ryan. I play True’s best friend. Her guy’s side, because she has two and I’m one of them,” Matt continued. Described as ‘the guy’s guy,’ ‘comical,’ and ‘witty,’ Matt adds, “He’s very loud. He speaks his mind. He thinks he’s all that and a bag of hot nuts. He’s just very cocky. But he’s outgoing, knows how to light up a room. He just doesn’t know how to light it up in the best way.”

In an interview with Blogcritics, Keke Palmer described the audition process as fun, but Matt referred to it as grueling. “I auditioned for the show. A lot of the time I audition for shows, I just do it. I leave not expecting anything. But when I read the script, I was like, there’s no way I can’t get this. It’s mine, 100%.”

He added, “So, I went in and I actually told the casting director, who I auditioned for numerous amounts of times, I looked at her and said, ‘All right. This is the last time you are going to see me.’ And she asked, ‘What do you mean?’ and I said, ‘I’m going to get this part.’ And she said, ‘Okay, we’ll see then.’”