Matt Servitto: The Sopranos Actor's 10 Best Movies & TV Shows Ranked

Summary

• Matt Servitto’s most famous character is Special Agent Dwight Harris in The Sopranos, a role that still gets him stopped on the street by fans.
• His varied roles showcase his intelligence, range, and ability to switch between serious and comedic characters effortlessly.
• Servitto’s memorable performances in Homeland, The Blacklist, and Banshee highlight his talent and versatility as an actor.

American actor Matt Servitto is probably best recognized as Tony’s frenemy FBI Agent Dwight Harris, in The Sopranos, but the actor has had plenty of other notable roles across his career, particularly on television. Servitto’s first television performance came in 1988 with a recurring role in All My Children. From this soap opera, Servitto jumped into movies and more television roles. Television is where Servitto found the most success, but his prolific list of film acting credits suggests a personal enjoyment of the medium, even if his roles have been minor in it.

Servitto has a hangdog look to him that serves him well as both deadpan comedic characters and serious ones. His performance as a law enforcement officer on The Sopranos is not the only time he’s donned a badge. Many of his performances have seen Servitto play detectives, agents, and cops. He’s also played plenty of political operators and his piercing gaze always immediately signals his character’s intelligence. At the same time, he can easily relax and come off as a jocular everyman. His best roles tap into one side or the other of his range.

10 Homeland (2011-2020)

Matt Servitto Plays Agent Maslin (3 Episodes, 2018)

Homeland, stylized as HOMƎLAND, follows Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), a CIA officer with bipolar disorder, and Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), a Marine Sniper who was captured by al-Qaeda and whom Carrie suspects of being turned traitor. While some will argue that Homeland became less dependable in later seasons, the show is still an acclaimed series with 41 Emmy nominations over its run. Matt Servitto appears as Agent Maslin, an FBI detective who appears in three episodes of season 7.

Though it’s only a small arc, he’s still a memorable character. Maslin is a hotheaded but formidable FBI agent, who is leading a team when Saul (Mandy Patinkin) and Brett (Jake Weber) have a tense stand-off. It’s an interesting comparison to Servitto’s FBI agent on The Sopranos, who’s a much more stoic detective. This is an agent fans of that show never got to see, someone in the heat of an operation more than capable of handling himself.

9 The Blacklist (2013-2023)

Matt Servitto Plays Dr. Sebastian Reifler (3 Episodes, 2016)

In The Blacklist, an NBC crime thriller series, James Spader plays Raymond Reddington, an international criminal who makes a deal with the FBI to get off their Most Wanted list by helping them find global criminals he’s kept hidden on his secret “Blacklist”. It’s a thrilling villain-of-the-week drama and the intelligent enemies in TheBlacklist are as much a reason to watch as Spader. One of Reddington’s most dangerous adversaries is Alexander Kirk (Ulrich Thompson), a Russian billionaire.

Servitto rarely plays such a bashful and modest character, and it’s a much different type than audiences are used to seeing.

In order to get to Alexander, the FBI goes through his doctor, Dr. Sebastian Reifler (Matt Servitto). Reifler has been treating Alexander, so the FBI task force set him up to catch their man. Servitto only appears in season 4, episodes 4, 5, and 8; and while the FBI’s plan doesn’t ultimately work, he’s still involved with the resolution of Kirk’s story. Servitto rarely plays such a bashful and modest character. It’s a much different type than audiences are used to seeing and fully showcases the actor’s range.

8 Big Fan (2009)

Matt Servitto Plays Detective Velardi

Big Fan is an underrated sports dramedy starring Patton Oswalt and Kevin Corrigan. In the film, Paul Aufiero (Oswalt) is an unambitious adult man living with his mother on Staten Island. It’s a bleak but contented life, and Paul takes great pride in being the #1 fan of the New York Giants of the NFL, that is until a player assaults him. Matt Servitto plays NYPD Detective Velardi, who encourages Paul to press charges despite his worries about ruining the Giants’ season.

It’s a film about the solitary and sometimes obsessive nature of sports fandom. Big Fan is also an unapologetically New York movie, with the Giants, Staten Island, and Bronx-born Kevin Corrigan all playing major roles. So having an actor like Servitto, who has frequently made appearances as New York police officers, really helps to add to the authentic feeling of the film that’s required for it to work.

7 Brotherhood (2006-2008)

Matt Servitto Plays Representative Donald Donatello (15 Episodes)

In the three-season series Brotherhood, the Irish American Caffee brothers from Providence, Rhode Island work to hold power in their respective businesses. Tommy (Jason Clarke) is a politician and Michael (Jason Isaacs) is a gangster in New England’s Irish Mob. It’s an incredibly well-realized show with fantastic performances from the large cast. It’s a thought-provoking story, in line with The Wire and The Sopranos in how it handles criminal moral quandaries.

Matt Servitto plays Representative Donald Donatello, a recurring character throughout the series and a powerful political operator. “Don Don” is a ruthless and obnoxious politician who often comes into contact with Tommy. After so many years of playing a law enforcement agent on The Sopranos, this character gives Seritto the chance to play someone much more grimy, and he nails the layers needed for a man who’s so irritating but also capable.

6 All My Children (1970-2011)

Matt Servitto Plays Trask Bodine (73 Episodes, 1988-1990)

All My Children may not be as long-running as similar TV shows like General Hospital and The Young and the Restless, but it’s still an extremely well-known soap opera, running from 1970 to 2011. It’s also Matt Servitto’s first acting role. He debuted on the show in 1988 as Trask Bodine, the brother of Brian Bodine (Matt Borlenghi) and Melanie “Lanie” Cortlandt’s (Paige Turco) lover for a short time while she is still trying to get over David Rampal (Trent Bushey).

Servitto appears in 73 episodes of the show, and it’s an impressive first appearance for a completely green actor.

Servitto appears in 73 episodes of the show, and it’s an impressive first appearance for a completely green actor. When their parents essentially abandoned the Bodine brothers, the older Trask got a job as a used car salesman and began studying for his GED with the help of Lanie. Servitto plays Trask as a blue-collar, hard-working older brother, and it’s a level-headed and confident performance from the young actor.

5 Enchanted (2007)

Matt Servitto Plays Arty

Enchanted is a 2007 live-action/animated Disney film that shows what happens when someone from the animated fantasy world of Disney gets dropped in the middle of the fast-moving and often all-too-real world of New York City. It’s a delightful, loving parody of many tropes in both the Disney Princess canon and the studio’s older animated movies. Matt Servitto has a small role as Arty, a construction worker who’s working at the manhole when Prince Edward (James Marsden) pops out of it.

Arty is the quintessential New Yorker, and Servitto knows just how to play him. He’s hilariously unimpressed by the man bedecked in royal clothes and quickly slides into busting his chops. Servitto again appears in the sequel Disenchanted, though this time as an unnamed, unenthusiastic mover, making him a sort of running gag for the film series.

4 Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell (2013-2019)

Matt Servitto Plays Satan (42 Episodes)

The lesser-known and lengthy-titled Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell is one of the more oddball TV shows to come out of the already oddball Comedy Central lineup. The series is a live-action workplace comedy set in hell and centers on Gary (Henry Zebrowski), a bumbling demon who constantly fails in his attempts to impress his demonic superiors, namely Satan, played by Matt Servitto.

Servitto is hilarious, dolled up in red makeup, and the few times he cuts loose and loses his composure and calm are exceptionally funny.

Satan is a deadpan, sociopathic Prince of Darkness, but he’s also just an everyday middle manager type who is as bored to host meetings about torturing damned souls as his minions who are forced to sit in on them. It’s a very R-rated TV show with a lot of crude humor and violence. Servitto is hilarious, dolled up in red makeup, and the few times he cuts loose and loses his composure and calm are exceptionally funny.

3 Billions (2016-2023)

Matt Servitto Plays Governor Bob Sweeney (14 Episodes, 2017-2023)

A long-running Showtime series debuting in 2016, Billions wrapped up its seventh and final season in 2023. The show stars Damian Lewis as Bobby Axelrod, a charismatic hedge fund manager who heads Axe Capital and depicts his efforts to accumulate wealth in the decadent world of finance. At the same time, he’s pursued by United States Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), who’s desperate to put him behind bars.

Matt Servitto plays Governor Bob Sweeney, a recurring character in seasons 2 through 7, who was elected to his position thanks to the machinations of Chuck. Bob is an astute character and Servitto makes it seem like there’s a lot more going on with him despite nominally being a pawn for Chuck. The actor’s portrayal is deep enough that when he eventually turns on Chuck, it feels like an earned betrayal, and it’s believable that “Buffalo Bob” may succeed.

2 Banshee (2013-2016)

Matt Servitto Plays Brock Lotus (38 Episodes)

Banshee is set in the small fictional town of Banshee, Pennsylvania, in the middle of Amish country. The series follows an on-the-run ex-con (The Boys‘ Antony Starr) who assumes the identity of Lucas Hood, Banshee’s murdered sheriff. There he continues his criminal enterprises while still trying to maintain his cover as a law-abiding sheriff. Brock Lotus (Matt Servitto) is the longest-serving member of the Banshee police force and when “Lucas” is promoted over him, he becomes resentful.

Matt Servitto also appears in three episodes of
Banshee Origins
, a web series that shows the events that came before the beginning of
Banshee
.

It’s a well-rounded and nuanced performance from Servitto as a cop who is balancing a personal grudge against Lucas, a commitment to the law, and a sneaking suspicion that something is not right in his department. Despite all the criminality in the show and the misfortune Brock suffers, he always remains loyal to the people of Banshee and even develops a begrudging respect for Lucas. Servitto keeps the character sympathetic and capable and by the time he’s awarded sheriff at the end of the series, it’s a triumphant moment.

1 The Sopranos (1999-2007)

Matt Servitto Plays Dwight Harris (24 Episodes)

Matt Servitto’s biggest role came as the recurring character Special Agent Dwight Harris in The Sopranos. First appearing in season 1, episode 8, Agent Harris was assigned to the DiMeo/Soprano case and his easy-going attitude and legitimate appreciation for Satriale’s endears him to some of the criminal clientele, particularly Tony (James Gandolfini). Harris treats Tony and his family with respect despite ostensibly being against them. In season 6, he even helps Tony find Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) to end the mafia war.

Agent Harris is one of the few “good” characters in the show, though even he is not spotless, and it’s suggested he’s having an affair in season 6. Servitto’s portrayal of Harris is an excellent depiction of a police officer who has seen everything and still goes to work every day to do his job. He’s not rude, proud, or overzealous; he just has a job to do and wants to protect people when he can. Servitto has a face an audience can trust and depend on.

It’s the actor’s most notable role of his career, and he’s still stopped on the street for it. He told The Wrap,

“No, now their [older fans] kids are out and they’re like, ‘Oh my god, we gotta get a picture. Can we get a picture with you?'”

Matt Servitto‘s time on The Sopranos was a big part of his life, and he hasn’t forgotten it, being especially thankful that the show came back in vogue during COVID-19,

“I’m overjoyed. My kids had no idea, and now they think I’m cool, so I’m very grateful.”