Skip to content
Matt KelliherFull-stack web developer

About Me

Me and my family

I’m a full-stack web developer specializing in web application and CMS development using PHP and JavaScript. I enjoy building interactive tools and intuitive interfaces with clean, maintainable code.

For over 18 years, I’ve worked in agency environments, collaborating with a wide variety of clients. Along the way, I’ve worked with many programming languages, frameworks, and platforms, learning how to adapt to each project’s unique needs.

I’ve been involved in nearly every part of the development process, from planning and infrastructure to backend systems, APIs, and frontend implementation. Recently my work has included web apps, custom CMSs, and web games.

My work is a meaningful part of who I am, but here are some other tidbits about me:

  • I have a great wife and amazing daughter, who are the most important parts of my life.
  • I love learning how and why art is made. Particularly games, movies, and music. We need to bring back the director's commentary track on streaming!
  • Disc golf is my happy place (I started back in ’03). I also loved bouldering when I lived near a climbing gym.
  • I've played guitar off and on for most of my life. Lately I've been casually playing drums and learning modular synthesis with VCV rack and a Make Noise 0-Coast.
  • Every now and then I dabble in game dev on the side. My white whale is a disc golf game. I think I'm on version 7 at this point...

Want to know what I’ve been up to lately? Take a look at my now page.

  • Disc golf courses played 71
  • MLB stadiums visited 12
  • Disc golf aces 15
  • Nethack ascensions 1
  • US National Parks visited 7

Work Experience

View résumé

Senior Software Developer
PPK – Tampa, FL

August 2014 – Present
March 2011 – July 2012*

Work collaboratively with clients and in-house designers to provide full-stack development for custom content management systems, interactive web tools, single page apps, lead generating websites, and more. Care is given to ensure products are cross-browser compatible, responsively designed, search engine optimized, tracking analytics, and WCAG compliant (as-needed). Self-managed project development and timelines.

* Left briefly to work on a large freelance project. Freelanced for PPK in the interim before returning to work full time.

Owner/Developer
Inverted Forest - Saint Petersburg, FL

July 2012 – December 2014

Founded and managed a freelance interactive development company. Managed a team of artists and additional programmers to help design and develop games & interactive exhibits using Unity3D, Objective-C, and AS3. Wrote ad-distribution software using Go. Developed custom content management systems using Yii2 and occasionally Wordpress.

Interactive Programmer
Tampa Digital Studios – Tampa, FL

June 2008 – February 2011

Developed content management systems using Yii and Drupal. Created multiple Flash games and maintained existing Flash apps. Managed projects and assigned tasks to other programmers. Setup and maintained multiple development and production servers.

Tech Timeline

  1. Apple IIc

    Lemonade Stand got me hooked. Mostly this functioned as a "?SYNTAX ERROR" generator.

  2. Micron Pentium MMX 233MHz PC

    My gateway to the internet. I built so many fan sites on Geocities. My first handle was "netchoo" :)

  3. Flash/ActionScript

    The combination of coding, art, and animation just clicked for me. Thus began my game dev journey.

  4. PHP, Drupal, Linux

    This stuff is free??? The open web is the future!

  5. jQuery, Yii, Git

    jQuery was a godsend for cross-browser scripting. Git rescued me from the dark days of CVS/SVN.

  6. Unity, Bootstrap

    Twitter Bootstrap totally revamped my frontend workflows at the time. Unity also made 3D game dev so approachable and accessible.

  7. Laravel, Go

    Laravel brought some joy back to PHP dev (so did PHP 7). Around the same time, Go made building cross-platform tools pretty satisfying.

  8. Vue.js, Phaser

    Backbone was great, but Vue really clicked with my brain. Phaser also remains one of the most enjoyable ways to build browser games.

  9. TailwindCSS, Godot

    Tailwind & utility-first CSS changed how I approach styling. Godot felt very fun and intuitive to use, it’s still awesome!

  10. Vite, TypeScript

    See ya later Webpack! Vite/esbuild made frontend builds fast & simple again, and smoother to adopt TypeScript too.

  11. React Aria, LLMs

    Accessibility tooling has gotten awesome lately.