‘Dancing With the Stars’: Beloved Actor Secretly Helped Record the Show’s Theme Song

Dancing With the Stars opens with the same theme every week, meaning that there is a surprise additional celebrity appearance no one knows about. Matt Berry, who plays Laszlo Cravensworthon the hit FX series What We Do in the Shadows, performs for the brief theme and even yells “Hey!” during the introduction. Berry, 48, shared this information during the What We Do in the Shadows virtual panel at the 2021 PaleyFest.

Toward the end of the panel, the What We Do in the Shadows cast was asked if there was any surprising fact about them that no one had ever asked them about. When Berry’s turn came up, he had a surprising answer. “Are you aware of a show called Dancing With the Stars?” Berry began. Everyone nodded, so he continued.

Berry then proceeded to perform the DWTS theme. “There’s a guitar line that’s playing underneath it,” Verry continued. “I’m playing the guitar line and it’s me that goes, ‘Hey!’”

Everyone on the panel gasped and asked Berry if that was true. “Yeah,” he said. One panel moderator asked Berry if he saw any residuals for it. “Nope, nothing,” he said with a smile. The DWTS theme is similar to the one used in the U.K. for the original series, Strictly Come Dancing. It was written by Josh Phillips and Berry’s friend, Dan McGrath.

Outside of his side-splitting work on television comedies, Berry has another career as a musician. In 2004, he worked with his The IT Crowd co-star Richard Ayoade on a musical parody called AD/BC: A Rock Opera. He also wrote the music for Steve Coogan’s Saxondale and has recorded nine studio albums. His most recent, The Blue Elephant, was released by Acid Jazz in 2021.

Berry stars on What We Do in the Shadows as Laszlo Cravensworth, one of four vampires living in Staten Island. The hilarious comedy also stars Kayvan Novak as Nandor the Relentless, Natasia Demetriou as Nadja of Antipaxos, Mark Proksch as the energy vampire Colin Robinson, and Harvey Guillen as Nandor’s familiar-turned-bodyguard Guillermo de la Cruz. The series is based on the Taika Waititi-directed movie of the same name, written by Waititi and Jermaine Clement. The series was renewed through Season 6 and is now available to stream on Hulu.

As for Dancing With the Stars, the hit series recently wrapped up its first Disney+ season after 30 seasons on ABC. The season featured Tyra Banks and Alfonso Ribeiro as hosts and marked Len Goodman’s final season as a judge before his retirement. TikTok star Charli D’Amelio won the Mirrorball Trophy at the end of the season, with The Bachelorette star Gabby Windey coming insecond.