Stage Name:M.Shadows
First Name: Matthew
Middle Name: Charles
Last Name: Sanders
Bio : In his youth, Matthew Charles Sanders was notorious for his disorderly conduct and misbehavior. He was kicked out of two different Huntington Beach schools, one for smashing a woman's car windows after a sixth-grade pizza party and another for defacing campus property, which ended with the death of the school principal over a heart attack. This latter event earned him the nickname "the kid that killed the principal."[1]

On the A7X DVD, while all of the members were talking about how they got their stage names, M. Shadows said that he got his name because when he attended El Modena High School and the band was just starting out, he was a darker kid (hence the name "Shadows") but he also wanted to incorporate his name, Matt, into his stage name. Matt was reduced to M and since has been known as M. Shadows.[2]

Matt and long time girlfriend Valary Dibenedetto got engaged in August 2007,as said by Matt in the August issue of Revolver magazine.