MatPat (2024)

Mathew Robert Patrick is a professional theorist and internet personality who, from 2009 until 2024, is in charge of the YouTube channels Game Theorists, Film Theorists, GTLive, Food Theorists and Style Theorists.

Biography[]

Mathew was born in Medina, Ohio on November 15, 1986. He graduated from Medina High School and attended college at Duke University. This is where he met his future wife Stephanie Cordato. Together they worked on a Legend of Zelda parody game called "The Epic of Stew".

After university, the two moved to New York, where Mat pursued a career in acting. Mat's acting career had some success but ultimately Mat decided to pursue another career after seeing the show Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. While struggling to get jobs, he created his first YouTube channel, Game Theory, inspired by the channel Extra Credits. Game Theory started out as something for Mat to fill out his resume. No one wanted to give him a chance, and he wanted to prove to employees that he was smart, could do research, and format it in a good way. This led to a job at a company called Defy, who helped content creators like Smosh manage their channels. He would make slideshows and hold meetings with creators about what they should do to keep their channel afloat on the platform.

With 3,000,000 subscribers, and the equivalent of two full time jobs, Mat realized he needed to choose between Defy, or his channel. He chose his channel and left Defy to commit full time to Game Theory. He would later expand the Game Theory brand to include another channel, The Film Theorists, with theories focused on films and TV shows in 2014. The average life span of a YouTube channel at that time was 4-6 years, and Film Theory was created in case Game Theory flopped on them. In 2015, after a long convention season, Mat decided he would start live streaming. These streams evolved to include his wife, Stephanie, as a co-host. After the birth of their child, Oliver, the live streams shifted to pre-recorded videos. In 2020, Mat launched his third theory channel and fourth overall channel, the Food Theorists, where he and his team analyze food companies, weird TikTok Food trends, secret recipes, and more. 2023 saw Mat finish the theory ring with his final theory channel, Style Theory, where the team discuss everything from fashion trends to hygiene myths.

In 2019, 2020, and 2021, Mat and his team put together all-day charity streams for St. Jude Children's Hospital, called The Game Theorist's 1,000,000 Dollar Challenge for St. Jude. The streams included many guests including AJ Pinkerton, Gwen Pinkerton, Markiplier, Rosanna Pansino, Safiya Nygaard, and more, with the later years involving more guests and activities. With their community, the streams have helped to raise over 4 million of dollars for St. Jude.

Mat had his first role in the RE original How to Beat a Monkey at Chess, starring alongside Markiplier, Jirard the Completionist, and AJ Pinkerton.. In FNAF: The Musical, his character, Phone Guy, was revealed to be the mastermind killer during Night 5. He would go on to stare in the FNAF prequel musicals where his character would be fully revealed as William Afton and is speculated to star in FNAF Dark Remains. Additionally, Mat was also supposed to take on the role of Miles Edgeworth in Phoenix Wright: The Turnabout Encounter. When he was unable to attend the filming last minute, Miles was recast as John Moralis. Mat was the lead in both Bendy musicals as the titular character of Bendy, as well as Wally Warbles and Dr. Kahl in Cuphead: The Musical.

In January 2024, MatPat announced he would be stepping down his role as a host. He premiered his final theory episode in all of his 4 channels on March 9 whilst announcing his future projects, setting off speculation that he may someday return; he is succeeded by Tom Robinson since March 17.

Trivia[]

• In college, Mat majored in musical theater and neuroscience
• Mat also played Splatoon with RE and friends on a livestream
• MatPat's role in the FNAF musical was spoiled before his cameo in the fifth night
• When someone asked AJ if MatPat singing the line, "let's use science" was intentional, he said that it may well have been