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Matthew Robert Patrick (born November 15, 1986), better known as MatPat, is an American YouTuber and internet personality. He is the creator of the YouTube series Game Theory, and its spin-off series Film Theory, Food Theory, and Style Theory, each analyzing various video games, films alongside TV series and web series, food, and fashion respectively. Each of the different series are posted on individual channels, each named after the respective series. In addition to the creation of his channels, Patrick narrates the majority of the videos that are presented on his channels.

Patrick has also created the gaming channel GTLive and hosted the YouTube Premium series MatPat's Game Lab and the 2023 Streamy Awards. As of September 2023, Patrick has amassed over 40 million subscribers, as well as over eight billion total views across all five of his channels. On January 9, 2024, Patrick announced that he would depart from hosting the channels on March 9, but would still make appearances until mid-2024.[1]

Early life and education
Matthew Robert Patrick[5] was born on November 15, 1986,[6] in Medina, Ohio.[7]: 02:00  He was nicknamed "MatPat" by his friends in sixth grade. An only child, Patrick was interested in video games, theater and school early on.[7]: 01:50–03:20  He was the valedictorian of his high school and received an academic scholarship to Duke University,[8] graduating in 2009 with a double major in theater and psychology with a concentration in neuroscience.[9]

Career
To fulfill his dream of becoming an actor, Patrick moved to New York after graduating and performed in theater productions to little success, spending two years unemployed.[7]: 04:20–06:15  His first YouTube videos were auditions for stage plays. In 2011, he decided to revamp his channel as a "portfolio" which could demonstrate to potential employers his ability to write, research, and edit videos online.[9] Inspired by an Extra Credits episode on tangential learning,[8] Patrick uploaded the first episode of "Game Theory" on April 18, 2011.[10] It discussed the quantum mechanics in the 1995 video game Chrono Trigger.[9]

The channel slowly gained subscribers and his videos were posted on the front pages of sites such as ScrewAttack and GameTrailers.[11] In 2012, Patrick introduced two new segments hosted by fellow YouTubers Gaijin Goombah and Ronnie Edwards, and Austin Hourigan's "The SCIENCE!".[12] In 2014, Patrick launched the spin-off channel "Film Theory", which covers movies and television.[10] This channel reached over one million subscribers in a month.[13]

He occasionally uploaded videos commenting on the gaming market and gamers, as well as on other matters that he deemed noteworthy.[14]


Patrick with his wife Stephanie in 2018
Patrick started a Let's Play series called GTLive on August 26, 2015,[15] where he posts gameplay and video reactions with his wife Stephanie. Starting on October 3, 2016, the Monday streams became part of YouTube Gaming Primetime, and were therefore scheduled for 3 pm to 5 pm PST. It also included a voting mechanism, which can be used by Patrick to conduct quick polls.[16] As of March 2022, GTLive had 2.94 million subscribers and over 649 million views. As of 2022, the GTLive channel continues to upload mostly unedited, pre-recorded content.

On June 8, 2016, Patrick posted via his YouTube channel a new show, MatPat's Game Lab, on Google's paid subscription service, YouTube Premium. The show mainly focused on placing video game players in real life scenarios mimicking scenarios that occur in video games, such as bomb defusing, parkour, survival and military training.[17][18] Despite MatPat's interest in developing a second season, YouTube did not announce any further development into the project.[19] He was also a part of the YouTube Premium series Scare PewDiePie (2016),[20] created by PewDiePie, and the third season of Escape the Night (201, created by Joey Graceffa, in addition to cameo appearances in Markiplier's YouTube Original films A Heist with Markiplier (2019) and In Space with Markiplier (2022).

On May 29, 2016, Patrick and eleven other YouTubers met with Pope Francis for an hour. Patrick asked the Pope to encourage others to "fight for what's right" and gifted him a copy of Undertale (2015), saying that its recurrent theme of mercy fits the Pope's proclamation that 2016 would be the "year of mercy for the Catholic church".[21][22]

In 2019, The Game Theorists held a 9-hour charity livestream that generated $1.3 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.[23] The stream included guests Markiplier, TheOdd1sOut, Rosanna Pansino, Scott Cawthon, and others.[23] Two other charity streams were held for St. Jude in 2020 and 2021, respectively.[24][25]

The third Theory channel, and fourth overall; The Food Theorists, began releasing videos in July 2020. The Food Theorists, using the same style as its predecessors, blends food science with psychology, physiology, and conspiracy.[26] The channel was being developed for two years prior to its launch.[27] As of October 2022, The Food Theorists had 4 million subscribers and over 499 million views. It had reached 1 million subscribers exactly a week after launch, and had then gained another million over the succeeding 4 months.[28]

On December 20, 2022, a fourth Theory channel, and fifth overall, was announced on the Game Theory channel,[29] along with the purchase of their company Theorist Media by startup Lunar X.[30] On February 18, 2023, The Style Theorists was launched. Like the other channels, it focuses on the science, math, history, psychology, and mystery of fashion. It reached a million subscribers three days later.

Patrick also made cameo appearances in multiple installments of YouTube Rewind.

On August 27, 2023, MatPat hosted the Streamy Awards,[31][32] which scored 15 million views across digital platforms in its first 48 hours, beating the 2021 record of 9.7 million views as the most-watched show in its 13-year history.[33]

On January 9, 2024, MatPat announced in a video titled "Goodbye Internet" that he would step down from hosting the channels on March 9,[1] and would be replaced by a different member of the Theorist team for each channel, while still retaining a creative role and making occasional appearances on the channels, along with GTLive, until mid-2024.[34] While he joked that his decision was inspired by Tom Scott, who had recently ended his decade-long run of posting weekly videos, Patrick said that he and his wife had been working towards the change for years.[35] Patrick additionally revealed that following the departure, he would continue to pursue creative projects, such as developing a mystery lo-fi series.[36]

Other media and collaborations
Patrick was involved in the web series Terrain of Magical Expertise. He gained the series more attention and exposure by uploading a remastered version of the first episode on the channel on October 1, 2013, and then providing a platform for the series.[37][38] Patrick, alongside Cordato, Sundman, Hourigan and Edwards, also contributed their likeness and voices for self-parodied opponents in the video game adaptation.[citation needed] The game was released on Steam on September 9, 2021.

A character based on Patrick was included in The Walking Dead: Road to Survival (2015).[39] In 2017, Patrick and his wife Stephanie participated in Nintendo's Pokkén Tournament DX Invitational, an event held during E3 2017. He was paired with Allister Singh, the only pro-Pokkén Tournament player in the event. His team eventually won the tournament.[40] Patrick voiced Computron in the animated series Transformers: Titans Return (2017).[41]

In 2016, Patrick hosted the go90 reality series The Runner.[42] In 2019, Patrick partnered with Nickelodeon to make the show Fact or Nicktion.[43] In this show, Patrick examined various phenomena in Nickelodeon shows, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Rugrats to determine whether they could or couldn't happen in real life.

Patrick is a co-producer of the Broadway play Grey House.[44]

Patrick's videos about the video game series Five Nights at Freddy's have made him prominent within the series' fandom, which is known for its dedication to theorizing about the underlying narrative of the series.[45] He made a cameo appearance in its 2023 film adaptation as a waiter.[46]

Personal life
Patrick is married to Stephanie Patrick (née Cordato), whom he met while studying at Duke University. The two became close after creating a Legend of Zelda parody called "The Epic of Stew". They married on May 19, 2012.[47] Their son Oliver was born in 2018,[48] and the family currently divides their time between living in California and North Carolina.[49]

Awards and nominations
Year Award Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
2015 Streamy Awards Gaming The Game Theorists Nominated [50]
Editing Nominated
2016 Shorty Awards Tech and Innovation: Gaming Nominated [51]
Streamy Awards Show of the Year Nominated [52]
Gaming Won
Non-Fiction MatPat's Game Lab Nominated
Virtual Reality and 360 Won
2017 Shorty Awards Tech and Innovation: Gaming Himself Nominated
Streamy Awards Editing The Game Theorists Won
Immersive The Global Gamer Nominated
2018 Streamy Awards Subject: Pop Culture Game Theory Nominated
Editing Nominated
2019 Streamy Awards Gaming The Game Theorists Won
2021 Streamy Awards Writing Won
YouTube channels
Channels
Channel name Main host Topic Release date Subscribers Number of videos
The Game Theorists MatPat (2011–2024)
Tom Robinson (2024–) Solving the mysteries of games August 22, 2009 18.7 million 667
The Film Theorists MatPat (2014–2024)
Lee Collins (2024–) Learning the secrets of films May 12, 2014 12.7 million 463
The Food Theorists MatPat (2020–2024)
Santiago Massa (2024–) Explaining theories about food May 29, 2020 5.12 million 198
The Style Theorists MatPat (2023–2024)
Amy Roberts (2024–) Exploring the science around fashion February 18, 2023 2.42 million 87
GTLive MatPat (2015–2024) Playing and analyzing video games August 26, 2015 3.44 million 1,318
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
2017 Transformers: Titans Return Computron Voice role[53]
2018 Transformers: Power of the Primes Swoop Voice role[54]
2023 Five Nights at Freddy's Ness Credited as Sparky's Diner waiter; reference to episode of Game Theory: "Undertale - Sans's SECRET Identity!"[55][56]

Piracy is based, plus isn’t emulation not actually illegal?