MatPat

Matthew Robert Patrick (born November 15, 1986), also known by screen name MatPat, is an American internet personality, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known as the creator and narrator of the YouTube webseries Game Theory, where he comments on topics such as the logic, scientific accuracy, and lore of various video games and the gaming industry. He is also known for creating the spinoff Film Theory, centering around cinema and internet filmography. In 2015, Patrick created one of YouTube's first live gaming channels, GTLive, and in 2016, he created the YouTube Red series MatPat's Game Lab. As of June 2017, Patrick has amassed over 13 million subscribers and over 1.6 billion views total across his three channels. Between July 1, 2016 and July 31, 2016, he starred in the game show The Runner.

Early life
Matthew Robert Patrick was born on November 15, 1986, in Medina County, Ohio. Growing up, Patrick struck interests in fine arts, most notably musical theatre. He valued education throughout his student days and spent most of his school career outside of school studying or taking classes. His enthusiasm for learning led him to skip his lunch periods to take classes and to spend his summer vacations taking courses at college campuses. He eventually became the valedictorian of his graduating class, and earned a perfect score on his SAT. His strong academic record earned him a full academic scholarship into Duke University.

Immediately after graduating Summa Cum Laude from Duke University with a double major in psychology and theater, Patrick moved to New York City in order to pursue an acting career, which he eventually quit because he could not make a fulfilling amount of income. After two years of mostly unemployment, he uploaded the promotional trailer for Game Theory, and four days later, he uploaded the first episode, explaining the scientific accuracy of the time travelling mechanic in the SNES game Chrono Trigger.

He currently resides in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Stephanie Cordato and their pet cat Skip (commonly referred to as CatPat).

The Game Theorists
Patrick first created a YouTube account under the name "MatthewPatrick13" in 2009. He uploaded numerous videos of his performances and auditions for musical theatre, including one where he sang "It Takes Two" from the musical Hairspray. The first video he put a lot of time to edit was a video he used to propose to his now wife, Stephanie.

On April 18, 2011, he uploaded the first episode of his new show, Game Theory, where he discusses the relationship between reality and gaming in terms of science, math and culture. Inspired by the YouTube series Extra Credits episode Tangential Learning (March 23, 2011) he created Game Theory with the goal of creating "gaming's tangential learning experience" to show his abilities to companies that might watch his channel. He frequently uploads episodes covering Nintendo characters, as well as popular games such as Minecraft, Five Nights at Freddy's, Call of Duty and Pokémon, as well as numerous other games. Early on in the show's history, MatPat was interviewed by Ronnie "Oni" Edwards, host of his Internet show Random Encounters. After this meeting, Ronnie accepted MatPat's offer to be Game Theory's main editor. Before this, MatPat was the sole editor of the show. The first episode of Game Theory that Ronnie edited was How Much is Minecraft Diamond Armor Worth? He occasionally uploads videos commenting on the gaming market, as well as on other matters that he deems noteworthy. He gained subscribers and his videos were being posted on the front pages of sites such as ScrewAttack and GameTrailers. Game Theory has become known for Patrick's educational, consistent and in-depth approach to game analysis.

During the course of its life, The Game Theorists has hosted numerous spin-offs and separate shows. Some of the shows are only partly on The Game Theorists and consist of more episodes on the creators' channels.


 * Game Exchange (July 5, 2012 – June 7, 2014 on The Game Theorists, still on Gaijin Goombah) is a show by Michael Sundman where he talks in a high-pitched voice as a Goomba character named Gaijin Goombah about gaming in relation to various international cultures. The version on The Game Theorists has since been replaced permanently with Culture Shock which started on April 10, 2014 as a show very similar in style and content. Starting in 2016, his real voice was used in The Game Theorists version.
 * Digressing and Sidequesting (December 26, 2011 – October 18, 2016) was a show hosted by Ronnie "Oni" Edwards which focuses on game design. It started on the YouTube channel DigressingNSQ and moved to The Game Theorists on August 30, 2012.
 * Crossover (December 28, 2013 – September 9, 2014) was a show hosted by Drake McWhorter and Ken Landefeld which proved that two gaming characters or series exist within the same universe. In February 2016, the script for a relaunch was finalised. In August 2016, McWhorter tweeted that the first episode of the second season has already been done and they were waiting for the official approval. In June 2016, they announced that they hadn't received any response and that the project was in limbo. In August 2017, Landefeld tweeted that "MatPat didn't pick up the season 2 pilot of Crossover so [they] ended it there".
 * Smash History (August 26, 2014 – July 23, 2016) was a show by Drake McWhorter that focused on the development and content of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. According to McWhorter, the show was cancelled because "it's not as high quality, the Smash hype is dead, and it's not an educational show." In early November 2016 all episodes were made private and McWhorter himself did not know the reason for this. Because of this, he started to upload the series on his channel Trailer Drake on November 9, 2016.
 * A Brief History (February 4, 2013 – August 24, 2017 on The Game Theorists, still on FootofaFerret) is a show hosted by Ryder Burgin that covers the entire development of a game series in a very fast-spoken manner. It started on the YouTube channel FootofaFerret and partly moved to The Game Theorists on April 20, 2015. In the episode of August 24, 2017, Burgin announced that that episode would be the last episode on The Game Theorists and the series would fully move back to FootofaFerret.
 * DeadLock (February 17, 2015 – ) is a show by Matthew Patrick that pits two video game concepts against each other to show their flaws and strengths. Each episode usually features Patrick and another member of The Game Theorists debating these concepts. Two special episodes feature Patrick debating against Nintendo of America's own Reggie Fils-Aimé. The first one was released on June 25, 2016 with them debating on the grounds of motion controls versus traditional controls in The Legend of Zelda series and the second one was released on January 28, 2017 with them debating if Nintendo should continue making consoles. As of January 28, 2018, there are eleven episodes of the show.
 * Break Down (December 25, 2015 – August 1, 2017) was a show by Forrest Lee (tehFurst) which similarly to A Brief History talks about the development of a video game series. The final episode was uploaded on August 1, 2017. On October 6, 2017, all episodes of the show have been removed from The Game Theorists because of an agreement at the launch that the episodes are Lee's content and will therefore be put on his channel. As of January 28, 2018, no episodes have been uploaded to Lee's channel.
 * The SCIENCE! (January 29, 2016 – ) is a show by Austin Hourigan which picks video games apart with science and logic. It started on the YouTube channel ShoddyCast, the first video on The Game Theorists was uploaded on December 21, 2016.

The Game Theorists reached one million subscribers on December 17, 2013.

Viewer demographics
In the GTLive episode of August 29, 2017, responding to allegations of The Game Theorists being watched mainly by younger viewers, The Game Theorists revealed their viewership at that time to mainly consist of people between the age of 18 and 34. According to the data, 78 percent of his viewers are male, while 22 percent are female. Shown data from a one-month period leading up to the livestream is as follows:

The Film Theorists
On May 12, 2014, Patrick created a second channel called The Film Theorists where he debuted his second show, Film Theory. The first video was uploaded on June 2, 2015, focusing on the science of the TV series Doctor Who. Film Theory follows the same formula as Game Theory, but in relation to films and series as well as the film industry instead of gaming. Within a month following the first episode, The Film Theorists reached one million subscribers.

Like The Game Theorists, The Film Theorists is a host of spin-off shows.
 * Did You Know Movies? (June 2, 2015 – ) is a spin-off of the popular video game-based blog Did You Know Gaming?.
 * Frame by Frame (June 9, 2015 – July 25, 2017) by Kyle Adams of YouTube channel PwnageShow was a show analyzing film techniques. The most recent episode called “How Spielberg Makes the Cut!... A Guide to Scene Transitions” was uploaded on July 25, 2017. As of August 26, 2017, only one episode is still available on the channel.
 * Film Legends (February 18, 2017 – ) by the creators of the YouTube channel Wisecrack is a show hosted by Jacob Salamon evaluating a movie in different categories in order to rank it and thus finding the best movie of all time.

Film Theory has covered episodes on franchises like Star Wars, Marvel Studios,DCEU, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, and even the 2016 United States presidential election.

MatPat's Game Lab
On June 8, 2016, Patrick posted via his YouTube channel his new show, MatPat's Game Lab, on Google's paid subscription service, YouTube Red. The show mainly focuses on placing video game players in real life scenarios mimicking scenarios that occur in video games, such as bomb defusing, parkour, and military training.

GTLive
Patrick started a Let's Play series called GTLive on August 26, 2015 where he streams mostly gameplay with his wife Stephanie and then uploads it to the GTLive archive channel he created on September 14, 2015. Streams are usually conducted at 4 pm PST. Regular guest appearances on the streams include Jason, the producer of GTLive, the co-producer Chris, who became part of the streams after standing in for Jason during his wedding, the Patricks' cat Skip, also known as “CatPat,” Peepachu, a cushion in the form of a yellow, rabbit-shaped Peep and a llama plushie, referred to as "Drama Llama". Repeated themes of this livestream include "Mario Maker Wednesday" (abbr. “MMW”), "Motion-Control Thursday" and "Scary Games Friday" (abbr. “TGISGF” for “Thank Goodness It's Scary Games Friday”), also occasionally known as "Spoopy Games Friday". A common feature is the 'clap-and-a-half' which Patrick reclaimed from his seventh grade Social Studies teacher. On one live stream, they used Verizon's in-game Minecraft smartphone for ordering pizza as well as taking "the worlds largest [in-game] selfie".

Starting on October 3, 2016, the Monday streams became part of YouTube Gaming Primetime and are therefore scheduled for 3 pm to 5 pm PST. It also includes a voting mechanism, which can be used by Patrick to conduct quick polls.

As of 2016, GTLive streams five days per week on average, garnering roughly 80,000 to 110,000 total viewers for each stream.

On April 3, 2017, Patrick announced that the show would go on a brief hiatus until April 25, 2017, due to VidCon Europe and scouting different filming locations. Due to VidCon Australia, the show was again paused on September 4, 2017 and returned on September 26, 2017.

Theorist Media
Patrick is the Founder and President of Theorist Media, a digital media production and consulting company. He co-owns Theorist Media with his spouse, Stephanie.

Terrain of Magical Expertise
Patrick was heavily involved in the web series, TOME: Terrain of Magical Expertise in numerous ways.

First, he gained the series more attention and exposure by uploading a re-mastered version of the first episode on the channel on October 1, 2013. On October 31, 2013, the second episode, Mansion Midnight, was uploaded. According to Chris Niosi, creator of the series, the episodes were uploaded to the channel and he was given a cut of the revenue each month because he wasn't able to earn money from Google AdSense on his YouTube channel. Within two months, the show was pulled from the channel and the episodes were removed. Niosi stated that the reason behind this was because it didn't perform as well as projected within the first two episodes. In February 2017, Patrick stated in a GTLive episode that "YouTube wouldn't let [the video] be monetized because [...] 'someone else owns this video'. [...] It also deviated far too much from what we did because it [...] had nothing to do with education and gaming."

Patrick, as well as many of the Game Theorists members, are contributing their likeness and voices as TOME caricatures of themselves in the RPG video game adaption in the works. Patrick's character, Mattheorist, displays Green Lantern-like qualities with the ability to manifest green energy projectiles and creatures. Their fate in the final project remains undetermined as it's subject to change due to legal issues.

Collaborations
Patrick has collaborated with numerous channels, featuring them as guests on his own shows, or being featured himself. He has done numerous voice-over work for video game-based blog Did You Know Gaming?, covering episodes on Portal, Super Mario, and Five Nights at Freddy's. He often shouts out the Wisecrack channel at the end of videos of Film Theory. Patrick has also played in Random Encounters' FNAF: The Musical, and voiced Bendy in Bendy and the Ink Musical from the same channel. He also has collaborated with Petcentric by Purina in the Pet-U-Cation videos. MatPat also appeared in one of Julian Smith's videos as a post office worker.

Patrick has also worked with plenty of clients, including Samsung, Warner Bros., Ubisoft, Defy Media, and YouTube.

Numerous internet personalities have done voice-over work for Patrick's numerous shows, such as Austin Hargrave (PeanutButterGamer) and Jonathan Jafari, as well as Arin Hanson (Egoraptor) and Dan Avidan (Ninja Sex Party) of the web series Game Grumps.

In the popular web series Death Battle by ScrewAttack, Patrick voiced Keith Kogane from the Voltron franchise in the "Power Rangers vs Voltron" episode.

In 2017, Matthew Patrick and his wife Stephanie Patrick 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. In the tournament, Patrick played as Empoleon, while his wife Stephanie Patrick played as Scizor.

Patrick voiced Computron in the animated series Transformers: Titans Return.

Personal life
Patrick is married to Stephanie Cordato, whom he met while at Duke University. The two became close after creating a Legend of Zelda parody called The Epic of Stew. The couple married on May 19, 2012, in North Carolina. The couple owns a cat named Skip, who occasionally makes appearances in livestreams and is also known as 'CatPat'.

On March 12, 2018, Matthew and Stephanie announced Stephanie's pregnancy, a baby boy due July 4, 2018. On July 10, 2018, MatPat announced on Twitter that the baby had been born. Three days later, on July 13, the baby boy's name was revealed via Instagram to be Oliver Julian "Ollie" Patrick.

On July 25, 2018, Patrick uploaded a video to The Game Theorists informing his subscribers of the suicide of long-time team member and friend, Ronnie "Oni" Edwards, giving an impassioned talk about his loss and the support that the Theorist community holds for him and each other.