Matthew Robert Patrick (born November 15, 1986), known professionally as MatPat, is an American internet personality, political advisor, and former YouTuber. Patrick created and hosted the YouTube series Game Theorists and its related channels Film Theorists, Food Theorists, and Style Theorists. Each channel analyzes different topics: video games, films and TV shows, food, and fashion. The series are posted on separate channels, each named after the series. Before leaving on March 9, 2024, Patrick narrated most of the videos on his channels.

Patrick also created the gaming channel GTLive and hosted the YouTube Premium series MatPat's Game Lab and the 2023 Streamy Awards. As of May 2024, MatPat had over 40 million subscribers and more than ten billion total views across all five of his channels. He left the channels as a regular host in March 2024 but continued to appear occasionally and host GTLive until October 2024. In June 2025, he helped start the Creator Economy Caucus in the United States House of Representatives.

Early life and education

Matthew Robert Patrick was born on November 15, 1986, in Medina, Ohio, to Linda (née Kosarek) and Robert "Bob" Patrick. He has ancestors from Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. His friends gave him the nickname "MatPat" when he was in sixth grade. As an only child, Patrick showed interest in video games, theater, and school from an early age. He was the top student in his high school and earned an academic scholarship to Duke University. He graduated in 2009 with a double major in theater and psychology, with a focus on neuroscience.

Internet career

Patrick wanted to be an actor. After finishing school and performing in plays with little success, he moved to New York and spent two years without a job. His first YouTube videos were auditions for stage plays. In 2011, he changed his channel to act as a "portfolio" to show potential employers his skills in writing, research, and editing videos online. Inspired by an Extra Credits episode about tangential learning, he uploaded the first episode of Game Theory on April 18, 2011. This video explained time portals and quantum mechanics in the 1995 video game Chrono Trigger.

The channel slowly gained more viewers, and his videos appeared on popular sites like ScrewAttack and GameTrailers. In 2012, he added new segments hosted by YouTubers Gaijin Goombah and Ronnie Edwards (the latter became Game Theory’s first editor) and Austin Hourigan’s "The SCIENCE!". In 2015, he started a new channel called Film Theory, which covers movies and television. This channel reached over one million subscribers in one month.

Patrick sometimes posted videos about the gaming market, gamers, and other topics he found interesting. In 2015, he began a Let’s Play series called GTLive with his wife, Stephanie. Starting in 2016, these streams were part of YouTube Gaming Primetime and aired from 3 pm to 5 pm PST. They included a voting feature for quick polls. By March 2022, GTLive had 2.94 million subscribers and over 649 million views. As of 2022, GTLive continued to post mostly unedited, pre-recorded content.

On June 8, 2016, Patrick launched a new show, MatPat’s Game Lab, on YouTube Premium. The show placed gamers in real-life situations inspired by video games, such as bomb defusing and parkour. YouTube did not announce a second season. He also appeared in Scare PewDiePie (2016) and Escape the Night (2018), as well as cameo roles in A Heist with Markiplier (2019) and In Space with Markiplier (2022). On May 29, 2016, MatPat met with Pope Francis and gifted him a copy of Undertale, saying its theme of mercy matched the Pope’s "Year of Mercy" message.

In 2019, The Game Theorists held a 9-hour charity livestream that raised $1.3 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Guests included Markiplier, TheOdd1sOut, Rosanna Pansino, and others. Two more charity streams were held for St. Jude in 2020 and 2021.

In July 2020, a new channel called The Food Theorists began posting videos. It combined food science with psychology, physiology, and conspiracy theories. The channel had 4 million subscribers and over 499 million views by October 2022. It reached one million subscribers a week after launching and gained another million in the next four months.

On December 20, 2022, a fourth Theory channel, The Style Theorists, was announced. It focuses on the science, math, history, psychology, and mystery of fashion. The channel reached one million subscribers three days after launching. On August 27, 2023, Patrick hosted the Streamy Awards, which had 15 million views in its first 48 hours.

On January 9, 2024, Patrick announced he would step down as host of the channels on March 9. Each channel would be led by a different member of the Theorist team, while Patrick would remain creative and make occasional appearances until mid-2024. He also revealed a new project, LoreFi, a lo-fi mystery series launched in summer 2024.

Patrick was involved in the web series Terrain of Magical Expertise and helped it gain attention by sharing a remastered version of its first episode. In 2016, he hosted the go90 reality series The Runner. In 2017, he and his wife, Stephanie, competed in Nintendo’s Pokkén Tournament DX Invitational at E3 2017. He voiced Computron in Transformers: Titans Return (2017) and co-produced Fact or Nicktion with Nickelodeon in 2019. He is also a co-producer of the Broadway play Grey House.

His videos about Five Nights at Freddy’s made him popular in the series’ fan community. He appeared as a waiter in the 2023 film adaptation and collaborated on a Youtooz figure and pins in 2024. He made 68 theory videos on the series. In 2024, he appeared on Wired’s "Web’s Most Searched Questions" and co-produced a West End musical adaptation of Your Lie in April. In 2025, he was the executive producer of the musical’s cast album, co-produced with his wife.

On June 10, 2025, Patrick announced the creation of the Creator Economy Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. He described it as a bipartisan group where creators could work with lawmakers to ensure laws are relevant for the Internet age. Around 10 representatives supported the initiative.

Personal life

Patrick met Stephanie (formerly Cordato) while studying at Duke University. They became close friends after making a fun parody of the game Legend of Zelda called "The Epic of Stew." They married on May 19, 2012. Their son was born in 2018, and as of 2020, the family split their time between living in California and North Carolina.

On February 15, 2026, Patrick and Stephanie shared news on Instagram that their cat, Skip (also known as CatPat), passed away on February 10 at the age of 15.