Matt Chapman

[edit] Career

The young gun

[edit] Education

Matt attended film school at Florida State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1998. His thesis film Perchance was a 15-minute short about the adventures of a boy named Toby and his dog Marmalade.

In 2003, The Brothers Chaps returned to FSU for a speaking event.

[edit] Pre-Homestar

After graduation, Matt moved back to his native Atlanta but had difficulty finding film work in the city. Instead, he found work for internet company Earthlink (formerly MindSpring), in customer service^[14] and creating icons and banner ads. His MindSpring email address was included on the Luau Main Page.

[edit] Homestar Runner

The original Homestar Runner storybook was co-written by Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel in the summer of 1996. Matt did not contribute to the book, later joking that "I worked in a movie theater that summer and they told me to shut up and to go away. NOW who's shutting up and going away?"^[2] Later that year, he and Mike co-created a Mario Paint animation featuring the Homestar characters as a Christmas gift for their older brother Donnie — the first Homestar Runner cartoon.

In 1999, after both brothers had graduated from college, they moved into an apartment together in Atlanta. Wanting to create a project together, and fascinated by the possibilities of Flash animation, they decided on Homestar Runner and launched a site to host their animations in January of 2000.^[3]

Matt briefly lived in New York in 2001, recording audio for toons and emailing them to Mike for animation. Strong Bad Email became a weekly feature when he moved back to Georgia in 2002, with brianrietta as the first released at this new pace.

In August of 2002, he was able to quit in favor of working on Homestar Runner full time due to income from the Store. The first day after quitting, he was assigned jury duty. "It sucked. My first day of self-employment and I got put on a jury."^[1]

[edit] Acting

"Mike pretty much just refused to do any voices, so that's why I had to end up makin' 'em all up. I always say I was the youngest of five kids, so I had to make them pay attention to me somehow. So, throughout my life I just talked in dumb voices — but I never thought of it as a thing I do, or wanted to be a voice actor, or any of that sort of thing; it was just a stupid thing that I did that probably annoyed most people, and I found a way to make it pay for me."^[4]

Puppet Time

Though never formally trained for voice acting, Matt developed the skill through a hobby of mimicry, doing impressions as a kid that ranged from Marge Simpson to Axl Rose.^[5] Matt voices nearly the entire cast of Homestar Runner characters (Marzipan, voiced by Missy Palmer, and Pom Pom, who 'speaks' with a sound effect created by Mike,^[11] are the main exceptions). As such, he is also the primary puppeteer for the Puppet Stuff series and live appearances of the puppets.

He has also appeared on the site as normal-human characters through live-action footage or imagery:

• Various members of Limozeen, primarily Larry Palaroncini
• Litigation Jackson
• Dave Bjornborg and Schenkel McDoo of Taranchula
• Dolph Hauldhagen
• Sir Loodabert Comma
• Rather Dashing
• Videlectrix One
• Fat, Fat Friar and Vegetable Cart Man

A complete list can be found in his Filmography category.

[edit] Film and Television

Rough-horsing and house-rousing with The Aquabats

See also The Brothers Chaps' Other Projects

During Homestar Runner's heyday, Matt would occasionally contribute to other projects — providing voices for the web series Preschool Protocops or radio commercials for Mellow Mushroom,^[6] and contributing songs to Sealab 2021. Both of The Brothers Chaps occasionally contributed to friends' movies, typically in producer or art roles.

Beginning in the 2010s, Matt branched out to seeking more work in television production; he moved to Los Angeles for several years. He worked on various shows as a writer, actor, or animator, most notably Yo Gabba Gabba!, The Aquabats! Super Show!, and Gravity Falls.

Around this time, The Brothers Chaps had a development deal with Disney Television Animation. After pitching a more standard television show, they eventually produced the web short series Two More Eggs (2015-2017), which was created in a similar freeform style to Homestar Runner.

[edit] Gravity Falls

See also The Brothers Chaps' Other Projects#Television

During the 2010s hiatus from the site, Matt worked on Disney TVA's Gravity Falls as a writer and voice actor in several episodes. In "Weirdmageddon: Part 1", he is credited for "rotatey computer graphics".

[edit] Music

Matt creates music as a songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist. He has performed music as members of Limozeen, Taranchula, and sloshy both on the site and in live performances.

Outside of Homestar Runner, Matt has released music as part of groups The New You, Mark Margarine, and Air-Sea Dolphin.

[edit] Favorite Music

Matt has expressed a general interest in independent music.^[2] In a 2003 interview, Matt provided five favorite records (in no particular order):

• Vince Guaraldi Trio — A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Minutemen — Double Nickels on the Dime
• Neil Young — Rust Never Sleeps
• De La Soul — De La Soul Is Dead
• Sebadoh — Bubble & Scrape

[edit] Personal Life

With brothers Mike (L) and Donnie (R)

Matt is the youngest of Don and Harriet Chapman's five children; he has stated that being ten years younger than older brother Donnie meant that he was exposed to more '70s pop culture than he otherwise would've been aware of. Mike and Matt lived together in an apartment during the early days of producing Homestar Runner.

Matt is married to Jackie Chapman, who had a brief cameo in the Peasant's Quest Movie Trailer. They have two daughters; eldest daughter Ida Chapman appeared alongside Matt in the series One Dollar, directed by Craig Zobel.

During the extended hiatus of Homestar Runner's production, Matt moved out to Los Angeles for several years and worked on various children's television series in Los Angeles. He moved back to Georgia around 2014.

[edit] Fun Facts

• Over the years, Matt has given several toons as his favorites:
  • When interviewed in 2003, the then-new Where's The Cheat? was his favorite.^[7]
  • In 2005, when asked if "Where's The Cheat?" still held the title, he reflected that it was now more likely either the Peasant's Quest Movie Trailer or one of the Cheat Commandos toons as they differed from typical productions for the site.^[11]
• His favorite Strong Bad Email is different town;^[11] over a decade after its release, he regarded the day he received John Linnell's demo of the song as a dream-come-true moment.^[12]
  • stunt double, personal favorites, and kids' book were also mentioned as favorites in 2003.^[13]
• His favorite character is either Homestar Runner^[11] or The Homestar Runner.^[14]
• Matt and Jackie owned a cat named Mabel, who was featured in the Strong Bad Email website. Mabel was memorialized in hygiene after she passed away in 2007.
• Several interviews or appearances have specifically mentioned foods:
  • When they were young children, Mike fed Matt cupcakes with toothpaste in them; Matt retaliated by feeding Mike vinegar toast.^[7]
  • Matt was making egg salad sandwiches with bits of bacon while Mike was being interviewed.^[8]
  • On a trip to Canada, Matt discovered an interest in poutine.^[9]
  • Matt ordered onion straws (describing them as "dismantled Awesome Blossoms") during an interview at a bar.^[10]

[edit] See Also

• Mike Chapman
• The Brothers Chaps' Fansite Acknowledgments
• Matt's 2006 birthday card
• @ronginald — Matt's former Twitter account
• Matt Chapman filmography

[edit] References

Additional videos and interviews are available at Interviews and Public Appearances and Articles.

1. ^  Legion Studios interview, August 2003
2. ^  Run Devil Run interview, early 2003
3. ^  Tastes Like Chicken interview, June 2003
4. ^  The Ron and Fez Show interview, December 2008
5. ^  "Strong Bad's the Brothers Chaps interview", Adventure Gamers, December 2008
6. ^  retroCRUSH interview, late 2001
7. ^  "Toon Bros.", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 2003
8. ^  UMFM interview, May 2003
9. ^  "An evening with Homestar Runner", the Sheaf May 2004 (archive link)
10. ^  The Inkhole interview, July 2004
11. ^  Giant magazine interviews, 2005
12. ^  "An Oral History of Homestar Runner, the Internet’s Favorite Cartoon", Luke Winkie, Gizmodo, January 2017
13. ^  Matt Chapman interview, Club Aquatica, 2003
14. ^  "Homestar Runner's Matt Chapman", The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show, July 2014

[edit] External Links

• The Brothers Chaps Wikipedia article
• Matt Chapman's IMDb page
• Panelist biography from SXSW 2005 (archive link)
• Speaker biography from Flashforward 2006 (archive link)
• Matt Chapman at the Gravity Falls Wiki