Matt Chapman

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Revision as of 20:41, 22 July 2023

"The washed up actor that played Rather Dashing," himslef!

Matthew "Matt" Alan Chapman (born November 1, 1976) is one half of homestarrunner.com creative duo The Brothers Chaps. Alongside older brother Mike Chapman, he serves as one of the principal creators of the Homestar Runner body of work. Matt is the voice actor for nearly all of the characters on the site.

Career

The young gun

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.

Pre-Homestar

After graduation, Matt moved back to his native Atlanta but had difficulty finding film work in the city.

He worked for internet company Earthlink (formerly MindSpring), in customer service and creating icons and banner ads. His MindSpring email address was included on the Luau Main Page. In August of 2003, 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." ^{[Legion Studios]}

Homestar Runner

Acting

Puppet Time

Matt voices nearly all the Homestar Runner characters, Marzipan and Pom Pom being the main exceptions. As such, he is 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

Film and Television

Rough-horsing and house-rousing with The Aquabats

See also The Brothers Chaps' Other Projects

• Matt also did voices for Preschool Protocops and some voices for webtoons and radio commercials for Mellow Mushroom. ^[retroCRUSH]
• The Brothers Chaps' friend David Gordon Green made a movie called All The Real Girls. Matt ended up being in it, but is only seen making a passing comment to another person in the background at one point. Mike and Craig Zobel were also involved in the production of the movie.
• He has composed music for Sealab 2021.
• He and Craig Zobel were selected to write a stop motion animated feature for The Jim Henson Co. called Monster Safari.
• Matt worked for Nickelodeon on the series Yo Gabba Gabba as a writer, director, and producer. He also wrote, directed, and acted in The Aquabats! Super Show!, another show from the Yo Gabba Gabba creators.
• He has done voice acting and writing for the Disney series Gravity Falls, including voicing the merman character Mermando and Soos' grandmother. He has also co-written several episodes of the series. This is the same for the Disney series Pickle and Peanut, voicing Mr. Mjart.
• He wrote two episodes for Wander Over Yonder, titled "The Bounty" and "The Time Bomb".
• One of the billed writers for the Mickey Mouse short "The Boiler Room".
• He voices Alfonzo in the Disney XD series Star vs. the Forces of Evil.
• He voices Carl, Neil's father, in the Rooster Teeth web series Camp Camp.
• Plays Clark Shaw, father of Cooper Shaw (Matt's daughter Ida Chapman), in her titular episode of the Craig Zobel-directed Paramount+ series One Dollar.

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.

Favorite Music

Matt has expressed a general interest in independent music. 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

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 Peasant's Quest Movie Trailer. They currently have two daughters, the older of whom is named Ida.

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.

Fun Facts

• 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. ^{[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]}
  • Egg salad sandwiches (with bits of bacon) ^[UMFM]
  • Discovered an interest in poutine ^{[The Sheaf]}
  • Onion straws, described as "dismantled Awesome Blossoms" ^{[The Inkhole]}
• Matt and Jackie owned a cat named Mabel who was first featured in website. Mabel died in 2007 and was memorialized in hygiene.

See Also

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

Referenced Interviews

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

• retroCRUSH interview, late 2001
• UMFM interview, May 20 2003
• Legion Studios interview, August 2003
• The Inkhole interview, July 2004

External Links

• The Brothers Chaps at Wikipedia
• Matt Chapman's IMDb page
• Panelist biography from SXSW 2005 (archive link)
• Speaker biography from Flashforward 2006 (archive link)
• "An evening with Homestar Runner" The Sheaf May 12 2004 (archive link)