Matt LeBlanc

Matthew Steven LeBlanc (born July 25, 1967) is an American actor.

He garnered global recognition with his portrayal of Joey Tribbiani in the NBC sitcom Friends and in its spin-off series, Joey.

For his work on Friends, LeBlanc received three nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

LeBlanc first appeared in a 1987 Heinz Tomato Ketchup commercial.

In 1988, he starred in the television drama TV 101 for one season.

He appeared in two Bon Jovi music videos: "Miracle," from the Young Guns II soundtrack in 1990, and "Say It Isn't So" in 2000.

He also appeared in videos for Alanis Morissette's single "Walk Away," Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers's "Into The Great Wide Open" and Bob Seger's "Night Moves".

LeBlanc found success as the dimwitted but lovable Joey Tribbiani on Friends; he played this character for 12 years — 10 seasons of Friends and two seasons of Joey.

Friends was wildly successful, and LeBlanc (along with co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer) gained wide recognition among viewers.

This ensemble situation comedy became a major hit for NBC, airing on Thursday nights for ten years.

For his performance, LeBlanc received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, three Golden Globe award nominations, and one Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

In 1991, he had a recurring role on the hit Fox sitcom Married... with Children.

He played Vinnie Verducci, a family friend of protagonist Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) who briefly dates his daughter, Kelly (Christina Applegate).

He also guest-starred in the first season of Red Shoe Diaries.

LeBlanc starred in two short-lived Married... with Children spin-offs: Top of the Heap (1991) and Vinnie & Bobby (1992).

During this time he also appeared in the films Lookin' Italian (1994), Ed (1996), Lost in Space (1998), Charlie's Angels (2000), and its sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003).

Following the cancellation of Joey, LeBlanc announced that he would be taking a one-year hiatus from acting on television, which eventually turned into five years.

He married Melissa McKnight, a British-born American model and a divorced single mother of two children, in May 2003.

He has also starred as a fictionalized version of himself in Episodes (2011–2017), for which he won a Golden Globe Award and received four additional Emmy Award nominations.

From 2011, LeBlanc appeared as a fictionalized version of himself in Episodes, a television series about an American remake of a fictional British television series.

The series is written by Friends co-creator David Crane and his partner Jeffrey Klarik.

At the 69th Golden Globe Awards in 2012, LeBlanc won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a television series, musical, or comedy, and was nominated for an additional four Primetime Emmy Awards.

In February 2012, LeBlanc appeared in the second episode of the eighteenth series of Top Gear, where he set the fastest lap time in the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment in a Kia Cee'd.

Lapping at 1:42.1, he beat the show's previous record-holder, Rowan Atkinson, by 0.1 seconds.

He also appeared in the fourth episode of the nineteenth season to race the New Kia Cee'd, and beat his previous time.

He co-hosted Top Gear from 2016 to 2019.

From 2016 to 2020, he played patriarch Adam Burns in the CBS sitcom ''Man with a Plan.

LeBlanc was born at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts.

His mother, Patricia (née Di Cillo), was an office manager; his father, Paul LeBlanc, was a mechanic and a veteran of the Vietnam War.

His father is of French-Canadian descent and his mother is of Italian ancestry, the daughter of immigrants from Arce, Lazio.

He attended Newton North High School, where he graduated in the same year as future comedian Louis C.K. After high school he attended college at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.

He dropped out shortly after starting his second semester.

LeBlanc moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue a career in modeling, but he was told he was too short to be in the industry.

His acting career began after a woman invited him to accompany her to an audition, where he ended up getting signed by her manager.

Although he had booked commercials and television and film roles before Friends, he was reportedly down to his last eleven dollars before landing the role of Joey Tribbiani.

In February 2016, the BBC announced LeBlanc had signed on to become one of the new Top Gear hosts, signing a two-year deal later that year.

LeBlanc played the lead role in the CBS sitcom Man with a Plan, which began airing in 2016 until it was cancelled in 2020.

LeBlanc has an extensive interest in cars, and worked as a carpenter before acting.

In May 2018, he announced that he was leaving the series in order to spend more time with his family and friends in the US.

He and Rory Reid were replaced by new co-hosts Paddy McGuinness and Andrew Flintoff in the twenty-seventh series in October 2018.