Matt LeBlanc
Matthew Steven LeBlanc (/ləˈblɒŋk/; 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. 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. 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.
Matt LeBlanc
Actor
1987–present
- Friends (1994–2004)
- Joey (2004–2006)
- Episodes (2011–2017)
- Man with a Plan (2016–2020)
- Top Gear (2016–2019)
Andrea Anders (2006–2014)
1
Early life[edit]
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.[1][2] His father is of French-Canadian descent and his mother is of Italian ancestry, the daughter of immigrants from Arce, Lazio.[3] He attended Newton North High School, where he graduated in the same year as future comedian Louis C.K.[4] After high school he attended college at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. He dropped out shortly after starting his second semester.[5]
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.[6] 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.[7]
Personal life[edit]
LeBlanc has an extensive interest in cars, and worked as a carpenter before acting.[21] He married Melissa McKnight, a British-born American model and a divorced single mother of two children, in May 2003.[22] In 1997, they were introduced to each other by McKnight's friend, Kelly Phillips (wife of actor Lou Diamond Phillips). LeBlanc proposed to her a year later.[22] Their daughter, born in 2004, began suffering seizures at eight months old. By the time she was two years old, the condition, thought to be due to cortical dysplasia, had mostly subsided.[22][23] LeBlanc and McKnight divorced in October 2006, citing irreconcilable differences.[24]
LeBlanc met actress Andrea Anders in 2004 while she was co-starring as his friend and eventual love interest on Joey and the pair eventually embarked on a relationship which was confirmed in 2006 following LeBlanc's split from his wife Melissa McKnight.[25][26] After over eight years as a couple, LeBlanc announced at the start of 2015 that he and Anders had been broken up for several months.[27]
LeBlanc primarily resides in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.[28]