Matthew Steven LeBlanc (/ləˈblɒŋk/; born July 25, 1967) is an American actor. He garnered global recognition with his portrayal ofJoey Tribbiani in theNBC sitcomFriends and in itsspin-off series,Joey. For his work onFriends, LeBlanc received three nominations at thePrimetime Emmy Awards. He has also starred as a fictionalized version of himself inEpisodes (2011–2017), for which he won aGolden Globe Award and received four additional Emmy Award nominations. He co-hostedTop Gear from 2016 to 2019. From 2016 to 2020, he played patriarch Adam Burns in the CBS sitcomMan with a Plan.
LeBlanc was born atNewton-Wellesley Hospital inNewton, Massachusetts. His mother, Patricia (née Di Cillo), was an office manager; his father, Paul LeBlanc, was a mechanic and a veteran of theVietnam War. He has a brother Justin LeBlanc.[1][2] His father is of French-Canadian descent and his mother is of Italian ancestry, the daughter of immigrants fromArce, Lazio.[3] He attendedNewton North High School, where he graduated in the same year as future comedianLouis C.K.[4] After high school he attended college atWentworth 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 beforeFriends, he was reportedly down to his last eleven dollars before landing the role of Joey Tribbiani.[7]
LeBlanc found success as the dimwitted but lovableJoey Tribbiani onFriends; he played this character for 12 years—10 seasons ofFriends and two seasons ofJoey.Friends was wildly successful, and LeBlanc (along with co-starsJennifer Aniston,Courteney Cox,Lisa Kudrow,Matthew Perry, andDavid Schwimmer) gained wide recognition among viewers. This ensemble situation comedy became a major hit for NBC, airing on Thursday nights for ten years.[10]
Following the cancellation ofJoey, LeBlanc announced that he would be taking a one-year hiatus from acting on television, which eventually turned into five years.[11]
In February 2012, LeBlanc appeared in the second episode of the eighteenth season ofTop Gear, where he set the fastest lap time in the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment in aKia Cee'd. Lapping at 1:42.1, he beat the show's previous record-holder,Rowan Atkinson, by 0.1 seconds.[9] He also appeared in the fourth episode of the nineteenth season to race the New Kia Cee'd, and beat his previous time.
In February 2016, theBBC announced LeBlanc had signed on to become one of the newTop Gear hosts,[17] signing a two-year deal later that year.[18] 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.[19] He andRory Reid were replaced by new co-hostsPaddy McGuinness andAndrew Flintoff in the twenty-seventh series in October 2018.
LeBlanc played the lead role in theCBS sitcomMan with a Plan, which began airing in 2016 until it was cancelled in 2020.[20]
LeBlanc has an extensive interest in cars, and worked as a carpenter before acting.[21] In the mid-1990s, he dated actressKate Hudson.[22][23] He married Melissa McKnight, a British-born American model and a divorced single mother of two children, in May 2003.[24] They had been introduced to each other in 1997 by McKnight's friend, Kelly Phillips (wife of actorLou Diamond Phillips). LeBlanc proposed to her a year later.[24] 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 corticaldysplasia, had mostly subsided.[24][25] LeBlanc and McKnight divorced in October 2006, citingirreconcilable differences.[26]
LeBlanc met actressAndrea Anders in 2004 while she was co-starring as his friend and eventual love interest onJoey. The pair eventually embarked on a relationship, which was confirmed in 2006 following LeBlanc's divorce from his wife Melissa McKnight.[27][28] After over eight years as a couple, LeBlanc announced at the start of 2015 that he and Anders had separated several months earlier.[29]
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