Martin Matte (born April 14, 1970) is a Canadian stand-up comedian and actor from

Laval, Quebec Laval (; ) is a city in Quebec, Canada. It is in the southwest of the province, north of Montreal. It is the largest suburb of Montreal, the third-largest city in the province after Montreal and Quebec City, and the thirteenth largest city in C ...

. He created and starred in the television sitcom ''Les Beaux malaises''.Brendan Kelly
"Les beaux malaises' Martin Matte invites anglos to be in on the joke"
''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', May 12, 2016.

Career

Matte studied marketing and administration at the

Université du Québec à Montréal The Université du Québec à Montréal (English: University of Quebec in Montreal), also known as UQAM, is a French-language public university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the Université du Québe ...

, and comedy at the École nationale de l'humour, before beginning his career as a radio host on

CKOI-FM :For the CKOI radio network, see ''CKOI (network)''. CKOI-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Verdun, Quebec and serving the Greater Montreal area, airing a CHR/Top 40 radio format. Owned and operated by Cogeco, CKOI-FM bro ...

and

CKMF-FM CKMF-FM (94.3 MHz) is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec, owned and operated by Bell Media. The station airs a mainstream rock format and is the flagship station of the "Énergie" network, which operates across ...

.Agnès Gaudet
"Martin Matte"
''

Le Journal de Montréal ''Le Journal de Montréal'' is a daily French-language tabloid newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Quebec and is also the largest French-language daily newspaper in North America. ...

'', February 20, 2015.

Stand-up comedy

While working as a radio host he began to perform as a stand-up comedian, winning the award for Revelation of the Year at the Gala Les Olivier in 1999. In 2000 he launched his first solo stand-up comedy show, ''Histoires vraies'', following up with ''Condamné à l'excellence'' in 2007 and ''Eh la la...!'' in 2017. He has won numerous Olivier and Artis awards for his comedy shows, as well as the

Félix Award The Félix Award (french: Trophée Félix or Prix Félix) is an award, given by the ''Association du disque, de l'industrie du spectacle québécois'' (ADISQ) on an annual basis to artists working in the music and humor industry in the Canadian p ...

for Best Comedy Album for ''Condamné à l'excellence'' in 2010.

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

recorded a performance on the ''Eh la la...!'' tour for the comedy special ''La vie, la mort...eh la la..!'', making Matte the first Quebec comedian to get his own Netflix special. In 2023, Matte is slated to host a short-run prime time

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

TVA The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

Acting

He had early supporting roles in the television series ''

km/h The kilometre per hour ( SI symbol: km/h; non-standard abbreviations: kph, km/hr) is a unit of speed, expressing the number of kilometres travelled in one hour. History Although the metre was formally defined in 1799, the term "kilometres per ho ...

'' and ''

Les Bougon ''Les Bougon - c'est aussi ça la vie!'' is a Quebec sitcom broadcast by Radio-Canada from 2004 to 2006, written by François Avard and Jean-François Mercier and produced by Fabienne Larouche. The show won three Gémeaux in 2004. The show's fi ...

''. He had a regular role as Bruno Gagnon in the Quebec version of ''

Caméra Café ''Caméra Café'' is a French-born concept of comedy television series exported around the world. Two movie spin-offs have been made in France under the titles of ''Espace détente'' and ''Le Séminaire''. It was originally a French television sh ...

'', playing the role from 2002 to 2006 before returning to the series in 2009. ''Les Beaux malaises'', which starred Matte as a fictionalized version of himself in a comedy based on his own family life, premiered on TVA in 2014. It ran for three seasons until 2016, before ending with a special episode in 2017. Matte won two Gémeaux Awards for best actor in a comedy series during the show's original run, in 2014 and 2015. It then returned for a single new season in 2021. He has also appeared in the films ''

Nitro Nitro may refer to: Chemistry *Nitrogen, a chemical element and a gas except at very low temperatures, with which many compounds are formed: **Nitro compound, an organic compound containing one or more nitro functional groups, -NO2 **Nitroalkene, ...

'' and ''

Threesome In human sexuality, a threesome is commonly understood as "a sexual interaction between three people whereby at least one engages in physical sexual behaviour with both the other individuals". Though ''threesome'' most commonly refers to sexua ...

(Le Trip à trois)''.

Fondation Martin-Matte

In 1986, Matte's brother Christian suffered a

traumatic brain injury A traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as an intracranial injury, is an injury to the brain caused by an external force. TBI can be classified based on severity (ranging from mild traumatic brain injury TBI/concussionto severe traumatic b ...

in a car accident, which permanently impaired his

short-term memory Short-term memory (or "primary" or "active memory") is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in an active, readily available state for a short interval. For example, short-term memory holds a phone number that has just been recit ...

. Frustrated by the lack of resources for people in his brother's situation, in 2007 Matte launched the Fondation Martin-Matte, which finances the construction of adaptive housing facilities and other social and recreational projects to improve quality of life for brain injury survivors. As of 2023, the foundation operates eight Maison Martin-Matte facilities across Quebec, with others under construction. Actor and writer

Fabien Cloutier Fabien Cloutier is a Canadian actor and playwright from Quebec.Télé-Québec The Société de télédiffusion du Québec (; en, Quebec Television Broadcasting Corporation), branded as Télé-Québec (), is a Canadian French-language public educational television network in the province of Quebec. It is a provincial Crown ...

's documentary series ''L'Avenir nous appartient''.

Personal life

Matte and his wife of 30 years, Vicky Pomerleau, split in 2017, which formed part of the storyline for the 2021 revival of ''Les Beaux malaises''. He has more recently been romantically linked with actress

Laurence Leboeuf Laurence Charlotte Leboeuf (born December 13, 1985) is a Canadian actress. Biography Leboeuf was born on December 13, 1985 in Montreal, Quebec. She went to École Notre-Dame-de-Grâce for elementary and later on, she went to Villa Maria for hig ...

.Élizabeth Lepage-Boily
"Stéphane Rousseau taquine Martin Matte sur sa relation avec Laurence Leboeuf et les couteaux volent bas"
''Showbizz'', November 24, 2022.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Matte, Martin 1970 births Living people 21st-century Canadian comedians 21st-century Canadian male actors Canadian male comedians Canadian stand-up comedians Canadian philanthropists Canadian male television actors Canadian male film actors Félix Award winners French Quebecers Comedians from Quebec Male actors from Quebec People from Laval, Quebec Canadian radio personalities Université du Québec à Montréal alumni