Matt LeBlanc

Matt LeBlanc

Date of Birth: July 25, 1967

Hunky and half-witted... somehow it seems like an appealing combination when Matt LeBlanc plays Joey Tribbiani on TV's phenomenally popular Friends.

Though much, much smarter than his TV persona, Joey Tribianni's struggles as an aspiring actor mirror Matt LeBlanc's own early days. His childhood dreams of become a professional racer gave way to his Mom's more practical insistence that he get a "real" job. But being a carpenter didn't really pay off, so Matt took a friend's advice to pursue a career in modeling. (According to an ex-girlfriend, "Matt adores his mother. He won't do a thing without her okay." This may be the one exception.)

Once in New York City, jobs flipping burgers at Fatburger were easier to find than modeling assignments. But Matt soon found work in TV commercials, shilling Heinz Ketchup, Coca Cola, Doritos, and Levi's. Two years later, in 1989, Matt scored his first TV series, TV 101. It was followed by two other flops (Top of the Heap and Vinnie & Bobby) but Matt finally found real success in 1994 with Friends.

Matt's first bigscreen starrer Ed tanked (what else would you expect from a film where LeBlanc played second banana to a baseball-playing monkey?). His role as Major Don West in the blockbuster remake of Lost in Space and his roles in the Charlie's Angels movies still didn't propel Matt to feature film stardom. In 2004 he returned to the small screen to reprise his role as space cadet Joey Tribbiani in the TV sitom Joey, which lasted two seasons. He currently plays himself in the Showtime sitcom Episodes, which started airing in 2011 and he also plays Nick Jericho on fellow Friends castmate Lisa Kudrow's Showtime series Web Therapy.

Filmography:

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)
Charlie's Angels (2000)
Lost in Space (1998)
Ed (1996)
Looking Italian (1994)