Matt Stone facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Matt Stone
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Stone at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con
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| Born |
Matthew Richard Stone
May 26, 1971 |
| Alma mater | University of Colorado Boulder (BA) |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1992–present |
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Works
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Filmography and awards |
| Spouse(s) |
Angela Howard
(m. 2008) |
| Children | 2 |
Matthew Richard Stone (born May 26, 1971) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, and musician. He is best known for creating the popular animated TV show South Park (which started in 1997) and the hit musical The Book of Mormon (2011). He created these with his friend and creative partner, Trey Parker.
Matt became interested in entertainment when he was young. He studied film and math at the University of Colorado Boulder. This is where he met Trey Parker. While in college, they worked on many short films. They also starred in a musical movie called Cannibal! The Musical (1993).
After college, Stone and Parker moved to Los Angeles. They wrote their second film, Orgazmo (1997). Before this movie came out, South Park began airing on Comedy Central in August 1997. It quickly became very popular. Because of its success, they directed a movie based on the show, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999). This movie also received good reviews.
Besides South Park, Matt Stone has worked on other projects. He wrote, produced, and acted in the action-comedy film Team America: World Police (2004). He also co-created the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon (2011). This musical took many years to develop but was very successful.
Matt Stone has won many awards. He has five Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on South Park. For The Book of Mormon, he won three Tony Awards and one Grammy Award.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Matt Stone was born on May 26, 1971, in Houston, Texas. His father, Gerald Whitney Stone, was an economics professor. His mother was Sheila Lois Belasco. Matt's father had Irish-American roots, and his mother was Jewish. The South Park characters Gerald and Sheila Broflovski were named after his parents.
Matt and his younger sister, Rachel, grew up in Littleton, Colorado. This is a suburb near Denver. They both went to Heritage High School. Matt then attended the University of Colorado Boulder. His father wanted him to study something "practical" and worried he might become just a musician. So, Matt decided to study both mathematics and film. He earned a double degree in 1993.
Starting His Career
Early Films and Shorts
Cannibal! The Musical (1992–1994)
In 1992, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and two friends started a film company. They named it the Avenging Conscience. They made a short, three-minute preview for a fake movie called Alferd Packer: The Musical. This preview became very popular among students at their university.
A film professor encouraged them to turn it into a full-length movie. Trey Parker wrote the script, making it a musical with ten original songs. The group raised $125,000 from family and friends to make the film. They shot the movie on Loveland Pass in freezing weather.
Alferd Packer: The Musical first showed in Boulder in October 1993. Later, it was sold to a company called Troma Entertainment in 1996. They renamed it Cannibal! The Musical. After Matt and Trey became famous, this movie became their best-selling title. It is now seen as a "cult classic" and has even been turned into a play for community theaters and high schools.
The Spirit of Christmas (1995–1997)
After Cannibal! found success, Matt and Trey moved to Los Angeles. They hoped to become successful quickly, but it was hard for a few years. Matt even slept on dirty clothes for a year because he couldn't afford a mattress.
A filmmaker named David Zucker liked Cannibal!. He asked Matt and Trey to make a short film for a party. They mostly made up the film, called Your Studio and You, an hour before they shot it. It was a funny take on old instructional videos and featured many famous people like Sylvester Stallone and Steven Spielberg.
Parker and Stone also made two short animated films called The Spirit of Christmas. The first was Jesus vs. Frosty, and the second was Jesus vs. Santa. A TV executive named Brian Graden liked Jesus vs. Santa. He paid Matt and Trey to make it as a video greeting card. Graden sent it to people in Hollywood. Someone also put it online, and it became one of the first ever viral videos.
As Jesus vs. Santa became super popular, Matt and Trey started talking about turning it into a TV show called South Park. They first offered it to Fox, but the network didn't want a show with a talking poo character. Matt and Trey then talked with MTV and Comedy Central. Trey preferred Comedy Central because he worried MTV would make it too childish. When Doug Herzog, an executive at Comedy Central, saw the short, he asked them to develop it into a series.
South Park Success
Starting Strong (1997–1998)
The first episode of South Park cost $300,000 to make. It took about three to three and a half months to finish. The animation was done in a small room in Denver, Colorado, in the summer of 1996. Like their Christmas shorts, the first episode was made using traditional cut paper stop motion techniques.
South Park premiered in August 1997. It quickly became one of the most popular shows on cable TV. It regularly had between 3.5 and 5.5 million viewers. The show helped turn Comedy Central into a powerful cable network almost overnight. At the time, Comedy Central only reached 21 million homes. The network promoted the show heavily, saying it was "why they created the V-chip." This excitement led to the network earning about $30 million just from T-shirt sales before the first episode even aired!
Because the first six episodes were so successful, Comedy Central asked for seven more. The first season finished in February 1998. By the end of 1998, Comedy Central had sold over $150 million worth of South Park merchandise. Over the next few years, Comedy Central's viewership grew a lot because of South Park. It added 3 million new viewers in the first half of 1998 alone. The show also helped the network sign deals with TV channels in other countries.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker became famous because of the show's success. They took on many other projects, including acting in films and working on albums. One of these was BASEketball, a 1998 comedy film that didn't do well with critics or at the box office.
Continued Success and Movies (1999–Present)
In April 1998, Parker and Stone signed a deal with Comedy Central. This deal meant they would make South Park episodes until 1999. It also gave them a share of the money from South Park merchandise. Plus, they got a large bonus to make a South Park movie for theaters. At the same time, they were busy writing the second and third seasons of the show.
Parker and Stone had to fight with the MPAA (the group that rates movies) to keep the film rated R. For months, the ratings board wanted a more restrictive NC-17 rating. The movie finally got its R rating just two weeks before it was released. Trey Parker felt very stressed and overworked while making the film. The movie opened in theaters in June 1999. It received great reviews and earned $83 million at the box office.
Parker and Stone still write, direct, and voice most of the characters on South Park. Over time, the show developed a unique way of making episodes. An entire episode is written, animated, and broadcast in just one week! Parker and Stone say this tight deadline makes them more creative and results in a funnier show.
Even though early reviews criticized the show's humor, South Park has won many awards. These include five Primetime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award. It is often listed as one of the greatest TV shows. While its viewership is lower than when it first started, South Park remains one of Comedy Central's highest-rated series. In 2012, South Park changed from making 14 episodes a year to 10 episodes in the fall. This allows Matt and Trey to work on other projects the rest of the year. The show is currently planned to continue through 2022, reaching its twenty-sixth season.
South Park has also expanded into music and video games. Comedy Central released albums like Chef Aid: The South Park Album in the late 1990s. The song "Chocolate Salty Balls" (sung by the character Chef) became a number one hit in the UK in 1998. Matt and Trey didn't have much to do with early South Park video games. However, they took full creative control of South Park: The Stick of Truth, a 2014 video game. This game received positive reviews, and they won an award for its writing.
All South Park episodes are available for free online streaming on the official South Park Studios website. In 2007, Matt and Trey made a deal with Comedy Central. They would share 50-50 all money not related to TV, including digital rights, movies, soundtracks, and merchandise. This deal was worth $75 million.
Other TV and Film Projects
That's My Bush! (2000–2001)
In 2000, Parker and Stone started planning a TV comedy show. It would star the winner of the 2000 Presidential election. They thought the Democratic candidate, Al Gore, would win. So, they tentatively named the show Everybody Loves Al. Their main goal was to make fun of common TV comedy show ideas, like a lovable main character or a quirky neighbor.
The show's production was delayed because of the confusion over who would be President. That's My Bush! aired between April and May 2001. It received good attention, but according to Stone and Parker, each episode cost too much, about $1 million. Comedy Central canceled the series in August 2001 to save money. Matt Stone said, "A super-expensive show on a small cable network... the economics of it were just not going to work."
Team America (2002–2004)
In 2002, Matt and Trey began working on Team America: World Police. This movie was a funny take on big-budget action films. It made fun of their common ideas and stereotypes. Team America used puppets and had about 200 people working on it. Sometimes, four people were needed to control just one puppet! Even simple actions, like a puppet drinking, could take half a day to get right.
The deadline for the movie was very tight. Working with puppets was also very difficult. Matt Stone described making the film as "the worst time of [his] life." He drank a lot of coffee to work 20-hour days and used sleeping pills to rest. The movie was barely finished in time for its October release. However, reviews were positive, and the film earned a good amount of money.
Broadway and Future Plans
The Book of Mormon (2011–Present)
While making Team America, Parker and Stone started working on a musical about Mormonism. They teamed up with writer-composer Robert Lopez, who created the puppet musical Avenue Q. Lopez was a fan of South Park. They met after a show and came up with the idea for the musical.
The musical, called The Book of Mormon: The Musical of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, took many years to create. They worked on it around their South Park schedule, often flying between New York City and Los Angeles. They started writing songs for it in 2006. Workshops began in 2008.
After many changes and rehearsals, The Book of Mormon opened on Broadway on March 24, 2011. The musical received widespread praise for its story, music, acting, and direction. A cast recording of the show became the highest-charting Broadway album in over forty years. The musical won nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. The show has since been performed in other cities and countries. Parker and Stone have said a movie version is being planned.
Future Projects (2013–Present)
On January 14, 2013, Stone and Parker announced they would start a film production company called Important Studios. They were inspired by companies like Lucasfilm and DreamWorks. They had thought about starting their own studio for about two years before deciding to do it. The studio started with $300 million, mostly from South Park and The Book of Mormon.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Parker, Stone, and Peter Serafinowicz created a web series called Sassy Justice. This series uses special "deepfake" technology. It puts famous people and politicians into a fictional world with a TV reporter. The first episode was posted on YouTube on October 26, 2020. The team was originally working on a film that was stopped by the pandemic. They made this video based on funny impressions.
In August 2021, Stone and Parker signed a huge $900 million deal with Paramount Global. This deal is for six more seasons of South Park and 14 movies set in the South Park universe for streaming.
In September 2021, Stone and Parker agreed to buy Casa Bonita for $3.1 million. Casa Bonita is a famous restaurant in Colorado. They spent $40 million renovating the restaurant and hired a new chef to update the menu. The restaurant had a soft opening on May 26, 2023. In early June, Casa Bonita started taking reservations. Stone and Parker changed how employees are paid at Casa Bonita. Wait staff no longer need to earn tips. Instead, every employee is paid $30 per hour, which is much higher than Colorado's minimum wage.
In January 2022, it was announced that Parker would produce a new film with Stone through their renamed company, Park County. The film will also involve Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free's company, PGLang. In March 2023, it was reported that Parker would direct the film. It will be released by Paramount Pictures. This live-action comedy film, written by Vernon Chatman, will talk about racial issues. Production was expected to begin in the spring of 2023.
Personal Life
Matt Stone met Angela Howard, a Comedy Central executive, in 2001. They started dating shortly after. They got married in 2008 and have two children together. Matt Stone and his family live in Venice, Los Angeles.
Matt Stone has said he is ethnically Jewish because his mother is Jewish. He is an atheist. In 2006, Stone described himself as libertarian.
Filmography and Awards
Matt Stone has worked on many films and TV shows. Here are some of them:
- Cannibal! The Musical (1993)
- Orgazmo (1997)
- BASEketball (1998)
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
- Terror Firmer (1999)
- Bowling for Columbine (2002)
- Run Ronnie Run (2002)
- Team America: World Police (2004)
- The Aristocrats (2005)
- This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)
- Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo (2007)
- Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (2010)
See also
In Spanish: Matt Stone para niños
