Matt Gould
| Matt Kennedy Gould | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania |
| Education | Penn State University |
| Occupation | Television personality (2003) Referee/host (2004) Logistics (current) |
| Years active | 2003-2005 |
| Known for | The Joe Schmo Show |
Matt Kennedy Gould (born October 4, 1975) is an American former television personality. He rose to prominence in 2003, when he was the protagonist of The Joe Schmo Show, a fake reality show in which, unbeknownst to him, all the participants but Gould were actors portraying broad reality show participant archetypes.
Gould is a native of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1999 with a degree in speech communications. Gould attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, but dropped out prior to completion. After dropping out, Gould began living with his parents and working as a pizza delivery man.
Gould was playing basketball with friends at a Jewish Community Center in the South Hills section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when a casting director for SpikeTV's The Joe Schmo Show spotted him. Gould auditioned for the show, and was selected as its protagonist.
As far as Gould was concerned, he was competing in the reality show Lap of Luxury for a $100,000 prize to be awarded to the winner. At the end of each show, one of the show's actors-contestants was evicted. Halfway through the season, an older contestant with whom Gould had bonded was "voted" off the show, causing Gould to break down and begin questioning whether voting off friends was worth monetary gain. Matters were complicated the following day when Gould accidentally injured one of the actors, Kristen Wiig, later of Saturday Night Live fame, in a sumo wrestling contest. Upon Wiig's return to the show, Gould insisted on giving the sumo wrestling contest's prize (a vacation package) to Wiig. Gould's acts of vulnerability in the former instance, and generosity in the latter, caused the producers to shift the show's focus and tone significantly away from mockery and towards praise.
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