Famous Matts and Matthews
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50 free Famous Matts and Matthews trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Matt is one of those names that turns up everywhere. Short for Matthew, it belongs to Oscar winners and sitcom favourites, cartoonists and showrunners, stadium-filling musicians and champion athletes, and to a surprising number of characters invented for television, film and video games. This quiz rounds them up. Most questions name a famous Matt and ask about the work that made him known: a role, a band, a team, a title or a trophy. Others start from a fictional Matt and ask which story he belongs to or who played him. It works as a themed pub quiz round, a birthday quiz for the Matt you know best, or a general knowledge warm-up with a twist. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so there is something to learn even from a wrong guess.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Matt Damon has kept up a long-running mock feud with which late-night host, who never has time for him?
Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel started the gag by apologising at the end of his show for running out of time for Damon. In 2013 Damon hit back, staging a kidnap of the host and taking over the whole broadcast.
Q 02Matt Groening borrowed Portland street names such as Flanders and Lovejoy for characters in which animated series?
The Simpsons
The Simpsons also carries his family's names: Groening named Homer and Marge after his parents, and Lisa and Maggie after his younger sisters.
Q 03Matt LeBlanc was reportedly down to his last eleven dollars when he landed the part of which Friends character?
Joey Tribbiani
Joey Tribbiani kept LeBlanc in work for twelve years: ten seasons of Friends and two more in the spin-off Joey.
Q 04Matt Stone and Trey Parker co-wrote which Broadway musical about two missionaries in Uganda, winner of nine Tony Awards?
The Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon took eight years to write, as Stone and Parker fitted the work around their South Park schedule. It opened on Broadway in March 2011.
Q 05Matt Smith earned an Emmy nomination playing which royal husband opposite Claire Foy in Netflix's The Crown?
Prince Philip
Prince Philip was Smith's part for the first two seasons, after which Tobias Menzies inherited the role and won an Emmy for it.
Q 06Matt Cardle beat Rebecca Ferguson and One Direction to win the 2010 series of which British talent show?
The X Factor
The X Factor made Cardle its seventh winner, while One Direction, a group built on the show from five rejected soloists, were the last act eliminated behind him and Ferguson.
Q 07Matt Duffer and his identical twin Ross created which Netflix series set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana?
Stranger Things
Stranger Things was the twins' own pitch after a spell writing for the Fox series Wayward Pines. Matt and Ross Duffer work on all their projects as a pair.
Q 08Director Matt Reeves cast Robert Pattinson as which DC Comics superhero in a 2022 reboot styled as a detective story?
Batman
Batman became more of a detective in Reeves's film, whose script drew on Alfred Hitchcock thrillers and the comic Year One.
Q 09Marshal Matt Dillon kept the peace in Dodge City, Kansas, for twenty seasons of which television western?
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke started on radio and reached television in 1955, when John Wayne introduced the opening instalment and predicted stardom for its lead, James Arness.
Q 10Which actor played Matt Hooper, the oceanographer who sets out aboard the Orca in Steven Spielberg's Jaws?
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss was suggested by George Lucas, who had directed him in American Graffiti. The role of Hooper was then rewritten to suit him.
Q 11Matt Lucas replaced Sandi Toksvig in 2020 as co-host of which television competition filmed in a tent?
The Great British Bake Off
The Great British Bake Off paired Lucas with Noel Fielding for three series. He had first found fame as a score-keeping baby in a romper suit on the panel show Shooting Stars.
Q 12Quarterback Matt Ryan, nicknamed Matty Ice, was the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 2016 with which team?
Atlanta Falcons
Atlanta Falcons fans saw that season end in Super Bowl LI, where the team led New England 28–3 and then lost the first Super Bowl ever decided in overtime.
Q 13Sir Matt Busby rebuilt Manchester United after the Munich air disaster to win which trophy at Wembley in 1968?
Q 21Matt Goss sang lead in which 1980s British pop group, with his twin brother Luke on drums?
Bros
Bros reunited in 2017 for a show at London's O2 Arena, and the tickets sold out in seven seconds.
Q 22Matt Biondi won five gold medals for the United States at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in which sport?
Swimming
Swimming brought Biondi eleven Olympic medals over three Games, eight of them gold. At Seoul he set world records in the 50-metre freestyle and three relays.
Q 23Matt Kenseth, NASCAR's top-series champion in 2003, twice won which showpiece race at a Florida speedway?
Daytona 500
Daytona 500 victories came to Kenseth in 2009, when rain cut the race short, and again in 2012.
European Cup
European Cup victory came ten years after the tragedy that killed eight of his players. United beat Benfica 4–1 after extra time to become the first English club to win it.
Q 14Matt Dawson, later a team captain on A Question of Sport, won the 2003 World Cup with England in which sport?
Rugby union
Rugby union made Dawson a double world champion: he and Lawrence Dallaglio were the first players to win the World Cup at both fifteen- and seven-a-side.
Q 15Matt Haig wrote which 2020 bestselling novel, in which Nora Seed samples the lives she might have lived?
The Midnight Library
The Midnight Library sits between the living and the dead, with its clocks frozen at twelve and every volume on its shelves holding a path Nora could have taken.
Q 16Matt Willis, crowned King of the Jungle on I'm a Celebrity in 2006, played bass in which pop-punk trio?
Busted
Busted lived on inside a supergroup: Willis and bandmate James Bourne later joined the four members of McFly to tour and record as McBusted.
Q 17Matt Dillon earned an Oscar nomination as a bigoted Los Angeles police officer in which 2004 ensemble drama?
Crash
Crash went on to win Best Picture, one of three Oscars from its six nominations. Writer-director Paul Haggis drew on his own carjacking in 1991.
Q 18Matt Damon grew potatoes to stay alive as stranded astronaut Mark Watney in which Ridley Scott film?
The Martian
The Martian is based on Andy Weir's bestselling novel and won Damon a Golden Globe, awarded in the musical or comedy category.
Q 19George Clooney played veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski opposite Sandra Bullock in which 2013 thriller set in Earth orbit?
Gravity
Gravity won seven Oscars, more than any other film that year, including Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón.
Q 20Crooner Matt Monro, once a London bus driver, sang the title song for which Sean Connery James Bond film?
From Russia with Love
From Russia with Love was his first collaboration with composer John Barry. Monro later sang the Oscar-winning title song of Born Free, which became his signature tune.
Q 24Matt Berry plays the vampire Laszlo Cravensworth in which mockumentary series set on Staten Island?
What We Do in the Shadows
What We Do in the Shadows earned Berry an Emmy nomination for lead actor in a comedy. British viewers knew him first as the bombastic boss Douglas Reynholm in The IT Crowd.
Q 25Matt Baker, a schoolboy gymnast who later fronted Countryfile, presented which BBC children's show from 1999 to 2006?
Blue Peter
Blue Peter was looking for a new presenter when his future wife's aunt spotted the vacancy. Baker went on to co-host The One Show for nine years.
Q 26Drummer Matt Cameron joined Pearl Jam in 1998 after the first breakup of which Seattle band, known for Black Hole Sun?
Soundgarden
Soundgarden reunited in 2010, which left Cameron drumming for two of Seattle's biggest bands at once until singer Cornell's death in 2017.
Q 27Matt Helders bought a drum kit because his friends already had guitars, then became the drummer of which Sheffield band?
Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys fans also hear Helders sing harmonies with frontman Alex Turner. Away from the band, he played the drums on Iggy Pop's album Post Pop Depression.
Q 28Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba spent seven years filling in for Tom DeLonge in which pop-punk band?
Blink-182
Blink-182 made two albums with Skiba, California and Nine, before DeLonge returned in 2022.
Q 29Matt Hughes, twice a welterweight champion, was the eighth inductee into the Hall of Fame of which organization?
UFC
UFC crowds twice watched Hughes run up six-fight winning streaks, beating every available opponent in the welterweight division. He came to the cage as a champion school wrestler from Illinois.
Q 30Matt Stone voices which South Park boy, whose words are muffled by the hood of his orange parka?
Kenny McCormick
Kenny McCormick is famous for dying and turning up alive again. Near the end of the fifth season, Stone and Trey Parker considered killing him off permanently.