Matthew Santoro

Matthew Santoro (born: ) is a Canadian former YouTuber who uploaded edutainment, facts, and informational videos.
On April 20, 2020, Matthew uploaded "50 Amazing Facts to Blow Your Mind #149", and in the description announced his retirement from making list videos (although not his retirement from YouTube all together). He later uploaded a vlog on his vlogging channel and the video "My Channel is Changing Forever" on his main channel to further elaborate on this change. However, in 2021, he has since went back to making List videos in a new series called "Top 5." He made a video called "Why I went back to List Videos." on his second channel to explain about the sudden news.
On August 15, 2021, Santoro announced on his social media that he has moved to Twitch, ending an over decade-long tenure with YouTube.
On December 3, 2022, Santoro returned to YouTube.
== Early Life ==
Santoro was born in Cambridge, Ontario but was raised in Welland. He is an only child and was born to his parents Mike and Cathy Santoro. His parents divorced when he was eight and this affected him greatly. When he entered primary school, he attended a religious institute called "St Kevin Catholic School". Santoro described his childhood self as a class clown who never became popular. When entering high school, he attended "Notre Dame College School" (which he acknowledge was not a good name for a school that wasn't a 'college'). Santoro mentioned that in high school he loved improv class the most. He got his first job at a grocery store called "Zehrs" where he worked for about 10 years and paid his time at university.
In High school, Santoro had no idea what to do with his life. His teacher, Mr. Graffi, recommend he try a career in accounting and Santoro liked the idea as he thought it would give him a wealthy and stable life. He went to Brock University where he obtained a Bachelors and Masters degree in accounting.
He got his first job as a public accountant and made around $30,000 a year. He was eventually laid off from his accounting job due to budget cuts and Santoro made a video about it on his YouTube channel. Because Santoro's real dream was to entertain people, he spent the next year working full time on his YouTube channel. His channel slowly but surely started to kick off once he started making his educational list videos.
==Personal life==
Santoro was born and raised in Welland, Ontario and later moved to St. Catharines; in May 2015, he relocated to Toronto. Santoro is a fan of Drake and hip-hop culture and often refers to Toronto as "the six". He moved to Los Angeles, California in early 2017, and lived there for 3 years. On June 27, 2020, Santoro announced that he would be moving back home to Toronto, citing issues living in LA and wanting to live closer to his family. On July 16, 2020, his 35th birthday, Santoro officially moved back to Toronto.
On July 27, 2020, he explained that after moving back to Toronto, someone or some group stole a trailer from the moving company that housed most of his belongings, leaving him nothing other than what he had moved back to Toronto with himself. The stolen trailer was found on July 30, and its contents were returned to Santoro on July 31, although some items were still missing, and several were damaged
On March 30, 2019, Santoro announced that he would be stepping back from YouTube. However, he is still active on his channel today.
==Channels==
Matthew is most known for his "50 Amazing Facts to Blow Your Mind!" videos as well as his top 10 lists, Facts In 5, Santoro Live, and Myths You Still Believe. His facts are either funny, horrific, interesting or just plain strange. He uploads a new video every weekday.
Santoro has also been a guest on numerous YouTube channels, such as CinemaSins, Rob Dyke, Vsauce3, Ten Second Songs, Jacksfilms, and YouTubers React.
===Matthew Santoro===
"Matthew Santoro" is his main channel where he uploads his main series "50 Amazing Facts to Blow Your Mind", "Top 10's", "Facts in 5", "Santoro Live", and "Myths You Still Believe". He uploads videos every weekday and used to orientate between the type of video he does each day, until he stopped every series except "50 Amazing Facts" and "Top 10's".
===Matthew Santoro Plus===
Matthew Santoro Plus was a channel created by Matt on October 30, 2020 and acts as his new second channel after it was found out that his first second channel, MatthewSantoroVlog (now known as Matthew Santoro Archive), was considered a dead channel by a representative from YouTube. On Matthew Santoro Plus, you will see almost daily content including Unboxings, opening mail, commentary videos and more.
===Matthew Santoro Podcast===
Created on Jul 25, 2018, This channel is the video version of the podcast Matt does. The podcast originally started in July 2018, but in February 2019, put the podcast on hiatus. On October 24, 2020, he re-launched the podcast as well as re-adding video versions on the channel.
===Matthew Santoro Games===
As of August 2014, Matt uploaded a third channel called "Matthew Santoro 3", which has not been used for anything yet. He only has one video called "?" (now taken down). Matthew Santoro 3 is Matt's gaming YouTube channel. The channel was taken down by unknown reasons, but later reopened and renamed it to "Santoro Gaming", the channel has released its first gaming video on January 4, 2016.
The channel was taken down later that year. In a statement video released by Santoro on his Vlog channel, he stated that the channel was not showing his real self, explaining that "He didn't like the things he was saying on the channel." He also stated that "I felt fake." It is unknown if he will re-upload a gaming channel.
On October 22, 2020, Matt created a new Gaming channel named Matthew Santoro Games.
==Former Channels==
====MatthewSantoroArchive====
This is Matt's former second channel, originally known as MatthewSantoroVlog. On here, he would upload vlogs (video blogs) and bloopers of his videos on his main channel. He originally uploaded a new video every day on the channel, with common series such as "Mail with Matt", "Q&A", and "Unboxing".
The channel was eventually renamed MatthewSantoro2, all videos were deleted at one time but most have been restored. The channel now goes by Matthew Santoro Archive in favor of a new second channel, Matthew Santoro Plus.
==Alter Egos==
Matthew also play the roles of different characters for his channel, these include:
===Hugo===
Hugo is a stereotypical mentally handicapped person, portrayed by Matthew Santoro. He isn't very intelligent, has a speech impediment, and says random words and phrases that mean nothing. In videos past, he has been caught on camera lying to Matt about stealing his phone, having a burning fire in the middle of Matt's kitchen, and sneaking in before or after Matt has left, and stealing the show.
===Eugene===
Eugene is a socially awkward stereotypical nerd portrayed by Matthew Santoro. He has, in past videos, been caught on camera doing things like dressing up in a bathrobe/"cape", and calling himself "Motivation Man", annoying Matt to the point of violence, and playing World Of Warcraft in the dark. He also has a lightsaber which he'll pull out if Matt is talking bad about him.
===Big Shine===
Big Shine is a stereotypical bodyguard/thug who has, in videos past, has knocked out Matt and then ran for the hills. In videos past, Big Shine was seen on camera mostly intimidating Matt, intimidating the audience, or beating up mean commentator.
===Lorenzo===
Lorenzo was a personality that is supposed to resemble a Hispanic (cough, cough, *horny*) man who always wants to go clubbing at the end of videos, or during videos.
===The Duke of Poo===
The duke is a character who is of royal background but suffers from "IBS" and has to stop mid sentence to deliver his catchphrase "Its time to make a royal flush" before running out of the room.
==Awards==
On February 26, 2015, Matthew Santoro won the 2015 Hubub #AcademySocial award by a landslide, gaining 82% of the vote when the award was announced.
On March 2, 2015, Matthew Santoro's nomination for the Shorty Awards "YouTube Star Of The Year" was made public in The Hollywood Reporter Santoro won the online fan vote.
On September 14, 2015, Matthew Santoro won the 2015 Stream Awards for the "Breakout Creator".
==Trivia==
*Matt co-hosted a charity event on April 18, 2015 with Global Citizen, a charity that aims to eliminate extreme poverty and climate change within our lifetime.
*Matthew has a Masters Degree in Accounting. He had a job as an accountant but was let go along with another person working at the firm due to budget cuts.
*Matthew revealed in October 2017 that he is suffering from depression and he is getting help. 
*He cites Ray William Johnson as his biggest influence for getting into YouTube.
==References==
Category:Users who joined in 2010
Category:Canadian YouTubers
Category:Vlogging YouTubers
Category:Educational YouTubers
Category:Gaming YouTubers
Category:Commentary YouTubers
Category:One million subscribers
Category:Two million subscribers
Category:Three million subscribers
Category:Four million subscribers
Category:Five million subscribers
Category:One billion views