Stephanie Patrick

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Introduction

Appearances

Trivia

Aliases

Gallery

Stephanie Patrick
Alias(es)	Steph; StephPat; "The Roist"
Born	Stephanie Clair Cordato August 9, 1987 (age 38) Angier, North Carolina
Residence	Raleigh, North Carolina
Nationality	American (dual citizenship) Italian (dual citizenship)
Occupation	Retired Co-Founder of Theorist Media Former Chief Operating Officer (COO) Former Co-Host of GTLive, Food & Style Theory
Years active	2011 - 2024
Internet information
Twitter	Stephanie Patrick (@CordyPatrick)
Instagram	cordypatrick
Facebook	Stephanie Patrick (Cordato)

Stephanie Clair Patrick (née Cordato), also known as Steph, is the Co-Founder of Theorist Media and its original five Theorist channels and the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) . She is the wife of Matthew Patrick and the mother of Oliver Patrick. Stephanie has been involved with all of the channels from day one, supporting MatPat as an equally important "if not more so" figure behind the Theorist franchise. In the early days of Game Theory, Steph served largely in a behind the scenes capacity, acting as MatPat's research and business partner and as an occasional writer and Voice Over artist. In 2015 she transitioned to an on screen role as she served as the Co-Host of GTLive, Food Theory and Style Theory before retiring from those roles in 2021 (GTLive) and 2024 (all other channels). Steph has always been the more private co-founder, with less of her personal history known to the internet. She is now a well-respected figure in the content creator space, but she historically struggled to be taken seriously as a co-founder and creator due to sexism within the content creation and media industries.

As the former COO, Steph ran the day to day operations of Theorist Media, doing the "unsexy" work of payroll, taxes and contact review, along other things. Steph spearheaded the 2023 acquisition of Theorist Media by Lunar X, a role that required her to become proficient in "everything from investment banking, M&A Lawyering to international business law." After MatPat's departure as hosts of the main Theorist channels, she served as an advisor until her departure from the company in December of 2024.

Post Retirement, Steph helped launch the Congressional Creators Caucus, with United States Representatives Yvette Clarke (D-NY) and Beth Van Duyne (R-TX). The Caucus seeks to connect Content Creators with receptive politicians in order to educate congress on the work of the creator economy. Outside of her political activism, Steph occasionally updates fans on her day to day life on her Instagram, @CordyPatrick.

Personal History

Stephanie Cordato was born on August 9, 1987, in Buies Creek, North Carolina, the only child of Roy and Karen Cordato. The Cordatos moved to Angier, NC (near Raleigh), which is in her words, "a tiny rural town with one stoplight", when she was six years old. Both of her parents hold higher education degrees in Economics and her father Roy taught economics in higher education for more than 30 years. Her family is of Italian decent and Steph has dual citizenship with Italy and the United States. As Economics professors, Steph's parents raised her to be fiscally responsible, a fact that she's mentioned a few times on livestreams. They also influenced a love of music in Steph as she grew up playing the piano.

When she was around 8 or 10 years old, Stephanie began to notice that she had an adverse reaction to the sound of chewing or any "wet mouth sounds", which would cause her a great deal of anxiety, anger and panic. It could escalate to the point where she felt like crying or screaming. The sounds of her parents eating particularly challenged her and she asked to play music or watch tv during meals to try and drown out the sounds. She wouldn't mention it to anyone for years, convinced that there was something wrong with her. As an adult Steph would learn that she has misophonia, a disorder where certain benign sounds can trigger the emotional and memory storage parts of the brain, resulting in intense emotions and distress. She would also later describe the sense of relief she had in getting a name for her disorder in a 2020 Film Theory episode where MatPat proposed that The Grinch from Dr. Seuss may have a similar disorder.

Growing up Stephanie went to a private school for some part of her education. She was a very strong student, to the point where she suspected one of her old classmates used to cheat off her work. In addition to having strong academics, Steph served as the treasurer and vice president of her school's student council and she was a part of her high school's swim team. Steph also attended the same high school as future Team Theorist member Chris Widin and he is the younger brother of one of Steph's closest childhood friends. Throughout her childhood and into young adulthood Steph kept a personal journal, documenting her life experiences. This included her college years and the year she met MatPat.

Duke University

After graduating from high school, Steph went to college at Duke University in Durham, NC, to study chemistry. At Duke University she worked as a Resident Assistant (RA), a leadership role within undergraduate dorms in most US Universities. She was also a cheerleader and took multiple dance classes.

Steph and MatPat's first photo together

In January of 2006, Steph took "CompSci 4:Video Game Programming" as a class in order to fulfill one of her math requirements and met Matthew Patrick. Throughout the semester Steph and MatPat competed against each other to create the best game in the class. For the course's culminating project, MatPat and Steph paired up to create a parody of a Zelda game, called "The Epic of Stew", the name being a combination of their two names. Like MatPat, Steph enjoyed video games, although she preferred and still enjoys massive online games massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) like Warcraft and Skyrim. As such, Stephanie and MatPat hit it off right away as they had a lot in common; MatPat would later go on record to say he fell in love with Steph's work ethic first. However, the two of them did not start dating right away, as MatPat was dating someone and Steph first thought MatPat was gay. Stephanie would only refer to MatPat with his first and last name for the first year of their friendship, as she didn't want to admit to herself that she liked him and because she didn't like the nickname. They would eventually start dating on October 8th 2006, their first date being at the university gym pool.

Cornell University and New York City

Stephanie graduated from Duke University in 2009 Magna Cum Laude, with a double major in Chemistry and Classical Languages (Greek and Latin). After college Stephanie and MatPat moved to New York City so Steph could attend Cornell University to pursue a Master of Science Degree in Cancer Pharmacology. However because MatPat was pursuing a career in theater, he spent multiple months away from Steph, working in several different states. Stephanie and MatPat would have a long distance relationship for 14 months before MatPat ultimately decided to transition out of theater. This was a time of economic hardship for Steph and MatPat, since they were living in one of the most expensive cities in America during the middle of the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis. According to Steph they couldn't afford to buy Christmas presents, and in order to afford groceries they had to trek an hour away to a discount market where they sold damaged canned food and "the lowest quality things you could possibly get".

On November 17th, 2010, the 1500th day of them being a couple, MatPat proposed to Stephanie using a video he created of their time together. He also decorated their apartment with photos of them in order to create a "relationship museum". The carefully decorated apartment shocked Steph so much she accidentally knocked a mirror off of the wall in surprise. Even though she was worried that she had ruined the moment, MatPat took her hand and proposed on the spot next to the broken mirror. He would later post the proposal video onto his YouTube channel on December 24th 2010.

Although this proposal was carefully planned, MatPat almost proposed to Steph several weeks before when he took her on a near perfect date. In this perfect date he took Steph to her favorite tea shop, ice skating and a carriage ride through Central Park just as it began to snow. Steph was sure MatPat was going to propose at the end of the night, but instead but instead gifted her a Tiffany clock. Years later, MatPat admitted that "the time was absolutely right, but I fumbled the ball...and I regret it to this day." They still call the clock "the almost engagement clock."

Stephanie and MatPat later married on May 19, 2012 in North Carolina.

Campbell Alliance

Steph graduated from Cornell in 2011 with perfect grades and multiple honors. That same year she started working as a consultant and engagement manager at Campbell Alliance, which was a company in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors. In this position, she collaborated with medical professionals to address key areas such as drug safety, regulatory compliance, and strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing organizational efficiency and cross-functional collaboration within Medical Affairs. Working for Campbell Alliance required her and MatPat to move to Los Angeles and they made the move together in May of 2011.

Co-Creating Game Theory

After MatPat left theater, he fell into what he called "the lowest of lows" where he was unemployed and Steph was their sole source of income. In addition to the economic hardship of his unemployment, the couple received pushback from MatPat's family. According to Steph, some of MatPat's family members blamed her for "ruining his career", while others called him a "bum with no job". It was during this time that MatPat began to brainstorm an idea for a online show similar to Extra Credits, where he could use video games to discuss various interesting educational topics. He wanted to create something as a resume builder, so he could show off his creativity and research skills. Stephanie assisted MatPat in his initial research. The two reviewed popular gaming channels and gamers and analyzed "everything from their logos to their color schemes to their pacing and editing style". She also reviewed his rough drafts and edits. It was Stephanie who named the show Game Theory, finding inspiration from the work of her parents.

Stephanie's 1st Official Credit

MatPat posted the first episode of Game Theory, "Is Chrono Trigger's Time Travel Accurate?", on April 18, 2011. Stephanie was credited in this first episode with her maden name and her role was listed as "Brand Manager and Fan of Robo". MatPat would continue to put Steph's name in the end credits with a different made up role for every single episode of Game Theory until he dropped the use of end credits entirely in 2012.

MatPat has gone on record to say that Stephanie has been his partner, his co-founder, since the beginning. He has said that Stephanie is the "long term strategic person" for Theorist whereas he is the "idea person/workhorse/on camera talent", which makes them a powerful team. In the earliest years, Steph served as MatPat's sounding board, research assistant and occasional camera operator. She has gone on record to admit she approved MatPat's script for the infamous Best Boobs in Gaming episode. MatPat would also occasionally reference Steph in Game Theory (he would start to credit her with her married name in the July 11 2012 episode of GT), and she made her first photo appearance on Game Theory in September 2011, and her on camera live action appearance in 2012.

First Appearance

First Photo Appearance

The edit

Stephanie's first appearance was as a still photo was on the only Game Theory episode MatPat ever privated on the channel. On September 29, 2011, MatPat posted the first and only Game Theory Mini-sode on the game Foldit. Foldit was a 2008 online puzzle game created by David Baker at the University of Washington as a collaboration between the biology and game development departments. In the game players fold proteins as perfectly as possible using game provided tools. The highest scoring protein folds were then analyzed by real scientists to determine if the protein fold was possible in real life. In the short theory, MatPat introduced Steph as his fiancée and then used two photos of her, one of which was photoshopped with a labcoat that Mat then removed to reveal Steph in a bikini. At the time, Steph approved of the use of her image in the episode but later both MatPat and Steph realized it was a bit exploitive, so they privated it, removing it from YouTube search results.

Steph's first ever on camera appearance

First Live Action Appearance

Stephanie's first official on camera was in the episode LA Noire, The Human Lie Detector, which was posted on February 17, 2012. LA Noire is a 2011 detective game developed by the now defunct Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games. The game used motion scan technology to record actors to use for in game characters, which was important for gameplay as the player was tasked with detecting if characters were lying based on their behavior. In the episode, MatPat interviewed Stephanie and a neighbor named Garrett and attempted to detect if they were lying based on their behavior. He also noted that because Steph is left handed, her 'tell' for lying should be that she looks to her right, based on brain science.

In her interview, MatPat asked Steph several personal questions about Warcraft, the character Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice and the actor Colin Firth, trying to encourage her to lie. Steph found this embarrassing, ironically telling Mat, "I will never agree to be in one of these videos again".

Other Appearances

Main article: Stephanie Patrick/Appearances

Departure from GTLive

On March 12, 2021, it was announced that Steph would step away from being an prominent member of the GTLive crew, but would still make appearances when she was needed or available.

Trivia

Main article: Stephanie/Trivia

Aliases

Main article: Stephanie/Aliases

Gallery

Main article: Stephanie_Patrick/Gallery