Matt Perks (DIY Perks) – Detailed Biography

Matt Perks is a DIYer and a popular YouTuber.

He has over 4.9 million subscribers on his YouTube channel DIY Perks.

Introduction

Matthew Perks hails from Yorkshire County, England, United Kingdom.

As a child, he had a passion for building Lego but as they were expensive, he used to obtain them from charity shops.

Matt grew up building the 1980s Legos. Lego Technic was his favourite.

At 8, he started disassembling his toys to learn their working mechanism and later got interested in electronics and started learning it. His passion of building things with Lego later transitioned to building electronic items.

DIY Perks

Matt started his YouTube channel DIY Perks as a hobby to record his projects, on 8 February 2012, while studying in school.

He published his first video, “LEGO Remote Follow Focus,” on 14 February 2012. In the video, he built a follow focus for his camera as his camera didn’t have a good autofocus.

At the time, Matt worked from his tiny room of 2½ by 3 metres. It was a constant struggle for him to work there as the room served as his workshop, studio and store room.

After working there for five years, he moved to a bigger place.

Simplicity

Initially, as Matt had only a few tools like a coping saw, drill, saw and a few chisels, he used to build simple things with materials like cardboard and sponge.

Eventually, he started building complex electronic gadgets like water-cooled PCs, a concrete Bluetooth speaker and submarine.

Even after becoming a popular YouTuber, Matt intentionally uses a minimal number of hand tools, even though it takes him longer to complete the projects, to help people easily replicate his projects at home.

Even though he has access to a CNC, he rarely uses it as most of his audience doesn’t have it.

Going full-time

Matt became a full-time YouTuber right after finishing school. At the time, his channel was performing well and he started earning from it.

He didn’t receive a formal education related to electronics but learnt a great deal about them by reading websites, experimenting and trial and error.

As Matt builds the products himself and simultaneously films them, his processes are time intensive and he is able to publish a video only every few months.

He started his second channel, DIY Perks 2, on 26 May 2020. But he stopped working on it in 2022.

Matt uses a Canon EOS R5 camera and edits his videos with Vegas Pro and occasionally with Adobe After Effects. Previously, he used a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 and later a Nikon Z6 camera.

He is a camera geek and has always been interested in cameras from a young age.

For many years, since the start of his channel, Matt used a lavalier microphone made from a microphone salvaged from an old laptop before switching to a RØDE wireless microphone.

He prints small components for his projects with Anet A8 3D printer.

Personal life

Matt hasn’t revealed much of his personal life except that in 2020 that he got engaged.

Tidbits

• As his father is from Sheffield, Matt has a northern England accent resembling a posh Sheffield accent.
• He collaborated with Arun Maini of Mrwhosetheboss YouTube channel to build the world’s largest working iPhone.
• Matt’s favourite and most used tool is a standard drill. He loves it as it allows him to do many things.
• He is a dog lover and his dream is to tour America.
• As Matt doesn’t have the time to develop prototypes, he meticulously designs the products and tests them after fully assembling them.
• His favourite games are Rocket League, DiRT racing games and Red Dead Redemption 2.
• Even though Matt is tech-savvy, he built a mud hut (cob house).
• He uses homemade lights for his studio. He also made some lights from old LCD televisions panels.

So, how are you inspired by the story of Matt Perks?

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