On Wednesday, April 16, the University Programming Council (UPC) hosted “Slime Time,” a live Q&A session with actor and DJ Matt Bennett in the Student Union Ballroom. Bennett, best known for his role as the lovable nerd-slash-ventriloquist Robbie Shapiro on Nickelodeon’s teen sitcom “Victorious,” candidly reflected on his career, the changing Hollywood landscape and his ventures into the world of live entertainment.
Even before the event began, the crowd’s energy was infectious. Lines stretched down flights of stairs and outside of the Student Union building, where eager fans debated over questions they hoped to ask the Nickelodeon alum. As the over 200 attendees took to their seats, they enjoyed episodes of “Victorious” projected onto the big screens at the front of the room.
A little after 7 p.m., the Q&A’s moderator, freshman biology major Bilong “BB” Baptista, who also serves as UPC’s Speakers Event Coordinator, welcomed Bennett to the stage. Amidst a sea of screams and thunderous applause, Bennett ran down the aisles of chairs, throwing handfuls of candy at electrified attendees.
Once seated on stage, Bennett intimately spoke to the audience, now munching on Rolos and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, about his unlikely rise to fame. “I grew up in New York and my parents were not in the entertainment industry, and I didn’t come from a lot of money,” Bennett said, “So, I really got very lucky. I kind of hit the lottery with ‘Victorious.’”
Bennett discovered his passion for acting by doing community theater, later appearing in a handful of commercials and television pilots in an attempt to make a name for himself. “Sometimes you take on jobs that aren’t necessarily the coolest, jobs that are maybe a little bit embarrassing, jobs that maybe you come to regret,” Bennett said. “That’s not just in acting, that’s sort of in life. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t necessarily want to do for the experience.”
Perhaps the most infamous job Bennett took was a public service announcement (PSA) promoting abstinence, during which his character says he’ll always be his parents’ “little muffin head.” Bennett told the audience that after the PSA aired, he thought his career was over, but luckily for him, the call for “Victorious” came just a few months later. “Don’t give up on your dreams,” Bennett explained. “I know it seems really tough out there, and we do sometimes look at a future that seems bleak and dire, but if I had stopped when I was Muffin Head, I would be known as Muffin Head to this day.”
Despite concluding its four season-long run on Nickelodeon over 12 years ago, Bennett says the cast of “Victorious” has remained close and in-touch ever since. “When we all moved to Los Angeles to do ‘Victorious,’ we were our first group of friends,” he said. “It really made this sense of community, and that’s something that I think really followed through over the years.”
Post-“Victorious,” Bennett has made cameo appearances in several of his castmates’ projects, including Ariana Grande’s “One Last Time” and “Thank U Next,” music videos and Elizabeth Gillies’ CW series “Dynasty.”
When asked about the recently-announced, Daniella Monet-led “Victorious” spin-off in the works at Nickelodeon, Bennett explained that the series is currently working on a pilot episode, which the network will use to determine the series’ viability. “They’re going to do that first episode, and then, depending on how that goes, you may see Robbie back there,” he teased. “You may see Rex. You might see Sikowitz. Would you like to see Andre’s Grandma?”
Since 2022, Bennett’s hosted “Party101,” a traveling live DJ set that’s chock-full of nostalgic hits from the early aughts. “We do everything, from stuff like Nicki Minaj tracks to the ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ musical,” he said, “We do ‘Phineas and Ferb’ and Selena Gomez. You know, it’s really fun.”
According to Bennett, “Party101” is a combination of childhood tunes and audience interactivity. For example, whoever “parties the hardest” at one of his DJ sets will win an authentic “Sikowitz coconut” from the “Victorious” set. “It’s been a really cool, ever-evolving show that I just have a real blast doing, and hopefully we can bring it to UMass Amherst,” Bennett said, prompting screams and ecstatic cheers from the audience.
Ultimately though, Bennett hopes to create the future of television. “I want to look out for the next generation of actors,” he said. “Acting is just such a small little percentage of how people are getting discovered and getting seen. A lot of it is social media, and there’s not enough in place to kind of protect these people, to help them find longevity, to help them not fall into the wrong traps.”
Later in the evening, over 20 audience members were invited to the front of the room to ask the actor whatever was on their mind. Questions ranged from Bennett’s favorite “Victorious” episode, to which he responded, “Survival of the Hottest,” and the weirdest fan interaction of his career, which he says was when he once signed a Party101 attendee’s birth control.
After the audience Q&A wrapped up, Bennett stayed in the Student Union Ballroom for over half an hour meeting excited attendees and taking photos with them.
Nathan Legare can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X (formerly Twitter) @Legare_Nathan.
