‘Below Deck Med’: Meet Chef Mathew’s Dad, Actor Patrick Shea

This season of Below Deck Mediterranean couldn’t sail off into the horizon yet without us learning a little bit more about Chef Mathew Shea’s home life first — including a fun fact about his dad, Patrick Shea. With only one charter left in the season, we’re still learning new things about the chef, especially now that he’s more comfortable and likely to open up since the vibe on the boat is a whole lot calmer.

In the latest episode, currently available on Peacock, we hear Mathew repeatedly ask his fellow crew members to say a prayer that both the guests and Captain Sandy love everything he’s preparing for their dinner that night. To give a bit more context, in his interview Mathew reveals, “I’ve always been a sensitive person that thrives off of compliments. It’s literally generational, almost. My dad is a stage actor, my mom’s a chef. I come from an artists’ family and I work better off of positive reinforcement.” Good to know!

And if you wanted to know more about his father, Patrick Shea, here’s where you may have spotted him. If our research is correct, while he is primarily a theater actor, his IMDB page also lists credits on projects such as Cheers, Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and The Invention of Lying — primarily projects filmed in the northeast, as Mathew is from Rhode Island, and as his father has also lived in New York. Ready for a really fun fact? Patrick also once played David Letterman’s double, because they look so much alike! He has also served as an actor and narrator for the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops.

Now we know how Mathew learned to get so creative with his culinary skills — just, no more dark meat on the plates, bro!

Below Deck Mediterranean airs Monday at 9 pm ET/PT on Bravo, with new episodes streaming one week early on Peacock.

Stream Below Deck Mediterranean on Bravo Now and Peacock