Create a host

Every podcast on Mato needs at least one host. You can create a host from scratch with a short description, or start from a template in the talent directory and customize it. Either way, Mato generates a full personality profile, voice assignment, and portrait automatically.

Open the talent page

From the left sidebar, under Library, click Talent. This shows your roster of existing hosts: an On air section with the hosts on each show (and a Hear them together button), then All talent, which you can search and filter by type (Fictional, Real person) and by voice (Cloned, Designed, Preset, No voice).

Two buttons appear in the top-right corner:

• Browse templates opens platform templates you can fork.
• New talent starts the creation wizard for a brand-new host.

The same choices appear as cards under Add someone new at the bottom of the roster: Start from a template, Describe a character, and Base them on a real person, which is marked Coming soon.

Start the wizard

Click New talent to open the wizard. The first screen, Build a host of your own, offers two ways in. As the screen puts it, both end in the same place: a host with a voice, a manner and a set of things they always ask.

• Describe them. Say who they are and how they should sound, or start from one of Mato's templates. Mato builds the rest of the profile. This is the path covered in this article.
• Mimic someone. Point at a real interviewer, or yourself, so Mato builds a host with a similar manner. This option is marked Coming soon and is not selectable yet.

Pick Describe them and click Continue.

Choose how to start

After picking Describe them, the next screen asks How should we start?:

• Browse templates. Pick from pre-built talent profiles and make them your own.
• Create custom. Describe a personality and let AI build the rest.

Pick one and click Continue. If you choose templates, skip ahead to "Fork from a template" below.

Fill in the custom form

The Create custom talent form ("Just describe the personality. AI handles the rest.") asks for three things:

1. Name. The host's display name as it will appear on episodes and in your roster.
2. Personality description. A free-text field (10 to 2,000 characters) describing the host's tone, speaking style, expertise, and character traits. Be specific. "Casual tech journalist who leans into sarcasm and uses analogies from cooking" gives the AI much more to work with than "friendly and professional."
3. Gender. Choose Unspecified (the default), Male, Female, or Non-binary. This affects voice assignment and avatar generation.

The Podcast dropdown is optional and starts on No specific podcast. Selecting a podcast here auto-assigns the new host to that show, as long as it has fewer than two hosts already. If the podcast already has two hosts, Mato still creates the talent but leaves it unassigned, and tells you to assign it manually from the podcast's settings.

Nothing is saved to your roster until you click Create talent. Click it to submit. A loading screen appears while Mato generates the full profile. This typically takes 10 to 20 seconds.

What happens behind the scenes

When you submit, Mato:

1. Runs the personality description through an AI enrichment step that produces a tagline, short bio, long bio, personality traits, radar scores, sample conversation, "best for" use cases, FAQ entries, tags, and hosting style.
2. Assigns a voice automatically based on the host's gender and personality.
3. Queues avatar generation for a photorealistic portrait based on the profile.
4. Queues audio sample generation so you can preview the voice.

You land on the new host's detail page once the profile is ready. The avatar and audio samples may still be generating in the background, shown by a spinner on the portrait area and a "Generating..." label under Audio Samples.

Fork from a template

Templates are pre-built hosts maintained by Mato. Forking a template copies it into your workspace as an editable host that you own.

Browse templates from the talent page

On the Talent page, click Browse templates in the top-right corner. A side panel slides open with a grid of available templates. Each card shows the host's portrait, name, hosting style badge, tagline, and tags.

Click Use This Template on any card to fork it.

Browse templates from the wizard

You can also reach templates through the creation wizard: pick Browse templates on the "How should we start?" screen and click Continue. The Choose a Template screen lists the templates you can copy into your roster. Select one to preview it, then click Use This Template to fork it. If no templates have been published yet, the screen shows No templates available yet.

After forking

Once the fork completes, Mato opens an "Adapt to Podcast" dialog. This optional step lets you pick one of your podcasts. Mato then adjusts the host's personality narrative, sample conversation, tags, and "best for" cards to fit that show's topic and audience. You can skip adaptation by closing the dialog, and the host appears in your roster as-is.

Edit the host profile

After creation, open the host from your Talent roster. The talent page shows the portrait and a voice sample, the Voice card, the personality narrative in a card named after the host (for example Who Blake is), the characteristics, an Advanced section for the AI agent and memory behind the host, and an On air card showing which show the host is on (or an Assign to a show button if it isn't on one yet). See Talent profile reference for what each section means.

Click Edit talent in the top-right corner, or Edit profile in the page header, to open the edit page, titled with the host's name (for example Edit Elena Reyes). The header has Back to talent, Cancel and Save changes; nothing is stored until you click Save changes. The page has these sections:

• Basic information. The Name, a Gender choice (Male, Female, Non-binary or Unspecified), and Visibility: Private (only you can see it, hidden from teammates and the directory), Team (anyone in this workspace can assign it), or Public (listed in the Mato talent directory, where anyone can find it).
• Who the host is (for example Who Elena Reyes is). The Backstory, a longer prose description of who the host is.
• Characteristics. Label and value pairs describing the host. Click Add characteristic to add one.
• Personality traits. Five sliders: Improvise, Explorer, Humor, Formal and Technical. Drag a point to shift a trait. The section also shows how many personality questions are answered (for example 5 of 7 answered) with an Answer the questions button. These values feed how the host is written, not how they sound.
• Tags. Free-form labels. Type a tag and press Enter to add it.
• Best for. Use-case cards describing what kinds of shows this host suits. Click Add to add one.
• Sample conversation. A short back-and-forth showing the host's style, up to 8 exchanges. Click Add a line to extend it.
• FAQ. Common questions about the host, shown on the public talent page. Click Add a question to add one.
• Adapt and assign. Notes that changes apply to this host everywhere it appears, with an Adapt for a podcast button that forks the talent for another show.

Write the profile with AI

Below the personality traits, Write the profile with AI runs an AI pass over the profile.

Adapt for a podcast

In the Adapt and assign section, click Adapt for a podcast to fork the talent for another show. The original talent stays unchanged.

Generate or change the avatar

Hover over the host portrait on the detail page and click to open the avatar dialog. You can enter a custom art direction prompt or leave the field blank to let Mato generate one from the profile automatically. Click Generate (or Regenerate if an avatar already exists).

Avatar generation runs as a background job. The portrait area shows a spinner while it works and updates automatically when the image is ready.

Assign a host to a podcast

There are three ways to assign a host:

1. During creation. Select a podcast in the custom form's podcast dropdown.
2. After forking. Use the Adapt to Podcast dialog that appears automatically.
3. From podcast settings. Open a podcast's settings, go to the hosts section, and add hosts from your roster.

Each podcast supports up to two hosts. If a podcast already has two, Mato warns you and skips the assignment.

Tips for better results

Write personality descriptions that include concrete details. Mention the host's expertise area, speech patterns, sense of humor (or lack of it), and how they interact with a co-host. Short, vague descriptions produce generic profiles.

If the first generated profile does not match what you need, open the edit page and run Write the profile with AI again after updating the personality data. Each generation pass can produce different results.

Tags help you find hosts later, especially as your roster grows. Use tags consistently across hosts (for example, always "finance" rather than mixing "finance," "financial," and "money").