Who Is Matt Sallee? The Pentatonix Member Who Replaced Avi Kaplan

Were you chronically online in the early 2010s? Back in the day — although for some of us, it feels like just yesterday — PewDiePie, Ryan Higa, and Jenna Marbles dominated YouTube. While they were making everyone laugh, One Direction, Big Time Rush, and Pentatonix were making musical history. Pentatonix emerged as a particularly interesting group: Kirstin Maldonado, Mitch Grassi, Scott Hoying, Kevin Olusola, and Avi Kaplan rose to initial fame when they won "The Sing-Off," a magnificent feat for anyone, let alone an a capella group.

Pentatonix has released so many extraordinary covers (and plenty of original material) for 15 years now, to the point where listing them all would be arduous. In that time, there's only been one change in the lineup: Kaplan left the group in 2017 for mostly personal reasons, with Matt Sallee chosen to step into his role. For being a part of Pentatonix for almost a decade, however, Sallee isn't as recognizable as you might think. Here's everything we've gathered about Sallee, Kaplan's bass replacement. 

Matt Sallee was born on February 11, 1994, in one of the happiest states in America: Maryland. He was born in Baltimore, although he primarily grew up in La Plata, a city roughly 90 minutes away by car. Sallee told CBN in 2020 that he started singing at 4 years old. "My dad was a music pastor, and I grew up singing next to him," he explained. "I just kept singing in everything from church plays to community theater to county choruses."

Sallee is the middle child of three, with an older brother and younger sister; his parents have been together for over 30 years, and he shares a close relationship with both of them. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MA!" Sallee wrote on Instagram for his mother in 2020. "I love [that] she's always loved me and I don't know where I'd be without her."

Sallee attended Maurice J. McDonough High School in Pomfret, Maryland, the next town over from La Plata. He graduated in 2012. "In high school I did every musical, play, and anything else musical I could sign up for. My friends were all sports guys and I was always singing," Sallee remarked to CBN.  

After high school, Matt Sallee enrolled at Berklee College of Music, a private school in Boston, Massachusetts. Sallee originally had his sights set on Elon University in North Carolina, however. "I didn't get in, and I was like, heartbroken," Sallee once explained (via Facebook). "I got in [Berklee], and I visited the school, and it was like, 'Wow. This is the place that was meant for me.'"

As a vocal performance major, Sallee was a busy guy at Berklee. He joined the school's a cappella group Pitch Slapped, which was founded in 2006. Sallee was with Pitch Slapped when the group won the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella competition in 2014. America's Got Talent also featured the group in 2015. 

Sallee graduated from Berklee in 2016 and subsequently joined The House Jacks, an a cappella group in California. "I've looked back fondly on those memories and think about that as we travel," Sallee reminisced to MassLive in 2024. "I will never forget those four or five years."

We briefly touched on the stunning transformation of Pentatonix, with Matt Sallee's introduction and eventual acceptance into the group being a pivotal highlight. While at Berklee, Sallee met Ben Bram, the co-creator of Pentatonix. When Avi Kaplan left the group, Bram secretly arranged an audition for Sallee. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Pentatonix originally announced Sallee's addition to the group in October 2017, although at the time, it sounded more temporary than permanent. "We are so excited to announce that Matt Sallee will be joining us this holiday season!" Pentatonix wrote on X. Pentatonix uploaded an official introduction of Sallee on Facebook in March 2018, permanently solidifying his place as their new bass vocalist. 

One of Sallee's first public performances with Pentatonix was at a gala in October 2017, with clips from the show available to watch on YouTube. The first song he recorded with the group was a cover of "Deck the Halls" for "A Very Pentatonix Christmas," a special released by NBC in November. 

While there's some untold truth about Pentatonix, the mutual love and respect everyone has for one another can't be overstated. You would think that Matt Sallee's late admission to Pentatonix would've been awkward for the others, but on the contrary, each member welcomed him with open arms from the jump.

 "Matt is such a joyous human. I love that so much about him," was one of the first things Kevin Olusola said about Sallee (via Facebook). Scott Hoying remarked, "We kind of fell in love with him quickly" and described him as "the nicest person ever." Mitch Grassi claimed, "He works so incredibly hard, harder than I've ever worked in my life." Talk about some big compliments!

"I'm still pinching myself," Sallee later told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2023. Sallee revealed that he met Avi Kaplan and received his blessing upon joining Pentatonix, which "felt like a true passing of the torch." He also remarked, "The Pentatonix fan base is a beautiful community."

We don't know exactly when Matt Sallee met his wife, Sarah (née Bishop), although we do know where they met: Expression58, a church they attended separately. "We both knew pretty much after our first date that the connection was rare and special," Sallee and Sarah once told People. "We'd both separately been praying for our life partners and knew that this wasn't a coincidence."

Sallee proposed to Sarah in October 2020, a monumental occasion they announced with a professional photoshoot. "I waited & prayed & God gave me you. I will love you for the rest of my life," Sallee captioned his Instagram. Sarah wrote a similar (albeit lengthier) caption on her Instagram. "Never doubt God's mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this," it said in part.

After a year and some change, Sallee and Sarah tied the knot in January 2022. As People reported, they married at Cielo Farms in Malibu, California; their pastor officiated the wedding, and their loved ones, including the other members of Pentatonix, were in attendance. "We're so grateful we were able to celebrate your special day with you two. The ceremony was beautiful!" Pentatonix wrote on Facebook after the wedding. 

As previously mentioned, Matt Sallee was a musical theater enthusiast in his youth. While Sallee is known as a singer, the acting bug never disappeared. "I want to stick my toe in all different areas," he reaffirmed to CBN. "I love musical theater, I love acting, dancing, singing...I always wanted to be a quadruple threat."

Sallee has yet to properly establish a separate acting career (see Teyana Taylor's transformation from teen singer to award-winning actor for what we're talking about), although he did make his debut in 2023. Sallee appeared as a caroler in "Candy Cane Lane" with the other members of Pentatonix. The group then portrayed themselves in the Netflix film "Meet Me Next Christmas" (2024). 

As far as "Meet Me Next Christmas" goes, the holiday romcom holds a 5.7 out of 10 rating on IMDb, with most reviewers happy to see Sallee and the rest of Pentatonix on the small screen. "Loved Pentatonix in it. They even had comical moments," one IMDb user wrote. Another said, "Adding [the] Pentatonix was the perfect touch to infuse us all with the holiday spirit!"

Matt Sallee rang in his 30th birthday in February 2024 with some fantastic news for everyone: Sarah Sallee was pregnant with their first child. The Sallees revealed they were expecting a girl a few weeks later, and spent the rest of Sarah's pregnancy excitedly awaiting her arrival. Sarah didn't just grow a baby, but she became a lawyer while doing so. "My wife is a BOSS," Sallee wrote on Instagram in May. "[She passed] the California Bar and is officially a LAWYER!"

Sallee and Sarah's daughter, Maliyah Michele Sallee, was born in August 2024. In his Instagram announcement, Sallee revealed that Maliyah's birth was difficult because her umbilical cord got tied in utero; luckily, she was delivered safely. "To my Sarah ... You were an absolute rockstar and handled laboring with such grace that it made me fall even more in love with you," Sallee wrote. 

While Sallee keeps his social media regularly updated, he rarely posts anything about Maliyah. The last time we saw her was in a July 2026 Instagram video, in which Sallee talked about performing at the O2 Arena with Pentatonix. "[I've] been away from my baby girl and my wife for a month," Sallee mentioned at the time.

All the members of Pentatonix are close with one another, but naturally, some people grow closer than others; Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi, who are childhood friends, launched a side project, Superfruit (also spelled SUP3RFRUIT), in 2013. While Hoying and Grassi are the most recognizable sub-duo within Pentatonix, they aren't the only ones: over time, Matt Sallee and Kevin Olusola have become two peas in a pod.

As a duo, Sallee and Olusola joined forces for the first time in 2025. That year, Sallee played the drums on "Showdown," a track from Olusola's debut album "Dawn of a Misfit" (more on Sallee's drum skills later). The pair uploaded several videos in 2026 to coincide with the release of the track "Showdown," highlighting the playful side of their respective personalities. "Telling our children this is the music video we ACTUALLY shot," Olusola captioned one Instagram clip of them vibing to Ms. Rachel. 

"One of the things I think that makes Matt so special is that he's a true extrovert, and I really love that about him," Olusola once said about Sallee (via Facebook). "Sometimes I can be introverted, and he's like, 'No, man! You can go out there, you can have fun.'"

If there's one thing to know about Matt Sallee, it's that he's unapologetically religious. Sallee has remained a devout Christian through adulthood and while on the road with Pentatonix, something that he consistently references in interviews and on social media. That said, Sallee doesn't consider himself to be an exclusively Christian artist. "You don't have to be put into a box; you can do it all. I have so many other goals and aspirations. I want to be an artist with music that relates to everyone," he told CBN. 

Remember Expression58, the church where Sallee met his wife? It turns out that Sallee wasn't a regular attendee — up until the early 2020s, he tripled as a vocalist and worship leader for the community. "I really didn't necessarily want to be a part of the worship team at first because, you know, I'm still adjusting [to Pentatonix]," Sallee once said (via CCM Magazine). In the end, as Sallee explained, he was happy to join the crew. 

It's unclear whether Sallee is still affiliated with Expression58 as of 2026, since he was last credited on a track in 2023. In July 2025, however, Sallee sang with Soul City Church, located in Chicago, Illinois. "Definitely going to have to come back!" Sallee wrote on Instagram afterward. 

Let's circle back to "Showdown" — Matt Sallee isn't just a great singer, but an incredible drummer. Sallee has never explained when or where he learned how to play the instrument. Since his brother reportedly plays the drums and piano, and his sister, the violin, we can assume it's a family trait.

If you find yourself lucky enough to attend a Pentatonix concert, there's a good chance that you'll catch Sallee in the midst of a drum solo: Sallee usually shows off his skills at some point during the night, as does Olusola with his fierce cello and beatboxing combo. Sallee has shared clips of himself on the drums on Instagram, such as a quick instrumental cover of "Little Drummer Boy" in December 2025.

"We love creating [music] from scratch," Sallee told Kyle Meredith in 2024. "There's so many ... musically nerdy things that we love ... we love music and how it makes people feel."

To be clear, Matt Sallee has been nominated for multiple Grammy Awards with Pentatonix, not as a soloist. That said, Sallee's career has blossomed exponentially since he joined the a cappella group. Sallee's first nod came in 2023: Pentatonix's holiday album "Evergreen" was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. "Such a DREAM to be nominated!! And the best part was being [able] to spoil my parents," Sallee wrote on Instagram. 

Pentatonix was featured in the same category at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in 2024: their subsequent Christmas album, "Holidays Around the World," was nominated alongside Bruce Springsteen, Liz Callaway, and Laufey. "To have this honor and be celebrated by our peers is a dream," Scott Hoying said on the group's behalf on the red carpet (via YouTube). 

In addition to two Grammy nominations, Sallee was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with the rest of Pentatonix in February 2023; they were the first a cappella group to receive the prestigious honor. "It's been a full week and I still can't believe it," Sallee wrote on Instagram after the ceremony. "I'm so grateful to be [a part] of something so much bigger [than] myself."

Ahh, the holiday season: the best time of year to bake an array of desserts, buy unnecessary yet extremely cute decorations at Target, and watch some of the most popular Hallmark movies ever made. While Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" will always have a chokehold on the holiday season, Pentatonix has made a permanent mark on the musical genre, too. If there's an English-speaking holiday song out there, Pentatonix has covered it!

So with that, here's an unsurprising fact about Matt Sallee: He loves all the months that end with "ber" but has a particular affinity for the final weeks of the year. "I could never get sick of Christmas, my favorite holiday. I love Christmas," Sallee told NUVO in 2023. "I will sing and make as many Christmas songs until we can't anymore because it just is so special to me."

As a Christmas connoisseur, Sallee has shared plenty of opinions about the most wonderful time of year. "Artificial trees [are] better than real trees," Sallee admitted in one Instagram post. "I said it. Less maintenance. If you want the smell of a real Christmas tree ... you can get an air freshener." And for Christmas 2024, Sallee spent the day checking off a particular bucket list item: singing the National Anthem at a Baltimore Ravens football game. 

From unexpected duets to mismatched celeb friendships we can't help but love, there's something great (whether good or bad) about watching people slightly deviate from whatever made them famous in the first place. All the members of Pentatonix have established careers outside the group, whether as solo artists or otherwise; Kirstin Maldonado made her Broadway debut in 2018, for instance. 

Outside of his side work with Kevin Olusola, Matt Sallee has collaborated with several other a capella groups since joining Pentatonix. In October 2025, Sallee joined The Trills, a six-member group from Baltimore, for a surprise performance during their "More Than a Concert" show. "We had an incredible time, and we're so grateful to Matt for this iconic experience!" The Trills captioned a YouTube video of the night. 

In 2025, Sallee also collaborated with Kings Return, a four-member a cappella group from Dallas, Texas. In February, the group released a cover version of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." "This project was special for all of us, and we hope you feel that in every note," Kings Return wrote on Instagram alongside the single's music video. In October 2025, Sallee and Kings Return submitted their collaboration to the 68th Grammy Awards for consideration, although they weren't selected.