What to Know
A few weeks ago, my bestie sent me a video from TikTok, which is something she does often. But this video was different. It was a woman talking about the game Dream Phone, and her quest to find the men featured. I was immediately invested — that had been one of my favorite board games as a kid, and I remember thinking that several of the “boys” featured were so cute.
Hannah Young, a millennial comedian, has begun finding the boys, many of whom were actually men, and asking them to share their memories of being featured in the game. So many of us millennial girls who played are sitting with bated breath for her next video.
It started out as an innocent question posed on social media.
“Do you remember the board game Dream Phone?” she asked in her initial video that she posted back in April.
“Some of these guys, looking back, are not giving middle school,” she pointed out. “Some of them were maybe pushing 30,” she added, singling out one character who was “looking like he has a mortgage and a family to feed.”
She wondered, “Did they put out a casting call for this? Was someone like, ‘You’re going to be on a board game for children and your name is going to be Matt. Matt likes to hang out at the mall.’”
Women quickly began responding, sharing their favorite boys from the game, quoting lines, and wondering what happened to the ones featured.
Suddenly, finding the men turned into a quest.
In May, Young shared a video that served as the official call to find the men from the game. She even tried to rope a popular talk show host into putting together a reunion.
“I need a ‘Where are they now, Dream Phone boys edition.’ Where is Andy Cohen and how do we put this together? I need to know their real names, current photos,” she said.
“I need to know who ended up driving a minivan. Matt, I know you did, I know it in my soul. Where is Steve? Someone find Steve. We need to know if he still has hair. I want to know if they got paid, what the audition process was like, who took these photos.”
Her callout worked, and the comments filled with people who were able to lead her to some of the men. Turns out, they were paid approximately $150 to have their pictures taken.
She had no idea the videos would become as popular as they have.
@uhhuhhannahh We have Dale. The Dream Phone redial continues. Andy Cohen, the reunion is writing itself.
♬ original sound – Hannah Young
“I just remember them being such a core part of my childhood. The idea of calling these guys and I was just thinking about how bizarre the whole concept of the game was, but how much we really loved it. Like all of us, we were just fully committed to getting the right guy,” Young said in an exclusive interview with People.
According to Young, locating the men featured in the game has really been the ultimate group project. People on social media have taken the call to help very seriously.
“Seeing the amount of messages, someone being like, ‘My husband went to high school with George,’ or ‘I used to be married to this person,’ and they’d send me a picture. It’s been a full-on investigation,” she said.
“Some of them aren’t online, so I’m thankful for all the people that are and are sharing the video to get it where it needs to go.”
So far, she’s found 24 of the guys from the game. “I’ve talked to them. I got to call the real Dream Phone boyfriends and that’s been so great,” she said. She also has “three that I’m pretty close to — I’ve got direct lines of contact, I just haven’t gotten them.”
The men are sometimes shocked by the popularity of Dream Phone.
@uhhuhhannahh Thank you, internet. We found George from Dream Phone. Steve… we’re waiting.
♬ original sound – Hannah Young
Young explained that Aaron, who is featured in the game as George, is married to a woman from Spain. “When they met, she was like, ‘You look so familiar,’” she said.
Apparently, the wife had played the game growing up, “and had no clue, because he didn’t think that would have been something she would have seen. These guys have no idea, the global impact this game had on people around the world. Everyone had different names in different countries, and people were commenting on them.”
As for the dream date everyone is still clamoring for? “We want to find Steve. Everyone wants to find Steve. I’d love to talk to him, if he wants to talk,” she said.
For Young, the whole experience has turned into something she could have never anticipated. Even her five-year-old is now invested!
She thinks that it’s “fun” how many people are still “holding a torch” for their crush from the game. “I’ve loved the nostalgia, the unlocked core memories, people quoting the game. It’s fun to see how invested people are now in us finding each guy.”
In a way, she says it feels like she’s “creating my own little game, tracking them all down.”
“It was not something that I expected to now be fully investing my time and energy into, but it’s really fun to play detective and put all the pieces together.”
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