Arin Hanson

Early life

Arin Hanson was born and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida. He attended Wellington High School in Wellington, Florida, for two years. Not given a schedule of classes for his junior year, he was informed that since he had moved, he could no longer attend Wellington High School. Instead of continuing at the new school, his mother allowed him to drop school entirely, leading him to pursue voice acting.

Hanson later moved from South Florida to Los Angeles to pursue a career in voice acting.

Animation

Hanson first joined Newgrounds under the name of "Egoraptor" on September 16, 2001. After joining, he submitted his first Awesome animation, "Metal Gear Awesome," on February 23, 2006. Hanson went on to upload various comedic video game-related animations, as well as four separate animated webseries (of which he then uploaded to YouTube); Awesome, short animated videos that parody video games, Lemon 'n Bill, a comedic series in which an anthropomorphic bullet and lemon get trapped within video game worlds, Girlchan in Paradise, a series that parodies shōnen anime, and Sequelitis, a series in which Hanson compares a video game and its sequel along with minor animations throughout the video. Hanson was also an early storyboard artist on the show Axe Cop.

Due to the success of "Metal Gear Awesome," Hanson was approached by MTV to produce animated shorts in the style of "Metal Gear Awesome" for MTV's online video gaming show, The G-Hole. MTV gave Hanson four guidelines: the shorts must be poorly drawn, the shorts must have violence, the shorts must have swearing, and the shorts must be 30–40 seconds long. MTV also restricted him from submitting these movies to anywhere but The G-Hole, a restriction which Hanson constantly fought believing that all of his fans should have easy access to his work. He went on to create 1 to 3 Awesome episodes a month for The G-Hole before the show was put on hold and eventually canceled. It is now survived by its sister blog, MTV Multiplayer, of which the management has opted not to include any new Awesome episodes due to budget restraints. Awesome continues online, on Hanson's YouTube channel.

Voice acting

In 2006, Hanson provided the voice of Bruce Banner in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance as part of a competition held by Activision. However, his voice went ultimately unused and the character was played by Robin Atkin Downes, though VGFacts, Hanson's own website, and the credits of the game claim that his voice was used in the Wii port.

In 2009, Hanson provided the voice for the character John Gore in the video game Minigore, and later reprised the role in the 2011 remake of Death Rally.

In 2012, Hanson provided his voice for the game Detective Grimoire, a Kickstarter project which was successfully funded on August 3, 2012.

Hanson has also provided his voice for Dragon Age: Inquisition, Target Acquired, Red vs. Blue, Cyanide & Happiness, and Rick & Morty. Hanson is a recurring voice actor in the Cartoon Network series Mighty Magiswords playing the role as Gateaux, Morbidia's partner whose voice is based on George Takei and often repeats the last word she says. He also does some additional characters such as Delivery Man Steve, Zonq, Naso and Birda.

Game Grumps

In late July 2012, Hanson and his colleague Jon Jafari, known for his video game critiquing webseries, JonTron, created a joint YouTube show, called Game Grumps. On this show, both Hanson and Jafari played video games that were typically retro or nostalgic in style. This new series was instantly acclaimed by fans of both Hanson's animation channel and Jafari's channel. However, in late June 2013, just under a year after the show's inception, Jafari left Game Grumps to focus on his own channel and was replaced by Dan Avidan of the musical comedy duo Ninja Sex Party, who continues to work on the show to date.

Apart from the YouTube series, Game Grumps moved to live performances at Hollywood Improv in late March 2016. Completely sold out, the event led to future performances in New York and other locations on the East Coast.

Collaborations

In February 2012, Hanson appeared as a contestant on the Sony game show, The Tester, during its third season, as a community-voted contestant, but was eliminated in the third episode after being accused of using the show to promote himself. When asked about his experience, and whether or not he would do it again, he replied negatively. Many defend Arin Hanson, saying that The Tester used his popularity to get more views on Sony's YouTube channel, and that the judges were unfair to him.

Hanson appeared as a contestant in the third season of the dance competition webseries Dance Showdown, alongside professional dancer, Maxine Hupy. Hanson was announced the winner of the season.

Hanson has also done narration work for several episodes of Did You Know Gaming?, a webseries dedicated to video game trivia, including episodes covering Star Fox, Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, Mega Man, Pokémon and Kirby. He also talked about the development of Jurassic Park on the show's spin-off Did You Know Movies, on MatPat's channel "The Film Theorists."

Besides providing additional work for online series on YouTube and Newgrounds, Hanson has been featured in several videos for the website ScrewAttack, including a collaboration with James Rolfe and Keith Apicary. In 2008, Hanson worked together with Ross O'Donovan on the animated webseries Gamer Tonight where he provided the voice of the host, which was broadcast on the Australian television show Good Game.

As of 2015, Hanson has been working with O'Donovan on a reboot of O'Donovan's Gameoverse, doing writing and voice work, primarily.

Music

In 2013, Hanson provided vocals for the track "Knight in Shining Armour" by Dougal & Gammer released as part of the compilation Clubland X-Treme Hardcore 9.

In 2013, Hanson, along with Game Grumps co-host and Ninja Sex Party singer-songwriter Leigh Daniel Avidan and instrumentalist Brian Wecht, formed the band Starbomb. They released their first album, eponymously named Starbomb in December 2013. Starbomb went on to release their second album one year later December 2014, titled Player Select.

In early 2016, Hanson performed with Starbomb at their first live event at SXSW to positive reception.

Other work

In 2013, Hanson made an appearance on the webseries Hot Pepper Gaming. He reviewed Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate after eating a habanero pepper. In 2014, Hanson returned to the show, reviewing the game Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes whilst eating a Bhut Jolokia.

Hanson will be a playable character in the game Hex Heroes for the Wii U. He will also be providing voiceover work for his character. He was also going to be voicing a character in the fighting game Beast's Fury, before the game was cancelled on 9 January 2016.

Hanson appeared as a guest in the Nintendo World Championships 2015. He came in 5th overall, losing in the third round of Balloon Fight.

Personal life

Hanson lives in Glendale, California with wife Suzanne "Suzy" Berhow who is a regular on Game Grumps spin offs like Grumpcade, Steam Train, Hunting Monsters and Table Flip. Hanson also acts as the creative director of the online marketplace, 1 Shirt.

His father, Lloyd Hanson, is a musician, and runs Old Farts With Guitars, discussing his "lifelong affair with music." His mother, Maurette Hanson, runs the Healing Horse Therapy Center. It is dedicated to providing on-site equine-assisted therapeutic and psychotherapeutic wellness programming to combat veterans, survivors of military sexual trauma, special needs persons, and all individuals needing a safe and nurturing environment to heal from mental, physical and emotional challenges.

Hanson is a distant descendant of an American Founding Father, John Hanson.

Ventures

In 2013, Hanson pledged $2,500 US to the Kickstarter for the game Mighty No. 9 and in return had a 2D representation of himself appear in the game's level "Highway". He is credited in the game's credits as "Mighty No. 12226".