Arin Joseph Hanson (born January 6, 1987), more prominently known by his internet pseudonym, Egoraptor, is an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor, rapper and Internet personality. He is known for his animated webseries, The Awesome Series, in which Hanson parodies various video game franchises, including Pokemon, Metal Gear, Ninja Gaiden, and Final Fantasy. The series originally aired on Newgrounds. Hanson occasionally participates in sketch comedy and collaborations with fellow animators such as Ross "RubberNinja" O'Donovan, Rodrigo "El-Cid" Huerta, and Chris "Oney" O'Neill. He is also known for being the co-star of the popular YouTube Let's Play webseries, Game Grumps, producing and singing/rapping in video game parody band Starbomb, and for his animated comedy video game review series Sequelitis.
Hanson was born and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida. He attended Wellington High School in Wellington, Florida, however he had dropped out during his junior year of high school in order to pursue a later failed writing career.
Hanson later moved from South Florida to Los Angeles to pursue a career in voice acting.
Hanson first joined Newgrounds, after the death of his uncle, a cartoonist who inspired Arin, creating an account under the name of "Egoraptor" on September 16, 2001. After joining, he submitted his first Awesome Series 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); The Awesome Series, 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 Series 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 Series episodes due to budget restraints. The Awesome Series continues online, on Hanson's YouTube channel.
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 and Hanson's own website claim that his voice is heard in the PlayStation 3, Wii and PlayStation Portable versions of the game. This is however, false, as the voice is the same in all versions of the game.
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: Adventure Game, a Kickstarter project which was successfully funded on August 3, 2012.
In 2014, Hanson provided his voice for the game Dragon Age: Inquisition, voicing a dwarf discussing mages in Haven.
Hanson will be providing the voice for the character Officer Spike in the upcoming mobile game Target Acquired.
Main article: Game Grumps
In late July 2012 Hanson and his colleague Jon "JonTron" Jafari, known for his video game critiquing webseries, JonTron, started a joint YouTube channel called "Game Grumps", hosting a show of the same name, Game Grumps. On this show, both Hanson and Jafari played video games that were typically retro or nostalgic in style. This new channel was instantly widely 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 work more on his own channel, and was replaced by Leigh Daniel "Danny Sexbang" Avidan of the musical comedy duo Ninja Sex Party.
Hanson has 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 Dance Showdown Season 3.
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, Pokemon and Kirby.
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 animator RubberNinja on the animated webseries Gamer Tonight where he provided the voice of the host, which was broadcast on the Australian television show Good Game.
Main article: Starbomb
In 2013, Hanson, along with Game Grumps co-host and Ninja Sex Party member Leigh Daniel Avidan and Ninja Sex Party keyboardist Brian Wecht, formed the band Starbomb. They released their first album in December 2013, self-titled after the band's name. Starbomb went on to release their second album one year later in December of 2014, titled Player Select.
In 2014, Hanson appeared on the webseries Hot Pepper Gaming where he reviewed the game Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes whilst eating a Bhut Jolokia, also known as the Ghost Pepper.
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 will also be voicing the character "EGO: the Cyber-Raptor" in the upcoming fighting game Beast's Fury.
In the video game The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures, Hanson appears in the level "Blizzard of Balls" as a hidden character where he provides the Nerd with items. The Nerd will then say "Now I'm Not-So-Grump!", a reference to Hanson's show, Game Grumps.
Hanson lives in Glendale, California, along with his wife, Suzy Berhow, who animates with him and also cohosts the Game Grumps segment "Steam Train", as well as two webseries with Maker Studios subsidiary Polaris, Hunting Monsters and Table Flip. His father, Lloyd "Paparaptor" Hanson, is a musician, and runs the website OldFartsWithGuitars.com, where he discusses music and occasionally other members of the Hanson family; Hanson created two Flash films ("Happy Birthday Dad!" and "It's Dad's Birthday Again!") as birthday gifts for him.
Hanson has said that he is diagnosed with regular ADD, and he believes that ADHD is an excuse.
His mother, Maurette Hanson, runs Healing Horse Therapy Center. It is dedicated to providing on-site equine-assisted therapeutic and psycho-therapeutic 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.
Year: 2010
Title: Cyanide and Happiness Shorts
Role: The Man Who Could Sit Anywere
Episode: "The Man Who Could Sit Anywhere"
Year: 2013
Title: Cyanide and Happiness Shorts
Role: Ted Bear
Episode: "Ted Bear"
Year: 2009
Title: Minigore
Role: John Gore
Year: 2011
Title: Death Rally
Role: John Gore
Year: 2012
Title: Detective Grimoire: Adventure Game
Role: Agent Folder
Year: 2014
Title: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Role: Misc. Dwarves
Year: 2015
Title: Hex Heroes
Role: Himself
Year: 2015
Title: Target Acquired
Role: Officer Spike