James Rolfe

James D. Rolfe (born July 10, 1980) is an American YouTuber, filmmaker and actor. He is best known for creating and starring in the comedic retrogaming web series, ''Angry Video Game Nerd'' (2004–present). His spin-off projects include reviews of retro films, television series, and board games. He is considered a pioneer of internet gaming videos, and is noted for his widespread influence on YouTube content after the series premiered on the site in 2006.

Rolfe began creating homemade video productions in the late 1980s, having filmed more than 270 video productions by 2004. Among these were the first ''Angry Video Game Nerd'' episodes (originally known as ''Bad NES Games'', and later ''Angry Nintendo Nerd''), which were released on his Cinemassacre website in 2004. Two years later, he gained mainstream attention when the series went viral after being published to YouTube. Following its success, Rolfe released a feature-length film based on the series in 2014, which received mixed critical reception. In 2022, Rolfe published his autobiography, ''A Movie Making Nerd''.

Early life

Rolfe was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 10, 1980. He was raised in southern New Jersey and graduated in 1999, from Edgewood Regional High School. He is of Italian ancestry. His parents bought him an audio recorder as a Christmas present sometime in the early to mid-1980s. Later, he received a camera and took photographs of him and his friends play-fighting. He was inspired by ''The Legend of Zelda'' and ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' to create adventure stories. Rolfe also illustrated comic books, which he updated monthly. One such comic he created had a plot inspired by the video game '' The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past''.

Rolfe started filming shorts in 1989, continuing this hobby into the mid-1990s. He used ''Mario Paint'' for a few of his early films. His early films did not have scripts or rehearsal. However, once he started writing scripts, his friends gradually lost interest due to the pressure of trying to remember their lines, which left many of Rolfe's films unfinished. He then experimented with action figures and puppets. The plot of ''The Giant Movie Director'' (1994) involved toys coming to life. Rolfe attended a special education school for seven and a half years during his childhood. He reflected on his past, saying, "In school, I had a rough time communicating. I went to special ed for seven-and-a-half years. I liked it, I had a good time. But socializing in general... I was a little awkward. Art always made me feel comfortable."

Rolfe attended the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he studied filmmaking. While in college, Rolfe met several friends who would later become collaborators on future projects, including Mike Matei, Kyle Justin, and Brendan "Bootsy" Castner. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in fine arts in 2004. After graduating, he worked as a film editor for corporate safety and instructional videos, but quit in 2007 following the success of his ''Angry Video Game Nerd'' web series.

Rolfe operated and ran an annual "haunted house" Halloween attraction out of his parents' garage (the same garage was later used to build a graveyard for his horror comedy film ''The Deader, the Better'' and again used in his film/series pilot ''Jersey Odysseys: Legend of the Blue Hole''), utilizing a collection of several props and antiques that he later reused multiple times in his other films.

Career

Early films

In May 1996, Rolfe filmed ''A Night of Total Terror'' in his backyard, a horror film that he has called "the turning point of islife". In the late 1990s, Rolfe created several films, including the B-horror movie ''The Head Incident'', which he completed in 1999 but did not release until its tenth anniversary in 2009. He also made ''Cinemaphobia'' in 2001, which follows an actor who suffers from an overload of work and begins hallucinating cameras following him. Two versions of the film were made: a ten-minute version and an extended, fifteen-minute version. Rolfe has stated a preference for the shorter, ten-minute version. The same year, he created ''Kung Fu Werewolf from Outer Space'', a largely silent film except for narration. He also created an hour-long comedy film titled ''Stoney'', which is a spoof of the 1976 film ''Rocky''. His eighth film of 2001 was ''It Came from the Toilet!''.

In 2003, Rolfe created another film, ''Curse of the Cat Lover's Grave'', which was split into three parts to represent three different horror genres. Rolfe also made a pilot for a planned web series entitled ''Jersey Odysseys: Legend of the Blue Hole'', based on urban legends from the state of New Jersey. The pilot centers around the legend of the Jersey Devil.

''Angry Video Game Nerd''

Rolfe's career did not gain significant momentum until May 2004, when he filmed a 5-minute short review of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game '' Castlevania II: Simon's Quest'' under the title "Bad NES Games". His character was originally named "The Angry Nintendo Nerd," but was later changed to "The Angry Video Game Nerd" (sometimes abbreviated as "The Nerd") to avoid trademark issues and because he expanded his reviews to include games on other consoles (e.g., Sega Genesis, Atari 2600). Rolfe conceived the character while studying at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he attended from 1999 to 2004. Rolfe then produced another video, a review of the 1988 game ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'', which was initially intended to be the last of the series due to his intense dislike for the game. The video introduced the running joke of The Nerd drinking alcohol in response to a particularly bad game; Rolfe initially used Rolling Rock beer for the gag, as it was the only beer available in his refrigerator at the time, but later performed the joke with Yuengling beer, hard liquor, or even non-alcoholic hot sauce. Although Rolfe originally intended to keep his videos private, his friend and collaborator, Mike Matei, persuaded him to post them to a YouTube channel called "JamesNintendoNerd" (now known as ''Cinemassacre'') on April 6, 2006. Matei created and managed the channel for Rolfe.

On September 12, 2006, Rolfe's character gained mainstream attention when his review of ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' became popular on YouTube. His videos were also posted on GameTrailers and ScrewAttack, amassing 30 million views monthly. As of September 2019, he has over three million subscribers. At the end of 2007, Rolfe paused the production of the series and canceled an appearance at MAGFest after experiencing a strain in his voice. On March 17, 2010, he announced that he was suffering from burnout due to the demands of consistently writing, directing, and starring in the videos, and that the show would enter a brief hiatus. It was scheduled to return in May 2010; however, an episode was released on April 30. Episodes are now released on either the first or second Wednesday of each month, instead of two episodes per month due to Rolfe's other projects. Episodes were at one point posted on YouTube over a year after their original release on GameTrailers. Rolfe was previously affiliated with ScrewAttack but left the company in 2013. In 2014, Rolfe partnered with Screenwave Media to assist with the editing and writing of the series, enabling him to better balance his YouTube projects and prioritize family time.

Rolfe's Nerd character gained further fame through a fictional feud with fellow YouTuber Doug Walker's Nostalgia Critic character. The feud began with the Critic launching a satirical attack in an early video, prompting a response from the Nerd. The conflict played out across several videos between 2008 and 2009, culminating in a crossover video titled " TGWTG Team Brawl," where the characters fight and ultimately reconcile. Out of character, Rolfe and Walker clarified that the feud was entirely fictional and that they were, in fact, good friends. Both have since collaborated on numerous videos and other projects.

''Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie''

For a period, Rolfe focused his efforts on producing '' Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie'', which centers around the ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' video game for the Atari 2600. The film was a collaboration between Rolfe and Kevin Finn and was entirely funded through fan donations. The release of the film in 2014 coincided with the 31st anniversary of the 1983 video game crash. The final sequence of the movie, in which The Nerd reviews ''E.T.'', was later released as a standard AVGN episode.

Other films

upRolfe (left) at the Chiller Theatre Expo 2014

In 2007, Rolfe began filming ''The Deader, the Better'', a classic-style B-movie horror film that pays homage to the 1968 horror classic ''Night of the Living Dead''. The film was shown at the Atlanta Horror Fest in October 2007. On May 5, 2006, Rolfe released a music video that included stock footage from a trip he made to England and Scotland. The music used in the video was from the Black Sabbath single " Heaven and Hell". Rolfe also participated in the 48 Hour Film Project between 2004 and 2007. In the 2007 event, he won the Audience Award for his film ''Spaghetti Western''. His other entries included a trilogy of films titled ''Death Suit'' (2004), ''Death Seen'' (2005), and ''Death Secret'' (2006).

Rolfe had a cameo in a Doritos and Pepsi commercial published online in November 2010. The ad was part of a voting contest, with the winning clip slated to air during Super Bowl XLV. However, the ad was eventually withdrawn due to public backlash, as it parodied the Catholic practice of Eucharist.

In 2007, Rolfe had a cameo in the fan film ''Return of the Ghostbusters''. He was featured in the 2009 documentary ''His Name Was Jason'', in which he discusses the ''Friday the 13th'' movie series and its antagonist Jason Voorhees. Similarly, Rolfe appeared in a bonus feature for the 2010 documentary '' Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy'', where he discusses the ''Nightmare on Elm Street'' NES game, a title he had previously covered as the Nerd in the 13th AVGN episode. The bonus feature can be found on the second disc of the ''Never Sleep Again'' DVD set.

In 2010, it was announced that Rolfe was set to appear in a low-budget remake of ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' titled '' Plan 9'', which was released via Video on Demand on February 16, 2016, and later released on physical media on January 5, 2017. In early to mid-January 2013, Rolfe had a brief role as a news reporter in an independent short film about Sonic the Hedgehog. He was offered a role in ''V/H/S/2'' by Adam Wingard, but had to decline due to his commitments on ''Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie''. He was later offered a potential cameo in '' Godzilla vs. Kong'' by Wingard, but the demands of production, combined with the timing of the birth of Rolfe's second daughter, made the arrangement unfeasible. Rolfe also appeared in the crowdfunded 1980s horror documentary ''In Search of Darkness''.

Commitment to YouTube videos has slowed Rolfe's progress in creating new features, but he did produce a trilogy of new shorts following ''Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie'', including ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The Movie'' (2015), based on the video game, ''Flying Fuckernauts vs. The Astro-Bastards'' (2016), a tribute to B-movie sci-fi, and ''Mimal the Elf'' (2017), a mockumentary. On May 25, 2017, in a general update video about the future of the YouTube channel, Rolfe announced he was in very early development on what he described as an "atmospheric horror movie... he film wouldtake place in one room... very minimal". On December 29, Rolfe announced that 2018 would focus more on his own original projects and that he had begun writing the untitled horror film, which would be in the vein of past works such as ''Legend of the Blue Hole'' and ''Cinemaphobia''. On August 8, 2018, Rolfe stated that he was 50-75% finished with the script, that it would contain some "nostalgia theming", but that it would likely undergo further rewrites and had no plans to film it in the near future. On June 19, 2019, Rolfe confirmed that the script was completed, but that his commitment to video production would delay the project for the foreseeable future.

On October 18, 2020, Rolfe announced that the horror film had been postponed indefinitely due to time constraints. Instead, he directed a sequel to his 1999 horror short, ''The Head Incident'', reuniting several members of the original cast and crew. On June 10, 2021, Rolfe released a video explaining the premise of the shelved "nostalgic" horror film: it would involve a man revisiting a childhood amusement park, only to become trapped there. Rolfe stated that the project could be revived in another medium and that he was working on another small-scale screenplay.

Other video series

In May 2007, Rolfe launched a new web series called ''You Know What's Bullshit?'', in which he rants about everyday pet peeves such as pennies, shoelaces, pay toilets, and printers. Initially consisting of rants by Rolfe, he later decided to create a new character to host the series named "The Bullshit Man" (a masked version of Rolfe resembling cow dung). The Bullshit Man made several cameo appearances in ''AVGN'' content, including select videos and the video game ''AVGN Adventures'' as a secret character. In 2020, the show's name was abbreviated to ''You Know What's BS?'' due to YouTube's advertising policies.

Cinemassacre has published a number of other reviews featuring Rolfe and his associates as themselves. Topics covered include video games (under the ''James & Mike Mondays'' series), video game peripherals such as the VictorMaxx Stuntmaster headset, and films. One of Rolfe's other series is ''Board James'', in which he, Brendan "Bootsy" Castner, and Mike Matei review old board games in a humorous way, often with recurring characters. The show eventually evolved into a psychological horror series, while still featuring board game reviews in each episode. The show ran for 3 seasons and 27 episodes before concluding in 2015.

Rolfe was involved in a fifteen-part series titled ''OverAnalyzers'', where he played the role of the manager of a fictional company that overanalyzed various pop culture references. The series was edited and produced by another website called Cinevore. He also worked as a film reviewer on Spike.com.

Rolfe has hosted ''Monster Madness'', a series in which he reviews one horror movie for each day in October, since 2007. Each year, he has adopted a different theme for ''Monster Madness''. In 2007, the theme was the history of horror. In 2008, it was ''Godzillathon'', where he reviewed all of the Godzilla films chronologically. 2009's theme, ''Monster Madness Three'', dealt with a variety of popular and lesser-known horror films. 2010's theme, ''Camp Cult'', focused on both campy horror films and cult classics, such as ''Troll 2''. In 2011, the theme was ''Sequel-A-Thon'', which covered horror sequels. 2012's theme was ''80's-a-Thon'', which featured only movies from the 1980s. While the first five years of ''Monster Madness'' involved one film review per day throughout October, the ''80's-a-Thon'' series in 2012 was reduced to every other day due to the production of ''The Angry Video Game Nerd Movie''. Despite the reduced number of reviews, the reviews in ''80's-a-Thon'' were longer than those in previous years' ''Monster Madness''. In October 2013, ''Monster Madness'' returned to one review per day with ''Sequel-A-Thon 2'', which covered more horror sequels. The 31-day marathon of ''Monster Madness'' continued in October 2016. Rolfe expressed his desire to explore other Halloween-themed projects and reviews in the future but stated that ''Monster Madness'' will always live on in some form.

In 2017, ''Son of Monster Madness'' debuted, consisting of five new reviews, with the rest of October filled by reuploads of older reviews previously not available on YouTube. ''Monster Madness'', under the original branding despite not having videos posted every day, returned in October 2019, now featuring Rolfe with a guest talking about the films. Rolfe brought back ''Monster Madness'' in its original 31-episode format in 2021 with the aid of Screenwave Media. However, Rolfe redacted and remade the first two published videos of the 2021 series after realizing that his writer had plagiarized content from the episodes' scripts.

In 2012, Rolfe and Mike Matei created a Let's Play series called ''James and Mike Mondays'', formerly called ''James and Mike Plays'', for Cinemassacre's YouTube channel. The series featured guests such as Kyle Justin, who composed the ''Angry Video Game Nerd'' theme song, Brandon Castner, better known as Bad Luck Bootsy from ''Board James'', JonTron and Macaulay Culkin. Rolfe and Matei produced episodes for eight consecutive years until they announced the series would be on hiatus until February 2021. However, Matei left Cinemassacre in December 2020 to become a full-time streamer on Twitch.

Rolfe founded Rex Viper as a cover band of video game music and movie soundtracks from the 1980s. The band was inspired by a character Rolfe created for a review of '' Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing'' from his ''Angry Video Game Nerd'' series. Rolfe plays rhythm guitar in Rex Viper. The band uploads music videos of their covers to YouTube and also performs live shows.

Personal life

Rolfe attended the University of the Arts in Philadelphia from 1999 to 2004 and continued living there after graduation. He briefly relocated to Los Angeles while filming '' Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie'' (2014); however, he returned to Philadelphia upon completing the movie.

In 2004, Rolfe was involved in a car crash when a utility trailer detached from its truck, careened across the highway, and struck him head-on. Rolfe sustained no physical injuries, although his Saturn Ion, which he had purchased only nine days prior, was totaled. Later that year, Rolfe discussed his experience in a short film, ''Mechanical Losses''.

Rolfe revealed in episode 7 of the Angry Video Game Nerd episode 7 "McKids" that he has attention deficit disorder (ADD). Rolfe met April Chmura in July 2004; she was a cinematographer on the early ''Nerd'' episodes. They began dating shortly thereafter and married in November 2007. He announced at the premiere trailer for ''Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie'' in November 2012 that they were expecting their first child. In April 2013, she gave birth to a baby girl. Rolfe has not disclosed many details about his daughter, except for a few photos and expressing gratitude that his wife overcame complications during childbirth.

In November 2013, April posted an update on Rolfe's Cinemassacre website, stating that their daughter was undergoing ongoing medical treatment due to unspecified complications. On April 13, 2016, Rolfe shared more details while announcing an auction of various Cinemassacre memorabilia to benefit Shriners Hospitals for Children. During birth, his daughter suffered nerve damage to one of her arms, requiring many months of physical therapy to regain full use of it. Rolfe expressed gratitude to Shriners for all they did for his family during that time.

Filmography

Film

Television / Webshows

Video games

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rolfe, James
1980 births
American film critics
American autobiographers
American people of Italian descent
American male comedians
American male film actors
American male voice actors
American humorists
21st-century American comedians
Comedians from Salem County, New Jersey
Cinemassacre
Living people
Male actors from New Jersey
People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
American gaming YouTubers
People from Penns Grove, New Jersey
University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni
Video game critics
American writers of Italian descent
Screenwriters from New Jersey
21st-century American screenwriters
YouTube critics and reviewers
21st-century American male writers
Film directors from New Jersey
YouTubers from Philadelphia
Edgewood Regional High School alumni
YouTube channels launched in 2006
YouTubers from New Jersey
Comedians from Philadelphia
Actors from Salem County, New Jersey
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American memoirists
Writers from Salem County, New Jersey