Freddie Wong (born September 13, 1985)
is an American
internet celebrity
An Internet celebrity, also referred to as an Internet personality, is an individual who has acquired or developed their fame and notability on the Internet. The growing popularity of social media provides a means for people to reach a large ...
,
filmmaker
Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...
,
VFX artist,
podcaster, and
competitive gamer.
Wong has participated in at least three
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
channels; with ''RocketJump'', his production company's main channel, sporting over 9 million subscribers; ''BrandonJLa'', a channel including behind the scenes videos and other content, which holds over 1.1 million subscribers; and ''Node'', a gaming channel with over 3.2 million subscribers. He is also known for creating the web series ''
Video Game High School''.
Early life
Wong was born and raised in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...
. He graduated from
Lakeside School in 2004 and later from the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...
's
School of Cinematic Arts.
Wong owns and manages Overcrank Media, a Los Angeles–based media production company specializing in feature film and online video content, having produced an independent film titled ''
Bear
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...
''. Wong met his future collaborator
Brandon Laatsch in college.
Career
2006–2010: Competitive gaming, YouTube breakthrough
Wong launched a
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
channel in 2006, initially uploading gameplay footage to wide success, and competed in the
World Series of Video Games in
Dallas
Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
in July 2007. He won first prize in the ''
Guitar Hero 2'' competition, playing the song "Less Talk More Rokk" by
Freezepop. It was around this time that he began uploading videos to YouTube and finding popularity with his comedic or video game-related content.
During MTV's "Gamer's Week" celebration in November 2007, Freddie appeared as a guest on ''
Total Request Live
''Total Request Live'' (commonly abbreviated as ''TRL'') is an American television program that premiered on MTV on September 14, 1998. The early version of ''TRL'' featured popular music videos played during its countdown and was also used as ...
''. Participating in the program with his newly formed band Hellanor Brozevelt, Wong was part of a country-wide search to find the best ''Rock Band'' ensemble. After receiving tutelage from well-known rockers
Good Charlotte, Brozevelt performed at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York against Chicago-based Carrie Me Home.
In 2010, Wong helped
Joe Penna, known as MysteryGuitarMan on YouTube, shoot a commercial for
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
, and assisted
Wong Fu Productions in actions scenes of ''
Agents of Secret Stuff''. In 2011 Wong produced, co-directed, and acted in a TV commercial for ''
Battlefield 3'' at the request of
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
.
2011–2017: RocketJump shorts and ''Video Game High School''
In 2011, along with his partners Matt Arnold and Desmond "Dez" Dolly, Wong formed the production company RocketJump. They began work on the web series ''Video Game High School'', which began releasing episodes on May 11, 2012, achieved over 100 million views across various online platforms. The series was based on a concept by Will Campos and Chris Pappavaselio. The team was able to raise funding for the series through
Kickstarter
Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
, where they set a funding goal for $75,000 to be raised in a 30-day period. That amount was quickly pledged in less than 24 hours and continued to climb from there. On October 22, 2011, pledging came to a close, with $273,725 raised for the project from 5,661 backers.
The series ran for three seasons, with the final season having a crowd funded budget of over $2.4 million. The final episode of the series was released November 17, 2014, on the RocketJump website and YouTube.
Wong's videos would sometimes feature celebrity cameos, with
Jimmy Kimmel
James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967), known professionally as Jimmy Kimmel, is an American television host, comedian, writer, voice actor, and producer. He has been the host and executive producer of '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-n ...
in a bathroom tie battle,
Andy Whitfield appearing in a ''
Time Crisis'' tribute video,
Kevin Pollak
Kevin Elliot Pollak (born October 30, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, impressionist and podcast host. He has appeared in over 90 films; his roles include Sam Weinberg in Rob Reiner's ''A Few Good Men'', Jacob Goldman in ''Grumpy Old Men ...
appearing in a
Hypnotism stunt,
Shenae Grimes in a romantic gun action scene,
Ray William Johnson in a troll infestation video,
Eliza Dushku
Eliza Patricia Dushku (; born December 30, 1980) is an American former actress. Dushku starred as Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Faith in the supernatural Drama (film and television), drama series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1998–2003) an ...
appearing in an action scene,
Jon Favreau
Jonathan Kolia Favreau ( ; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Favreau has appeared in films such as ''Rudy (film), Rudy'' (1993), ''PCU (film), PCU'' (1994), ''Swingers (1996 film), Swingers'' (1996), ''Very ...
featuring in his video based on ''
Cowboys & Aliens'', the glam metal band
Steel Panther appearing in his video based on the
Crossfire board game, and
Smosh appearing in his video "Huge Guns (with Smosh)".
In late 2013, Wong's channel, ''freddiew'' was renamed to "''Rocketjump''", and ''freddiew2'' was renamed to "''BrandonJLa''".
Brandon Laatsch also announced that he and Wong would no longer work together on projects, and any short videos or "shorts" would be posted on either NODE (a gaming channel run by Laatsch and
Corridor Digital's
Niko Pueringer and Sam Gorski) or BrandonJLa. This was done because they wanted to work on separate projects, as Wong was busy with ''Video Game High School,'' and
Brandon started working on a VR engine and game ''
Boneworks
''Boneworks'' is a 2019 first-person shooter game developed and published by Brandon Laatsch, Stress Level Zero. The game is designed to be entirely Game physics, physics-based, with the player controlling a full virtual body that responds not j ...
''.
In 2017, Wong announced that RocketJump would be pivoting away from regular shorts, in favor of other projects. RocketJump stopped uploading videos altogether in 2018, after the second season of ''Anime Crimes Division''.
Since 2017: Podcasting and feature film
From April 2017 to October 2021, Wong co-hosted the
podcast
A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...
''Story Break'' on the
Maximum Fun network. As described on the RocketJump website, the show features "
o-hostsWill Campos, Matt Arnold, and Freddie Wong sit
ing
Ing, ING or ing may refer to:
Art and media
* '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film
* i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group
* The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes''
* "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 199 ...
down in the RocketJump writer's room and attempt
ngto 'break' a story for a ridiculous concept, property, or idea that
heyin NO way have any rights to." The podcast concluded in 2021, both due to the hosts feeling creatively satisfied with the show and to allow them more time to work on upcoming projects.
Since January 2019, Wong has been a collaborator on a ''
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...
''
actual play podcast called ''
Dungeons & Daddies'', along with Will Campos, Anthony Burch, Matt Arnold, and Beth May. The podcast is about four dads from Earth that are transported to the
Forgotten Realms
''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setti ...
(one of the official settings for ''Dungeons and Dragons'' Fifth Edition) and go on a quest to search for their lost sons. Wong edits the show and is one of the four players, with Burch as the
Dungeon Master for the first two seasons.
On October 21, 2021, RocketJump revealed on Facebook that they were beginning work on their first feature film. Shooting took place in late 2021 in Southern California and Utah. The film, ''We're All Gonna Die'', premiered at
South by Southwest
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...
in March 2024. Wong co-wrote and co-directed the film with his ''Dungeons & Daddies'' co-star Matt Arnold.
In 2023, Wong appeared in ''
Dimension 20''
's sidequest ''Mentopolis'', where he played the character Dan Fucks, the personification of sexual pleasure inside the mind of a scientist.
Personal life
Wong is the older brother of actor and YouTuber
Jimmy Wong, who co-starred in ''Video Game High School''. His father is
Chinese, from Canton, and his mother is of Chinese and
Mongol
Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...
ancestry. His uncle is
Corey Yuen
Corey Yuen Kwai (; 15 February 1951 – 2022) was a Hong Kong film director, film producer, action choreographer, and actor. Yuen attended the China Drama Academy and was one of the Seven Little Fortunes. In Hong Kong, he worked on several ...
, a film director and stunt choreographer.
Filmography
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Freddie
1985 births
Actual play performers
American esports players
American film directors of Chinese descent
American musicians of Chinese descent
American people of Mongolian descent
Filmmakers from Seattle
Film producers from Washington (state)
Guitar Hero players
Lakeside School (Seattle) alumni
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
YouTubers from Seattle