Travis Vengroff (born January 20, 1987) is an American

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

maker,

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. ...

writer, composer, musician, actor, and role-playing game designer. He is best known for his

fiction podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing. ...

s as part of the company Fool and Scholar Productions, founded and owned by him and his wife K. A. Statz. Vengroff usually acts as director, producer, sound designer, and editor of Fool and Scholar Productions' works, with Statz as writer. He has also composed and performed music and voice acted in their works, and is the

gamemaster A gamemaster (GM; also known as game master, game manager, game moderator, referee, or storyteller) is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. They are m ...

of the

actual play Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the game ...

podcast '' Dark Dice'' (2018–present). Some of his other best known podcasts include ''

The White Vault ''The White Vault'' is a found footage horror fiction podcast created by K.A. Statz. It features an international cast and crew, with notable members including David Ault and Peter Lewis of ''The NoSleep Podcast'', as well as Lani Minella and ...

'' (2017-2022) and those part of the ''Liberty'' universe (2015–present), which he created. Outside of podcasts, Vengroff is a member of the band Careless Juja and former member of

Random Encounter A random encounter is a feature commonly used in various role-playing games whereby combat encounters with non-player character (NPC) enemies or other dangers occur sporadically and at random, usually without the enemy being physically detected b ...

, both under the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Careless. He has also written several ''Liberty'' comic books and

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

s since 2010, and has develloped

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participan ...

s based on the universes of both ''Dark Dice'' and ''Liberty''.

Early life

Vengroff was born in

Centerport, New York Centerport is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the notably affluent North Shore of Long Island, historically known as the Gold Coast. Formerly known as Little Cow Harbor in about 1700, as ...

, in 1987 to Harvey and Carol Vengroff, with the family moving to

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...

, when Travis was three-years old. He had four siblings. Harvey was the founder and owner of Vengroff Williams Inc., a

housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and housing authority, assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of Shelter (building), shelter. Housing ensures that members of so ...

company, for over 50 years, and also worked at a

debt collection Debt collection is the process of pursuing payments of debts owed by individuals or businesses. An organization that specializes in debt collection is known as a collection agency or debt collector. Most collection agencies operate as agents of ...

agency. As a child, Vengroff liked to listen to audiobooks, something he credits to eventually leading him to podcasts. In 2006-2009, Travis Vengroff studied music at the Allegro Music Academy, game design at the

Art Institute of Pittsburgh The Art Institute of Pittsburgh was a private college in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Shortly before closing in 2019, it was purchased by Dream Center Education Holdings (in turn a division of The Dream Center, a Christian non-profit 501(c)(3) or ...

, acting at the

New York Film Academy New York Film Academy – School of Film and Acting (NYFA) is a private for-profit film school and acting school based in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. The New York Film Academy was founded in 1992 by Jerry Sherlock, a former film, ...

, and business management at the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

. Travis and his brother Mark worked at Vengroff Williams Inc. in 2011. From 2013 to 2019, he also worked with his father and brother in real estate in Sarasota,

Bradenton Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698. History Late 18th and early 19th centuries ...

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures r ...

, and Memphis.

Career

Random Encounter (2005-2015)

In 2005, Vengroff, under the

Careless, was a founding member of the band

, specialized in covers of

video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to ...

and original music inspired by video games. He mainly played the accordion, while also performing vocals and the

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The ...

. The band was voted by readers of ''Orlando Weekly'' as the Best Folk Act in Central Florida (2011), the Best Indie Act in Central Florida (2012) and the Best Rock Act in Central Florida (2013). In 2006, Vengroff directed a ''

Resident Evil ''Resident Evil'', known in Japan as is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environmen ...

fan-made Fan labor, also called fan works, are the creative activities engaged in by fans, primarily those of various media properties or musical groups. These activities can include creation of written works ( fiction, fan fiction and review literature ...

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

titled ''Resident Evil: Operation Mad Jackal'', together with Kit Pennebaker. The film featured over 60 actors, and the crew received permission from the city of

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County, Florida, Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The c ...

to shut down part of the city's Main Street to film a scene. Vengroff stated in July 2006 that the film would premiere at a convention the following October. In 2010, he completed '' Liberty: Defiance'', a comic book he wrote based on the

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

fictional universe A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes ma ...

he had developed over the previous years; he had hoped to turn it into a full comic book series, but was unsuccessful in selling it to any publisher. Vengross, still using the name Careless, founded a second band in 2011, Careless Juja, together with fellow video game music cover artist The Great Juja. The band took part in the ''Dwelling of Duels'' internet music competition and won five awards from 2011 to 2019. They would release several albums, and are still currently active. Among Random Encounter's releases during his time with them were studio album ''

Unavenged ''Unavenged'' is a 2011 album by Random Encounter (band), Random Encounter consisting of 17 songs, contemporary rock arrangements of the music from various video game soundtracks. This represents a fan-made mix between video game covers and origina ...

'' in 2011 and '' Let Me Tell You a Story'' in 2013. On October 3, 2015, Random Encounter performed a show in Orlando titled "Farewell Careless / 10 Year Anniversary Concert", acting as both a celebration of the band's first ten years and the farewell show of Careless, who was leaving the band.

Fool and Scholar Productions (2015-present)

In 2015, Vengroff and his romantic partner (later wife) Kaitlin Statz decided to venture into audio fiction, creating the company Fool and Scholar Productions to produce fiction podcasts. Their first release later the same year was '' Liberty: Critical Research'', a return to Vengroff's

; in the style the two would follow in their future podcasts, Vengroff directed, produced, edited and sound designed the podcast while Statz was the writer; Vengroff also voiced one of the main characters, Officer Severous Ljqvist. The series was an unexpected success, and led to the development of ''Liberty'' into a multimedia franchise. In addition to two more seasons of ''Critical Research'', two more ''Liberty'' podcasts were produced: '' Liberty: Tales From the Tower'', a

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction ** Korean horror, Korean horror fiction *Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing on ...

anthology podcast that run from four seasons from 2016 and 2021, and '' Liberty: Vigilance'', a one-season

podcast made in 2018 using '' Liberty: A.F.T.E.R'', a

designed by Vengroff and released the same year. It also lead to the release of two more ''Liberty'' comic books written by Vengroff, including the serialized '' Liberty: Deception'', and two ''Liberty''

s co-authored by Vengroff and Statz. The first volume was released at

New York Comic Con The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to Western comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006. History The New York Comic Con is a ...

in October 2016. In 2017, Fool and Scholar Productions released their first ''Liberty''-unrelated work found footage

horror podcast Horror is a genre of podcasts covering fiction, non-fiction, and reviews of the horror genre generally. History Horror podcasts are typically created and run by volunteers in their free time. As some podcasts such as '' Archive 81'' and ''T ...

'', about a group of individuals sent to the Norwegian

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

of Svalbard to investigate a remote outpost gone radio silent after sending a distress signal. The show lasted for a five seasons-run completed in 2022, and was accompanied by several spin-off shows set in the same universe, released between 2018 and 2023. '' Dark Dice'', a horror- dark fantasy

, premiered in 2018, with Vengroff acting as

. It emphasized the potential deaths of all

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

s, with campaigns including, among others, Statz (who joined Vengroff as co-gamemaster from season 3 onwards),

Jeff Goldblum Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum (; born October 22, 1952) is an American actor and musician. He has starred in some of the highest-grossing films of his era, such as ''Jurassic Park'' (1993) and ''Independence Day'' (1996), as well as their sequels. ...

Eric Nelsen Eric Nelsen (born June 26, 1991) is an Emmy and Tony Award-winning American actor and producer. He is known for his work as an actor in the television series ''1883''. On stage, Nelsen portrayed Brett Sampson in the original Broadway production ...

LilyPichu Lily Ki (born November 20, 1991), better known as LilyPichu, is an American internet personality, musician, voice actress, and animator. She is a member of OfflineTV, an online social entertainment group of content creators and was one of the m ...

, and many voice actors featured in other works of Fool and Scholar Productions; it is still ongoing. Vengroff also contributed as a composer and musician, directed an

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

, a 40-person choir, and more than 30 medieval instruments for the soundtrack of the ''Dark Dice'' podcast. The tabletop role-playing game ''Domain of the Nameless God'', designed by Vengroff and based on the universe of ''Dark Dice'', was released on 2023 by Dungeon Masters Guild. Vengroff and Statz also published ''VAST Horizon'', a three-season science fiction story released from 2019 to 2021 about the passenger of a spaceship who awakens from stasis to find the spaceship empty and failing, and must survive and investigate with the help of the ship's

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

. ''Don't Mind: Cruxmont'', a mystery story intended to be the first season of a ''Don't Mind'' anthology series made of stand-alone seasons, was released in 2022, starring

Adjoa Andoh Adjoa Andoh Hon. FRSL (born 14 January 1963) is a British actress. On stage, she has played lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre and the Almeida Theatre. On television, she appeared in tw ...

and

Marcus Bentley Marcus Morgan Bentley (born 4 October 1967) is a British actor, broadcaster and voice-over artist. Bentley is most known for narrating the UK version of the Dutch reality television programme ''Big Brother'' since its inception in 2000, until ...

as two strangers who meet on their way to the small elusive town of Cruxmont, both in search of answers. It was followed by ''The Boar Knight'', a 15-episode family-friendly fantasy series released bi-monthly from October 2022 to June 2023.

Other works

From 2013-2018, Vengroff was a regular contributor to the Russian

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama ...

magazine ''

Mir Fantastiki ''Mir Fantastiki'' (russian: Мир фантастики), officially abbreviated as ''MirF'', is a Russian monthly science fiction and fantasy magazine. The name also refers to the website run by the magazine, Mirf.ru. ''Mir Fantastiki'' litera ...

''. Since 2018, several adventures for ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (T ...

'' on the DM's Guild became Platinum bestsellers.

Works

Comic books

Discography

; Careless Juja * ''Pixel Glass'' (2011) * ''Prof. Layton and the Bay Harbor Butcher'' (2014) * ''Legend of the Boar Knight'' (2015) * ''For Naughty Children'' (EP, 2015) * ''Careless Juja World Tour Live Album'' (live album, 2017) * ''Those Who Fight'' (2020) ; ''Dark Dice'' soundtracks * ''Gamble Your Sanity'' (2021) * ''Season of the Allshadow'' (2022) ; Random Encounter * ''Neo Symbiance'' (EP, 2006) * ''Random Encounter'' (EP, 2010) * ''

'' (2011) * '' Let Me Tell You a Story'' (2013) * ''The Big Blue LP'' (2014) * ''Super Galaxy Squadron Original Soundtrack'' (2015) ; Guest Appearances * ''Welcome to World 2'' - Game Music 4 All (2008) * ''Bitavenged'' - Bitavenged (2012) * ''Spectrum of Mana'' - Nate Horsefall (2013) * ''Final Fantasy VII Gametabs Tribute Album'' - Gametabs.net (2014) * ''Super VG Christmas Party'' - Patient Corgi (2014, with Random Encounter) * ''Rogue Legacy: Reborn''- Tettix & A Shell in the Pit (2014) * ''The Legend of Zelda Tribute Album'' - Gametabs.net (2015) * ''SOUND WAVES: A Tribute to Ecco the Dolphin'' - Patient Corgi (2016) * ''Tribute Album 64'' - Patient Corgi (2016) * ''Video Games Live: Bonus Round 3'' -

Video Games Live Video Games Live (VGL) is a concert series created by Tommy Tallarico and originally founded by Tallarico and Jack Wall. The concerts consist of segments of video game music performed by a live orchestra with video footage and synchronized light ...

(2016) * ''Chronicles of Time'' - Nate Horsefall (2016) * ''Final Fantasy I - The Legacy'' - Pixel Mixers (2017) * ''SPIRA: Music from Final Fantasy X (Zanarkand Mix)'' - Materia Collective (2017) * ''Secret of Mana - Whispers from a Verdant Grove'' - Pixel Mixers (2018) * ''EIDOLON: Music From Final Fantasy IX'' - Materia Collective (2019)

Filmography

Picture books

Podcasts

Actual play series

Scripted series

Others

Role-playing games

Personal life

Vengroff married frequent collaborator Kaitlin Statz on October 2, 2016. As of 2020, the couple resided in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...

, with their

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

dog Eezo. In August 2021, the couple moved to Germany. Vengroff's father Harvey died on October 11, 2018, at age 77.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
Official website

Fool and Scholar Productions website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vengroff, Travis 1987 births American male writers American male musicians American accordionists American podcasters American male voice actors American people of Italian descent American people of Jewish descent People from Sarasota, Florida Living people University of South Florida alumni American rock singers Record producers from Florida 21st-century American singers Singers from Florida 21st-century American male singers