Justin McElroy

Justin McElroy
Born (1980-11-08) November 8, 1980 (age 43)[1]
Huntington, West Virginia, U.S.
EducationMarshall University
Occupation(s)Writer, actor, podcaster, journalist, honorary mayor of Huntington, West Virginia[2]
Years active2005–present
Known forCo-founder of Polygon
Notable work
Spouse
​
(m. 2006)​
Children2
FatherClint McElroy
Relatives
AwardsShorty Award (Best in Video Games, 2008)
Websitejustinmcelroy.wordpress.com

Justin Tyler McElroy (/ˈmæk.əlˌrɔɪ/ MACK-əl-roy, born November 8, 1980) is an American podcaster, comedian, and former video game journalist. He is known for his work on podcasts (such as My Brother, My Brother and Me, The Adventure Zone, and Sawbones) and as the co-founder of video game journalism website Polygon.

Early and personal life

McElroy was born in 1980 to Clint McElroy, former co-host of WTCR-FM's morning radio show in Huntington, West Virginia, and his wife Leslie.[3] McElroy attended Marshall University,[4] and lives in Huntington as of 2020.[5] He has been married to Dr. Sydnee Smirl McElroy since 2006.[6] They have two children: Charlie Gail “Chuck” McElroy, born on August 12, 2014,[7] and Cooper Renee McElroy, born on February 13, 2018.[8]

Career

Journalism

McElroy worked for the Ironton Tribune as a reporter from 2005, covering Ohio University Southern, the Ironton and Coal Grove areas and feature stories. After becoming news editor for the paper[9] he then worked at Joystiq as a journalist from 2007 to 2012. During this time, he was the producer of the Joystiq podcast.

In 2012, McElroy co-founded Polygon, a video game website, along with his brother Griffin and Christopher Grant, and was formerly an editor-at-large there.[10][11][12][13] In 2018, Justin and Griffin both announced their departure from Polygon, in order to focus on their podcasting careers and families.[13]

Podcasting

Since 2010, Justin McElroy has co-hosted the comedy podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me along with his brothers Griffin and Travis. The podcast began in 2010 as a form of "self-entertainment" before it was added to the Maximum Fun network.[14] The podcast takes the form of a humorous "advice show", in which the brothers answer questions that have been directly submitted by listeners, as well as questions that listeners have found on Yahoo! Answers.[15] In 2010, the show was consistently listed among the top 10 comedy podcasts on iTunes,[15] and it has received positive critical reception.[16] The podcast was later turned into a 2017 television show, which originally aired on Seeso[17] and formerly streamed on VRV.[18]

Since June 21, 2013, Justin and his wife Sydnee have co-hosted the podcast Sawbones, a "marital tour of misguided medicine" and a humorous exploration of medical history, focusing on the many ways the medical community has been wrong in the past.[19][4] A book based on this podcast, The Sawbones Book: The Horrifying, Hilarious Road To Modern Medicine, was published by Weldon Owen on October 9, 2018.[20][21]

In 2014, the McElroy brothers launched a tabletop role-playing game podcast entitled The Adventure Zone.[22] Initially focusing on Dungeons & Dragons, the show began to explore other game systems in later seasons. During the first campaign, subtitled Balance, Justin McElroy portrays Taako, an elf wizard. In the second campaign, Amnesty, Justin portrays Wayne "Duck" Newton, a forest ranger. In the third campaign, Graduation, he portrayed an unnamed Firbolg student. Justin played a monk named Amber Gris in the fourth campaign, Ethersea. For the fifth campaign, Steeplechase, he took the role of Game Master. In the sixth campaign, Versus Dracula, he plays a barbarian named Lady Godwin.

The first sub-arc of The Adventure Zone: Balance, named Here There Be Gerblins, was later adapted into a graphic novel in cooperation with artist Carey Pietsch, and was published by First Second Books in 2018.[23] The book topped The New York Times' best-selling trade fiction list, becoming the first graphic novel to do so.[24] It was followed by a second graphic novel, Murder on the Rockport Limited!, in 2019, a third installment, Petals to the Metal, in 2020, a fourth, The Crystal Kingdom, in 2021, a fifth, The Eleventh Hour, in 2023, and a sixth installment, The Suffering Game in 2024.[25][26][27][28]

Justin and his brothers also co-host a yearly podcast with Tim Batt and Guy Montgomery, released every American Thanksgiving since 2015, called 'Til Death Do Us Blart[29] where they review the film Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. The brothers also host the documentary podcast The McElroy Brothers Will Be in Trolls World Tour, which ultimately resulted in the announcement that all three were set to make cameo appearances in the film.[30][31]

In 2018, Justin McElroy launched The Empty Bowl, a "meditative podcast about cereal" with Dan Goubert, writer of the Cerealously blog.[32]

Other programs

Beginning in 2015, Justin and his brother Griffin began hosting a gaming comedy show for Polygon called Monster Factory.[33][34] The series—in which the two use character creation tools from popular video and computer games to create hideous characters—was praised by The Mary Sue as one of the "funniest series on YouTube".[34] The series briefly went on hiatus after the pair left Polygon, but resumed output in December 2018.

Justin appeared with his brothers on the July 24, 2017, episode of @midnight, during which host Chris Hardwick publicly acknowledged that @midnight was ending.[35]

Justin has appeared twice as a guest on The George Lucas Talk Show, once during the May the 4th, 2020 fundraiser The George Lucas Talk Show All Day Star Wars Movie Watch Along[36], and later on the December 22, 2020, episode The George Lucas Holiday Special.[37]

Voice acting

McElroy has appeared as a voice actor in several animated TV shows. In 2017, he appeared as Billiam Milliam in the Cartoon Network animated comedy series OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.[38] In 2018, he appeared in the Cartoon Hangover-produced animated mini-series Slug Riot.[39] He also provided voice commentary for the 2017 video game 100ft Robot Golf, along with Griffin and Travis.[40] In September 2018, following a successful podcasting campaign, Justin and his brothers confirmed that they would be voicing the character Skyscraper in the film Trolls World Tour, with Justin also voicing Techno Drop Button and Tumbleweed.[31] He also lends a voice to the School of Visual Arts thesis film, "MIDAS".[41]

Awards and achievements

In 2006, McElroy received an award for the best business reporting in Ohio from the Associated Press in recognition of his work with the Ironton Tribune.[42] In 2009, McElroy received a Shorty Award in the video games category.[43]

In 2021, a newly discovered species of millipede was named Nannaria mcelroyorum in recognition of the McElroy family's podcasts, which entertained the scientists during their field work. The millipede is found in West Virginia as well as the wider Appalachian region.[44]

In 2021, McElroy added the "Berries and Cream" sound from a 2007 Starburst commercial to the video-sharing app TikTok, which has since been used in 354.1K videos.[45][46]

References

  1. ^ "Justin McElroy". Authors. Macmillan Publishers. Archived from the original on September 12, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  2. ^ "Resumes and Jamiroquai's Dad". My Brother, My Brother, and Me. February 23, 2017. VRV.
  3. ^ Mayne, Rick (2011). "Super Clint". Huntington Quarterly. No. 73. Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Lavender, Dave (June 20, 2014). "Local couple's online audio show gets tens of thousands of listeners". The Herald-Dispatch. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  5. ^ Justin McElroy [@justinmcelroy] (September 19, 2020). "Hey @WVeducation, Cabell (where I live) has been gold (which is actually orange) all week. COVID is the worst it's been ever here. How are we green?" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. ^ Justin McElroy [@justinmcelroy] (July 1, 2018). "Today marks the 4380th consecutive day (minus leap days) that @sydneemcelroy has failed to realized she is infinitely too smart, clever, charming and caring to be married to me. It is my dearest, unfailing daily hope that she continues to make this fantastic error" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  7. ^ Justin McElroy [@justinmcelroy] (August 13, 2014). "Look at what @sydneemcelroy and I made! She's Charlie McElroy, and she was born yesterday" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  8. ^ Justin McElroy [@justinmcelroy] (February 13, 2018). "Hello! How are you? I am very well, because Cooper McElroy was born on this day at, you guessed it, 4:20 p.m. She is well, @sydneemcelroy is well. All is well" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  9. ^ "A Split Decision". The Tribune. June 3, 2006.
  10. ^ "JustinMcElroy". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  11. ^ Stark, Chelsea (October 25, 2012). "Veteran Game Journalists Unite to Launch Vox's 'Polygon'". Mashable. Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  12. ^ LizardRock (April 25, 2018). "The McElroy Brothers Leave Polygon". Gamerz Unite. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  13. ^ a b McElroy, Justin; McElroy, Griffin (April 24, 2018). "It's a Departure". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 24, 2018. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  14. ^ Cusimano, Lauren (June 12, 2018). "Podcaster Justin McElroy on My Brother, My Brother and Me and Their First Phoenix Show". Phoenix New Times. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  15. ^ a b Lavender, Dave (November 14, 2010). "McElroy brothers find success with podcast". The Herald-Dispatch. HD Media Company, LLC. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
  16. ^ E.g. "The best podcasts of 2012". The A.V. Club. The Onion. December 14, 2012. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
  17. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (February 22, 2017). "Review: 'My Brother, My Brother and Me' Has Advice From Three Modern Stooges". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 14, 2018. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
  18. ^ Garrett, Martin (August 7, 2017). "Seeso Sells Harmonquest, MBMBAM and More to the VRV Streaming Platform". Paste. Archived from the original on August 31, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  19. ^ "Sawbones". maximumfun.org. Maximum Fun. June 19, 2013. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  20. ^ Rife, Katie (June 25, 2018). "Urine luck, Sawbones fans: Justin and Sydnee wrote a book, and we've got the exclusive". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  21. ^ McElroy, Justin; McElroy, Dr. Sydnee (October 9, 2018). The Sawbones Book: The Hilarious, Horrifying Road to Modern Medicine. Weldon Owen. ISBN 978-1681883816.
  22. ^ Faires, Rosalind (October 13, 2017). "Into The Adventure Zone With Griffin McElroy". The Austin Chronicle. Archived from the original on June 22, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  23. ^ Hoover, Natalie (June 14, 2018). "'The Adventure Zone' Podcast Is Getting Its Own Graphic Novel". Study Breaks. Archived from the original on June 22, 2018. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
  24. ^ McMillan, Graeme (July 26, 2018). "'Adventure Zone' Graphic Novel Tops New York Times' Trade Fiction Best-Seller List". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  25. ^ "Exclusive: First look at interiors of 'The Adventure Zone' sequel 'Murder on the Rockport Limited'". EW.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2019. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  26. ^ "Petals to the Metal: Get a wild first look at the next Adventure Zone graphic novel". EW.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2019. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  27. ^ "The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom is OUT NOW!". July 13, 2021.
  28. ^ "The Adventure Zone: The Suffering Game is OUT NOW!". October 12, 2023. Retrieved August 3, 2024.
  29. ^ "Till Death Do Us Blart". Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  30. ^ "The McElroy Brothers Will Be In Trolls 2". trolls2.libsyn.com. Archived from the original on January 4, 2019. Retrieved July 5, 2017.
  31. ^ a b Bradley, Laura (September 11, 2018). "The Unbelievable True Story of How Three Podcasters Trolled Their Way into Trolls 2". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved September 11, 2018.
  32. ^ "Justin McElroy on Twitter". Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  33. ^ "Monster Factory". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  34. ^ a b W, Nico (June 6, 2016). "Is Monster Factory the Funniest Series on YouTube?". The Mary Sue. Archived from the original on July 30, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  35. ^ "@midnight featuring Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy". July 25, 2017. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  36. ^ "The George Lucas Talk Show All Day Star Wars Movie Watch Along Part 6 - A New Hope". Youtube. May 8, 2020.
  37. ^ "The George Lucas Talk Show 2020 Holiday Special - Part 1". Youtube. December 22, 2020. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021.
  38. ^ Shin, Chang-woo (animation director); Dave Alegre & Haewon Lee (storyboard artists) (November 17, 2017). "Villains Night Out". OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes. Season 1. Episode 41. Cartoon Network.
  39. ^ "Slug Riot". Cartoon Hangover. Frederator. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  40. ^ "100ft Robot Golf on Steam". Steam. Archived from the original on August 3, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  41. ^ "Justin McElroy | Actor, Writer, Producer". IMDb.
  42. ^ "The Ironton Tribune named best small paper". The Tribune. June 3, 2006.
  43. ^ "The 2008 Shorty Awards Winners and Finalists". The Shorty Awards. Archived from the original on July 12, 2019.
  44. ^ Means, Jackson C.; Hennen, Derek A.; Marek, Paul E. (April 13, 2021). "A revision of the minor species group in the millipede genus Nannaria Chamberlin, 1918 (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Xystodesmidae)". ZooKeys (1030): 1–180. Bibcode:2021ZooK.1030....1M. doi:10.3897/zookeys.1030.62544. PMC 8060247. PMID 33958904 – via zookeys.pensoft.net.
  45. ^ McElroy, Justin. "Original Sound". TikTok.
  46. ^ Fuhrer, Margaret (November 19, 2021). "The Little Lad? Berries and Cream? Call It Performance Art". The New York Times.