Daniel Hardcastle
| Daniel Hardcastle | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Hardcastle at a book signing in 2019 | ||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||
| Born | Daniel John Hardcastle 23 March 1989 Southend-on-Sea, England | |||||||||
| Nationality | English | |||||||||
| Occupations |
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| Spouse |
Rebecca Maughan (m. 2016) | |||||||||
| Relatives | Steve "Dad³" Hardcastle (father) | |||||||||
| Website | www | |||||||||
| YouTube information | ||||||||||
| Channel | ||||||||||
| Years active | 2009–present | |||||||||
| Genres |
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| Subscribers | 2.53 million[1] | |||||||||
| Total views | 1.28 billion[1] | |||||||||
| Associated acts | ||||||||||
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Last updated: 22 June 2020 | ||||||||||
Daniel John Hardcastle (born 23 March 1989), known online as Nerd³, NerdCubed and sometimes as Forsinain42, is an English author, YouTuber, Company Director and CEO of Nerd Cubed Limited.[2][3] He is the author of Sunday Times bestseller Fuck Yeah, Video Games: The Life and Extra Lives of a Professional Nerd. As of 2020[update], his YouTube videos have accumulated more than 1.2 billion views.[4]
Career
Online
Hardcastle rose to prominence through a scripted, story-based webcomic made within Minecraft. After creating his YouTube channel on 20 March 2011,[4] Hardcastle initially began uploading a series of comedic vlogs before uploading his first Let's Play. His first series, called Nerd³'s Minecraft Buildy Thing, ran from 27 August 2011 to 22 August 2012. After creating videos on a few indie games, Hardcastle uploaded his first Nerd³ Plays video on 7 January 2012. In 2012, Machinma sponsored him to create the series 13 Ways To Die.[5]
In 2015, Hardcastle was nominated for a Golden Joystick Award for "online personality of the year".[6] He has since amassed more than 2.5 million subscribers and 1.2 billion total views.[4] He has previously collaborated on his YouTube Channel with Emma Blackery,[7] Tomska,[8] Hannah Hart,[9] Stuart Ashen[10] and InTheLittleWood.[11] In September 2019, Hardcastle's YouTube account was unverified for being not widely recognised outside the platform.[12]
In December 2019, Hardcastle made the decision to demonetise his channel, to avoid getting caught out by YouTube's much-maligned algorithm to prevent a breach of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which they broke earlier that year, resulting in a $170 million fine from the Federal Trade Commission.[13]
Books
Hardcastle began writing his first book, Fuck Yeah, Video Games: The Life & Extra Lives of a Professional Nerd, in 2017. On 4 June 2018, he began crowdfunding the book through the website Unbound. The book reached 100% of its target on the first day[14] and 1000% by 11 June. Reaching a total of 1903% of its initial goal, the book is the most successful crowdfunded book in the UK. The foreword of the book was written by Tim Schafer, and a chapter was written by Stuart Ashen.[15][16] It was released on 19 September 2019 and was a Sunday Times best seller.[17]
On 26 September 2019, crowdfunding began for Hardcastle's second book, The Paradox Paradox, a Sci-Fi novel he has described as "a bit Star Trek, a bit Doctor Who, and a bit fucked up."[18][19] It reached its funding goal within 20 minutes.[20]
Personal life
Hardcastle is married to Rebecca Maughan,[21] an artist who illustrated Fuck Yeah, Video Games.[14] The couple have a number of pets including a German Shepherd, two budgies, a corn snake and four guinea pigs.[22][23][24]
Hardcastle's father, Steve "Dad³" Hardcastle, with whom he has regularly collaborated, started a YouTube channel in 2013; it has accumulated more than 300,000 subscribers and 23 million total views.[25]
Hardcastle studied astrophysics at the University of Leicester, but dropped out after the first year.[26][27]
References
- ^ a b "About OfficialNerdCubed". YouTube.
- ^ "Nerd Cubed Limited - Officers". Companies House. Archived from the original on 23 October 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
- ^ "Nerd³". Nerd³. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
- ^ a b c "About OfficialNerdCubed". YouTube. Archived from the original on 29 April 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
- ^ "Nerd³ Machinima Compilation - 13 Ways to Die, GTA IV, Pokémals and more!". Retrieved 5 February 2020.
- ^ Reynolds, Matthew (1 September 2015). "Golden Joystick Awards voting now open". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 11 April 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
- ^ "Nerd³ Vs Emma Blackery - WWE '13". Youtube. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
- ^ "Nerd³ and TomSka Made A Video". Youtube. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
- ^ "Nerd³ and Hannah Hart Play... Kinect Party". Youtube. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
- ^ "Nerd³ Takes Ashens To Hell". Youtube. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
- ^ "Little and Cubed Vs Rockstar Games". Youtube. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
- ^ O'Dell, Liam (19 September 2019). "YouTube Reveals New Plans for Channel Verification". Teneighty magazine. TENEIGHTY DIGITAL LTD.
- ^ "Nerd³ Plays with VR Boobies". Retrieved 5 February 2020.
- ^ a b "Unbound crowdfunding record smashed by gamer Dan NerdCubed". thebookseller.com. 6 June 2018. Archived from the original on 25 August 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
- ^ Fogarty, Paul (18 September 2019). "Book Review - F**k Yeah, Video Games by Daniel Hardcastle aka. NerdCubed". Here is the City. GRV Media Ltd. Archived from the original on 23 October 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
- ^ "Nerd³'s Book Update - With BIG News!" on YouTube
- ^ "The Sunday Times Bestsellers List — the UK's definitive book sales chart". The Sunday Times. Times Newspapers Limited. 29 September 2019. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
- ^ "The Paradox Paradox". Unbound. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
- ^ "The Paradox Paradox announcement". InfluencerUpdate. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
- ^ @unbounders (26 September 2019). "AND THERE IT GOES. 100% in 20 minutes!!!! @dannerdcubed's #TheParadoxParadox is happening!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Maughan, Rebecca. "Hello, @DanNerdCubed and I did a thing". Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
- ^ Matilda Plays - Apps For Pets, retrieved 4 December 2019
- ^ @Mr_Rebecca (20 February 2020). "We took 3 home as I've never kept Guinea pigs before and I wanted to make sure we didn't take more than we could cope with" (Tweet). Retrieved 21 February 2020 – via Twitter.
- ^ @Mr_Rebecca (7 April 2020). "Say hello to Rhys" (Tweet). Retrieved 12 April 2020 – via Twitter.
- ^ "About OfficialDadCubed". YouTube. Archived from the original on 30 October 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
- ^ "Nerd³ Plays... Universe Sandbox". Archived from the original on 5 September 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
- ^ Hardcastle, Daniel (September 2019). Fuck yeah, video games : the life and extra lives of a professional nerd. London. ISBN 978-1-78352-787-8. OCLC 1080999469.
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