Character page for the video game website Giant Bomb.
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Editors
Dan Ryckert
Dan left the site in early 2020 to become a podcast producer for WWE before coming back in June 2022 as the site's creative director. He also currently co-hosts the "Fire Escape" podcast with friends of the site Mary Kish and Mike Mahardy.
- Author Appeal: Like Jeff and Alex, is a huge professional wrestling fan to the extent that the latter two have toned down their interest in it. Also, based on the games he picks for Unprofessional Fridays, gets a lot of enjoyment out of games with floppy, Ragdoll Physics enabled characters.
- Dan is also a huge fan of Waluigi, and hopes that someday the latter will get his own game.
- The Bus Came Back: Dan left in 2020 to work for WWE, but quit that job and returned to Giant Bomb two years later.
- Captain Patriotic
- The Ditz: After only a few weeks on the Giant Bomb staff, several comments made by Dan (including not knowing about Africa's involvement in World War II despite having a history minor, having to have the concept of a car's title explained to him at the DMV
, and believing that "egg whites" were actually the egg shells and attempting to cook them) have firmly established him as this. - Dreadful Musician
- Eagleland: 80's style!
- Friendly Rivalry:
- With Brad Shoemaker. The friendliness is up for debate, though, especially during the Mario Party videos.
- Even more pronounced with Patrick Klepek, since Dan has taken to creating fiendishly difficult Super Mario Maker levels for Patrick to beat, culminating in a grueling 72-hour challenge known as The Ryckoning. While the two men were quite friendly, and Dan quite gracious, when Patrick Skyped Dan to accept Dan's defeat, mere minutes before Patrick had been cursing Dan's name and Dan had been lobbing grade-school-level insults at Patrick over Periscope. A rematch is scheduled, rules to be determined.
- Genki Guy: He's a very upbeat and energetic fellow.
- Heel: Very much intentionally, being a wrestling fan. Nowhere is it better seen than in his Mario Maker rivalry with former Bomber Patrick Klepek, in which Dan will create a fiendishly difficult Super Mario Maker level (sometimes with input from the audience), and Patrick will meticulously work his way through it during his Mario Maker Mornings livestream. It came to a head during The Ryckoning, in which Dan challenged Patrick to complete the eponymous level in 72 hours with no outside help, and then proceeded to break the spirit of the challenge himself by accepting outside help in the creation of the level. Patrick still defeated him with nearly a day to spare, but not without taking a noticeable toll in exhaustion and mental stress. Dan kept up his Heel persona (if it is a persona) by livestreaming his reactions to Patrick's attempts to beat the level, cackling maniacally at particularly satisfying deaths and lobbing grade-school-level taunts at Patrick.
- He later took this to the next level by getting his Heel wrestling manager persona featured in APW. Behold "Dirty" Dan Ryckert, Bay Area investor extraordinaire.
- He later took this to the next level by getting his Heel wrestling manager persona featured in APW. Behold "Dirty" Dan Ryckert, Bay Area investor extraordinaire
- Horrible Judge of Character: Displayed this, over and over, during the Avalon stream.
- Manchild
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!
- Odd Friendship: Despite his pre-Giant Bomb friendship with Jeff, Dan's most frequent partner for Giant Bomb content has rapidly become Drew. So far, they have partnered for Metal Gear Scanlon (Drew plays the Metal Gear Solid games while Dan watches), Demo Derby (Drew and Dan play through old demo discs), and Films and 40s (a RiffTrax-like podcast where Drew and Dan watch a movie together).
- The Pollyanna: Although he's struggled with anxiety and panic attacks in the past, he's still an optimistic and jovial guy.
- Selective Obliviousness
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: With Jose Canseco.
- To a lesser extent John Drake, to the point that when asked if he would rather be able to shapeshift or teleport he chose the former mostly due to the various ways he could use the power to troll Drake.
- To a lesser extent John Drake, to the point that when asked if he would rather be able to shapeshift or teleport
- The Slacker: He is apparently quite proud of the fact that he managed to complete a full college degree with very little effort thanks to strategic picking of courses and negotiating with professors for alternate projects. The results are quite apparent since he has never seen neither The Godfather nor Citizen Kane despite having majored in Film Studies; claimed all his knowledge about The Renaissance came from Assassin's Creed II despite having a minor in History and he had no idea who Jane Austen was before discussing Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell on the Bombcast despite writing for a living.
- His first post-college job was in the Garmin Tech Support helpline... in which he claims he would nearly always transfer the calls to someone else (especially the Software Department, which is supposed to deal with actual technical software issues, not "old people who don't know how GPS works") while he spent the day writing game reviews on his computer.
- Troll: One of his first appearances on Giant Bomb, before being hired, was detailing an elaborate prank he set up on a dating site.
- He also admitted that during his college days he would drop stink bombs to clear queues for drinks in crowded bars.
Jeff Grubb
Tamoor Hussain
Lucy James
Video Producers
Jan Ochoa
Hired in November 2017, now a Senior Video Producer and the host of the Giant Bombcast as of 2022.
- Ascended Fanboy: Like a lot of Giant Bomb hires, has professed to being a fan of the site before being hired on.
- The Quiet One: For his first few months as a new hire, Jan mostly concentrated on his productions duties. Other than a few comments in Bombcasts and making a Top 10 list for 2017, most of his work for the site has been behind the scenes.
Other Employees
Jeff Bakalar
- Ascended Extra: The Beastcast guest from another website is now the most prominent member of Giant Bomb.
- Author Appeal: Jeff is a big fan of hockey.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Jeff claims to have never liked his first name, to the point that while he was in school his friends would call him "G" (a reference to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, despite the character in question being named "Geoffrey"). However, ever since, he never came up with a satisfying alternative.
- Fake Guest Star: Despite Vinny and Alex initially claiming that there would be "rotating guests" for the Beastcast with Jeff as a fallback option, Jeff has been the guest for the vast majority of the episodes. In at least one episode, (Episode 12) Jeff was there alongside the special guest (Samantha Kalman). Even in episodes in which someone sits in Jeff's place, the others will often state that Jeff had another prior arrangement, giving the idea that the guest is the fallback for Jeff rather than the other way around.
- Jeff has also appeared on a number of GBeast Quick Looks. It's gotten to the point that he has to regularly remind people, online and off, that he doesn't actually work for Giant Bomb.
- Finally averted once Austin left and he "officially" inherited the "non-rotating chair".
- Running Gag: Vinny coming up with incredibly bad puns for Jeff's last name.
- As the Beastcast progressed, he would increasingly get jokes suggesting that his CNET job was predominantly about reviewing refrigerators.
Fictional Characters
Brett
The man in charge of gathering advertisements for the Bombcast and reading them during the podcast. Voiced by Jeff Gerstmann.
- Appropriated Appelation: His name came from a Bombcast email where the sender repeatedly misnamed Jeff as "Brett" while simultaneously expressing his enjoyment of the "latter's" repeated rants about Final Fantasy X-2, which Jeff immediately took in stride:"Brett": [Deadpan] All right, Brett here: just wanted to let you know...
Small Business Man
A recurring character in the Bombcast ads, often told how the advertised product in question can help his small business. Voiced by Vinny Caravella.
- Phrase Catcher: "Hey Small Business Man!"
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: On the current Bombcast ads Brad plays a character that fills a similar role to the Small Business Man but has yet to be called by the title while Vinny has reprised the role when on the Bombcast.
Dr. Tracksuit
"The Prescriber of Pain" with a dubious doctorate, Dr. Tracksuit tends to only emerge from hiding during League of Heels events. The only one who can control him is his "manager" Jeff Gerstmann, to whom he bears a slight but entirely coincidental resemblance.
Former Employees
Jeff Gerstmann
Jeff was the last of the original members to leave, starting his own Patreon-funded podcast "The Jeff Gerstmann Show" in June 2022.
- Author Appeal: Cyberpunk, 90's Gangster Rap, things that are
So Bad, It's Good, dubstep and clicker games. - Born Unlucky: It has long being theorized that there are cosmic forces in play that refuse to allow him to have any kind of luck in Mario Party, as the little he does get is immediately recalled.
- Catchphrase: "I'm the best [insert game]note player in the world."
- "I was just holding [obscure game/console/peripheral] not 24 hours ago." and variations there of.
- Chewing the Scenery
- Dirty Old Man: Jeff often plays this up for comedy.
- Knight in Sour Armor
- Nerves of Steel
- The Leader
- The Lancer: Played this role to Ryan Davis. Plays it for Brad solely on the Bombcast.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: His spot on Brad imitation.
- Picky Eater: Admits that he "eats like a child", although he's admitted to getting better about this recently (and even at his worst, was likely never as bad as Dan Ryckert).
- Rebellious Spirit
- Self-Deprecation: Jeff frequently mocks himself and the website."This is the worst fucking website in the world. They funded this and this is what we're doing with it!"
- During a Bombcast ad for Squarespace:
Vinny: "How's their video player?"Jeff: "Probably better than ours." - Sir Swears-a-Lot: Most of the site throws profanity around happily, but Jeff in particular punctuates almost every other sentence with "fuck" or "shit"
- Suicide as Comedy: Whenever he is trying out a VR shooter, he will almost always at some point try to shoot himself in the head. During the 2016 GOTY deliberations, he was giddy at the fact that SUPERHOT VR requires you to do it at the end.
- During the PAX 2017 panel when an audience member compared them to SNL:
Jeff: I just want to be the Charles Rocket.Dan: No! He killed himself in a field!Jeff: Exactly. - Trash of the Titans: While not as bad as most, Jeff definitely has a lot of stuff piled up, enough to make a fake Hoarder's episode.
Ryan Davis
The other co-founder of the site alongside Jeff. He was the former host of the Giant Bombcast, as well as live shows. In addition, he reviewed games infrequently. Ryan passed away on July 3, 2013, at the age of 34.
- Ac CENT Uponthe Wrong Syl LA Ble: Liked to mispronounce words, but also liked to get overly angry at Will Smith for mispronouncing words...
- Author Appeal: Like Jeff, Ryan was a big fan of dumb things. He also enjoyed comic books.
- Big Fun
- Catchphrase: "Hey everybody, it's Tuesday [[insert date]] and you're listening to the Giant Bombcast!"
- Happily Married: Unfortunately, Ryan
passed only a few days after the ceremony. - In-Series Nickname: 'Taswell', which he used for his online aliases and in games. It was his great-grandfather's middle name that was also meant to be his, though Ryan's father mistakenly believed it to be 'Thomas', which Ryan's middle name ended up being.
- Lame Pun Reaction: The sound of a fist pounding the table, then "God-DAMNIT!"
- The Lancer: His role in video content, which usually involved him playing off of Jeff.
- The Hero: Conversely, Jeff was his Lancer during the Bombcast, as Jeff-edited and hosted podcasts were madness, and Ryan kept thing structured and made the show run on time.
- Platonic Life-Partners: He and Jeff were best friends, and at one point were considering leaving games journalism to pursue a career strictly in comedy together.
Vincent "Vinny" Caravella
Vinny left the site to form Nextlander alongside Alex and Brad in May 2021.
- Author Appeal: Games with a heavy focus on story. Will read companion novels (no matter how bad) and complete any sidequest promising to reveal even the tiniest amount of background information or lore. He also likes (more compelled) to complete collectables if a game has them. Vinny also has a thing for old FMV.
- Catchphrase: "It is the best time to be playing videogames"
- Constantly Curious: According to Austin, even outside of content on the site, Vinny is constantly asking his co-workers to explain recent trends or things he doesn't understand to him.
- The Big Guy
- The Gadfly: In contrast to Dan, who plays up being an obnoxious jerk while playing a heel, Vinny can switch from being genuinely honest, to messing with everyone for laughs in an instance, without anyone realizing. He's so good at it that he managed to mess with Dan multiple times during the other's trip to New York City.
- Happily Married: As well as a father to two kids.
- Large Ham Radio: Has been training to get a HAM Radio licence for years.
- Memetic Mutation: Possibly. A Bombcast email claimed that after substantial investigation, he discovered that Vinny was actually the first recorded person to refer to something as the "Dark Souls of X" on the Internet (Vinny highly doubts it).
- N-Word Privileges: Vinny has a Berserk Button for Italian-American stereotypes but that doesn't mean he doesn't get to occasionally indulge in them.
- Signature Style: A Vinny edited video or podcast will always have the extra effort of background music where others don't and he has a strong preference for jazz.
- Younger Than They Look: He's the same age as Brad but he used to look older than the rest of Giantbomb due to his shaved hair. Recently though time seems to have caught up to the crew and at this point Vinny might look like the youngest besides Drew.
Brad Shoemaker
Brad left the site to form Nextlander alongside Alex and Vinny in May 2021. He can also be heard on the "Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod" podcast with friend of the site Will Smith.
- Author Appeal: Emotional games, deeper meanings. And StarCraft. And Dota 2. Outside of video games, Brad has a soft spot for anything involving Guinea Pigs; and at least one of his Extra Life home livestreams devoted a number of hours to him showing off and feeding his.
- Catchphrase: "Emails!", "Oh no!", "Come here, you!", "I'm out!"
- Friendly Rivalry: With Dan Ryckert. The friendliness is up for debate, though, especially during the Mario Party videos.
- The Lancer: Outside of the Bombcast, he's this to Jeff.
- Performance Anxiety: Brad seems to have the most trouble out of everyone when it comes to public panels in front of large crowds. He's usually the most nervous/quiet host during these events.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: Oh yeah.
- Took a Level in Badass: After unlocking the infamously difficult Mile High Club achievement in Call of Duty 4.
- Undying Loyalty: Has this to Giant Bomb, according to others on the site.
- Up Through the Ranks: Became the host of the podcast.
- The World's Expert (on Getting Killed): Brad dies the most of anyone on the show; to the point that "Time to Brad" was a counter to how long each video would take before Brad's first death. Peaked at his infamous showing during the Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection quick look.
Alex Navarro
Alex left the site to form Nextlander alongside Vinny and Brad in May 2021.
- All Drummers Are Animals: Alex is a drummer, and played in Jeff's band for a time- which is the connection that eventually got him his job at GameSpot and later Giant Bomb. He also worked for Harmonix for a time, promoting Rock Band.
- Author Appeal: Likes sports games (especially Madden), music games, and things that are cute- especially yarn Kirby and wool Yoshi.
- Butt-Monkey: Alex has been forced to review terrible games since his GameSpot days, from Big Rigs to Rambo. For the longest time, his only contribution to the Game of the Year deliberations was as a call-in for an award for the worst games of the year, because he played more of those than actual good games.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Friend to All Living Things: Alex is a big fan of animals, and has mentioned his cats multiple times, as well as going to see animals on his vacations. One of his most consistent reactions in games is dismay and anger when characters or his co-workers do anything that could get an animal hurt, including not wanting to play Far Cry 4 because he doesn't want to hunt and skin elephants.
- In-Series Nickname: When deciding on a name for Patrick and Alex's two-man video feature, Jeff insisted on ending every suggestion with "with Scoops and the Wolf". Alex does not fully understand why he is "The Wolf".
- The Movie Buff: For a while, Alex worked for Giant Bomb's sister site, Screened, a film equivalent to GB.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Alex has developed a longstanding feud with the very concept of Minions, which lead to the creation of "The Minion Cup", a trophy adorned with Minion stickers to be awarded to the winner of the Giant Beast Summer Games.
- Straight Man: Is this to Vinny in many Giant Bomb East videos.
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Very apparent when looking at his GameSpot days, especially after taking on a more prominent role at Giant Bomb after Vinny moved to New York.
- The Woobie: Alex has mentioned serious problems with depression, and spent most of his time with Giant Bomb working alone on the other side of the country from the crew. He's clearly the most nervous of them when he does show up for an event or panel, and each time he starts getting along with one of the newer members of the crew (Patrick, Austin), they end up leaving shortly thereafter. Fortunately, Vinny moving to NY and the Giant Beastcast getting formed has helped a lot.
Drew Scanlon
- Ascended Extra: Unlike much of the Giant Bomb staff, he was not a former GameSpot editor but was originally hired as an intern. After being hired full time, he occasionally made guest appearances in Quick Looks and on the Bombcast when there was an empty seat. In the summer of 2013 he became a permanent member of the Bombcast and was included in the Game of the Year deliberations for the first time later that year.
- Author Appeal: Extremely realistic and realistically complicated military/vehicle simulators. He's a bit of a military/outdoors nut in general. Also loves world travelling, which is probably half the reason he's the one who tends to go on the crew's crazy adventures (like to Iceland for Eve Online's Fanfest)
- Call of the Wild Blue Yonder: Drew is fascinated with planes and frequently plays flight simulators on the site. As of 2016, Drew has begun taking actual flying lessons to get a real pilot licence.
- Celebrity Resemblance: Commonly compared with Michael C. Hall.
- With his beard and longish hair, he has recently been compared with Troy Baker.
- Deadpan Snarker: Unlike most of the crew, Drew is fairly quiet and reserved, but manages his share of witty, well-timed barbs.
- Even the Guys Want Him
- Formerly Fat: Once mentioned that he was "kind of a fat kid" in high school.
- Memetic Mutation: Drew blinking, which just exploded out of the blue. Doubly ironic since it involved a 2013 clip and it blew up right before he announced his departure from the site.
- Morality Pet: If the 2014 GOTY deliberations were anything to go by, Drew's this for Alex Navarro. Navarro repeatedly pointed out how his decisions were influenced by if a game negatively affected Drew.
- The Movie Buff: Seems to watch more movies than he plays games; he frequently quotes entire exchanges in film at the drop of the hat, and started the Film and 40's podcast with Dan.
- Odd Friendship: With Dan Ryckert. As listed in Dan's character section, they have done a lot of videos together.
- The Quiet One: He spoke the least on the Bombcast, and played the least amount of video games.
- The Stoic: The most calm and emotionally reserved of the duders. Seeing him truly angry is extremely uncommon, and he has rarely, if ever, cursed on camera. However...
- Not So Stoic: He has his moments, such as in Metal Gear Scanlon and the Mario Party videos, especially Mario Party 3. And then there was the Ghostship Aftermath Quick Look...
- Those Two Guys: Hosts Shift+F1 (formerly Alt+F1), an F1 podcast, with Danny O'Dwyer.
- Up Through the Ranks
Dave Snider
- Author Appeal: PC gaming and old-school RPGs. Games made in Russia.
- Happily Married
Ian Kelly
Behind-the-scenes tech guy who was sometimes heard in the background, and almost never seen. The guy that the Bomb Crew were talking to when they say "Can we get a little more game audio/big knob out here, Ian?"
Alexis Gallisá
Another site engineer who sometimes appeared in video features. Alexis left the site in October 2014 for a position at Twitch, though he occasionally pops in from time to time, most notably to co-host part of the crew's annual Extra Life streams alongside Drew.
Patrick Klepek
in December 2014, becoming a senior reporter for Kotaku then later Waypoint (hired by fellow alumnus Austin Walker), though he still occasionally pops up at convention panels and in a few videos.- Author Appeal: Has a strong personal interest in horror media and indie games. When it comes to writing, he enjoys examining the representation of women in games and considers himself a feminist.
- Also dinosaurs.
- Iconic Outfit: The hot dog suit he wore in the Happy Action Theater Quick Look has become this.
- Friendly Rivalry: With Dan Ryckert, ever since Dan has taken to creating fiendishly difficult Super Mario Maker levels for Patrick to beat, culminating in a grueling 72-hour challenge known as The Ryckoning. While the two men were quite friendly, and Dan quite gracious, when Patrick Skyped Dan to accept Dan's defeat, mere minutes before Patrick had been cursing Dan's name and Dan had been lobbing grade-school-level insults at Patrick over Periscope. A rematch is scheduled, rules to be determined.
- Growing the Beard: In multiple ways.
- Happily Married
- In-Series Nickname: Trick, Tricky, Scoops
- Intrepid Reporter: By the time he was hired at Giant Bomb, Patrick had already gained quite a name for himself, having the first report of the dismissal of Infinity Ward senior employees Jason West and Vince Zampella.
- Running Gag: After his departure from the site, whenever Patrick's name comes up on the Bomb/Beastcast, he's usually referred to as "some YouTuber".
- Theme Naming: In games with customizable character names, Patrick always names his characters after those from Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.
Matt Rorie
- Author Appeal: Still plays World of Warcraft. Also a huge dog lover.
- Catchphrase: "You're a(n) X", where X is any random noun or phrase used by someone else.
Jason Oestreicher
- The Alleged Expert: He's legitimately the best at fighting games on the crew; but Dan's lack of knowledge making him impossible to read results in Jason losing every time he plays on a livestream.
- Angrish: Usually after losing to Dan in a fighting game.
- Ascended Extra: He started out as a strictly behind the scenes guy to let Vinny spend more time as an on-camera personality. Then Vinny moved to New York and Giant Beast was founded, and Jason had to start rotating in guest appearances with Drew. Now Jason is a frequent part of the Bombcast, a mainstay of Unprofessional Fridays and cohosts Ranking of Fighters with Jeff.
- Author Appeal: Likes Street Fighter and other fighting games, monster hunting games, and anime. If he's guesting on the Bombcast, chances are there's some news relating to fighting games to discuss.
- Happily Married: His wife and newborn son have appeared with him on multiple livestreams.
- Loser Leaves Town: The rivalry between himself and Dan eventually culminates in the two playing a Loser Leaves Town match, which Jason decisively won- sending Dan packing to join the Giant Beast team in New York.
- Older Than They Look: Has been married twice, and has a son that's old enough to live on his own, but looks younger than most of the crew other than Drew.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Dan:Jason: Dan is an idiotic manchild. Annoying as shit. And I love him as much as I hate him.
Austin Walker
, Austin Walker was announced as the new News Editor at the end of the 5/29/16 Giant Beastcast. In addition to writing news articles for the site, he was a regular on the Giant Beastcast and appeared on the Powerbombcast. Austin announced his departure from the site in June 2016, becoming the editor-in-chief for the newly-established Waypoint (bringing fellow alumnus Patrick on board in the process).- Ascended Fanboy: Was a big fan of the site before being hired on.
- Author Appeal: Has mentioned that he will automatically be more interested in a game if it involves giant robots of some kind. Also joins the stable of Giant Bomb wrestling fans, to the point of being added to the Powerbombcast, and was one of the few members of the site with a legitimate desire to be the Anime Editor.
- Game Master: Started a yearly tradition on the Beastcast of GMing a tabletop roleplaying game with the GBEast crew, along with Jeff Bakalar and Pat Baer, during the holidays. This continued even after Austin left Giant Bomb. He also regularly plays the GM role for Friends at the Table, an actual play podcast.
- Punny Name: Man likes mechs.
- The Smart Guy: Is a PhD candidate in Media Studies from the University of Western Ontario.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He appears to have the same social justice sensibilities as Patrick, as became especially clear after they began working together at Waypoint.
Abby Russell
A video producer whose hire was announced on 5/01/17, and the first female member of the team. She was a regular on the Giant Beastcast and co-hosted My First E3 with Ben from 2017 to 2019. Left the site at the end of November 2020 in order to pursue other interests, eventually becoming a creative producer at G4.
- Author Appeal: Abby's time on the site brought focus to some corners of the video game world that might have otherwise gone unnoticed such as the Nancy Drew series, mobile games with a narrative focus (such as Florence), and perhaps most notably The Sims.
- The Gambling Addict: If the Steal My Sunshine premium series is any indication. Several times she has made a bet on one outcome and, when nobody takes her up on it, switched to the opposite outcome just to be able to gamble.
- Improv: Is an active performer at Magnet Theater in New York City, and has brought up improv warmups both before streams and on the Beastcast.
- Jump Scare: Seems to have a low tolerance for these, between a session of Resident Evil 7 in VR and getting a jolt out of a Windows 10 notification while playing a Nancy Drew PC game.
- Play the Game, Skip the Story: Has expressed this instinct on several occasions. While she enjoys games that have a narrative focus, in games like Hitman, where the storyline is somewhat secondary she skips the cutscenes to get right to the action.
- The Smurfette Principle: Is the first female member of the Giant Bomb team.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Her "sister" Margaret pays a visit to the Beastcast to show off her flawless accent from Sydney, Australia.
Ben Pack
Formerly an intern during the Whiskey Media days, Ben was announced as the new Giant Bomb West hire on 5/01/17. Left in January 2021 to take a job out of the public eye.
- Author Appeal: Has interests in common with several fellow Giant Bomb West employees: like Brad he is a fan of Dota 2, and is into fighting games just like Jason.
- The Bus Came Back: Though he left the full-time staff in January '21, he did return for a stint on the Bombcast later that year.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Has taken to doing Aussie and Scottish accents on the Bombcast in response to listener quizzes about regional slang, which led to a bit with Jeff about studying accents at university.
- Good News, Bad News: Found out he had been hired by Giant Bomb on the same day his house burned down.
- Never Heard That One Before: Ben tends to have this reaction to tall jokes; at 6'10" he's probably heard most of them already.
Dave Nilasca
A digital marketing employee for CBS Interactive who oversees revenue streams for the site. Business Dave likes it when the numbers go up. Left at some point in 2021 to take a position at Fanbyte.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Occasionally turned up in behind-the-scenes videos before becoming a more regular fixture in Giant Bomb West content.
- One-Steve Limit: As the second Dave to be a staff member who regularly appears in content (even though Dave Snider was long gone before he started), he tends to get referred to as "Business Dave."
- Out of Focus: Once the pandemic shut down the Giant Bomb West office, Business Dave stopped appearing in video content entirely and only occasionally popped up in the newsletter.
Jess O'Brien
AKA VoidBurger. Originally brought in to produce Hot Takeouts, a video essay series, she gradually started producing and appearing on more content until she was finally announced as a member of staff proper in October '21. Jess was unfortunately laid off alongside Jason in January 2023.
- Ascended Fangirl
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Went by "VoidBurger" for her entire public life on the internet up until the Giant Bomb hire and still uses it for her non-GB content.
Friends of the Site
Pat Baer
A comedian with the UCB Theatre in New York. Pat has guested on the Beastcast several times, and Giant Bomb members will regularly appear on his "404ing It: Breaking (Down) the Internet" panels at PAX and other conventions, featuring strange videos from around the internet.
Ed Boon
Co-creator of the Mortal Kombat series, and the Creative Director of NetherRealm Studios, formerly of Midway Games.
Adam Boyes
Norman Chan
Of Tested.com. Used to be part of Whiskey Media with the guys.
- Those Two Guys: With Will Smith.
John Drake
Director of Portfolio Strategy at PlayStation, formerly of Harmonix.
- Shameless Self-Promoter
- Enraged by Idiocy: Has taken to viewing Dan as an ill omen for Giant Bomb
- Trademark Favorite Food: Diet Coke.
Cara Ellison
Freelance writer.
- Walking the Earth: Spent 2013-14 traveling the world doing embedded reports on various game developers.
Rich Gallup
Producer at Disruptor Beam. Used to work at GameSpot with the guys.
Janina Gavankar
Actress and star of Star Wars Battlefront II (2017).
- Ascended Fangirl: Of both Giant Bomb and Star Wars, which culminated in her guesting on a Giant Bomb E3 panel after appearing on stage to announcer her role in Battlefront II.
Jeff Green
A consultant for Hit Detection. Former editor-in-chief of Computer Gaming World.
- Team Dad: He's garnered this image as one of the few prominent middle aged people in the video game journalism field.
Danika Harrod
Former social media manager for Waypoint. She and Abby have become good friends, and Danika has made several appearances on Giant Bomb videos.
Samantha Kalman
Game developer.
Greg Kasavin
Creative Director of Supergiant Games. Formerly a game journalist at GameSpot with the guys.
Matt Kessler
Account relations rep at Sony and a former Giant Bomb intern.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: When John Drake paid a visit to the Bombcast after being hired by Sony, one of the first topics brought up were the insane things said by Kessler that Drake had overheard, now that the two of them were coworkers.
Mary Kish
Producer at Twitch, and a former video producer for GameSpot. Currently co-hosts the "Fire Escape" podcast with Dan and Mike Mahardy.
- Distaff Counterpart: Has frequently been compared to Vinny.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Especially on the 6/30/17 Megadate.Alex: "It's weird how inviting Mary somehow brought a cloud of drunkenness to this whole experience."
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine
Dave Lang
Founder of Iron Galaxy Studios, formerly of Midway Games with Adam and Johnny V. Host of Team GFB Radio. History’s greatest monster.
Mike Mahardy
Former host and producer at GameSpot, and frequent guest on various Giant Bomb East podcasts and content. Currently co-hosts the "Fire Escape" podcast with Dan and Mary Kish.
Justin and Griffin McElroy
Co-hosts of My Brother, My Brother and Me and former editors at Polygon.
- Author Appeal: Every E3, Justin makes sure to book an appointment to see the new Sherlock Holmes game without fail.
- Double Entendre: Several made at Griffin's expense in reference to his Griffin's Amiibo Corner series, in which he puts various Amiibo into his mouth.
Greg Miller
Co-founder and host of Kinda Funny, formerly of IGN.
- Chewing the Scenery
- Shirtless Scene: Greg's shirt has come off on at least one E3 show, and is a frequent occurrence in his various non-GB appearances.
Brad Muir
Danny O’Dwyer
Independent video game documentarian at No Clip, formerly a host and producer at GameSpot.
- Ascended Fanboy
- Cluster F-Bomb: He's not afraid to swear in the slightest.
- Those Two Guys: Does Shift+F1 (formerly Alt+F1 before he and Drew left CBSi), an F1 podcast, with Drew Scanlon. He and Dan Ryckert also hosted Danswers, a podcast where both Dans answer questions pertaining to real life problems.
[[folder:Kenny Omega]]Professional wrestler and executive vice president of All Elite Wrestling.
Eric Pope
Community manager at UbiSoft, formerly of Harmonix. Used to occasionally contribute content to Screened during Alex and Rorie's tenure. Color commentator of League of Heels (formerly PAX Wrestling).
Paul Ryckert
Dan's dad, who has appeared in several features when he or Dan visit each other.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Possibly more so than Dan.
- Like Father, Like Son: He and Dan are very alike.
- The Nicknamer: According to Dan, once he gives you a nickname he will not let it go (for example, he nearly always refers to Jason as "Island Boy").
- Where Did We Go Wrong?: Paul frequently seems mystified about how his son manages to play video games for a living.
Will Smith
Founder of FOO VR, formerly of Tested.com. Used to be part of Whiskey Media with the guys. Currently co-hosts the tech podcast "Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod" with Brad.
- Memetic Mutation: Not one, but two pictures of him have reached meme status: the "happy" face image and his reaction to◊ the Oculus Rift.
- Those Two Guys: With Norman Chan.
Giancarlo Varanini
PR rep at Ubisoft, formerly of GameSpot. Used to co-host the Powerbombcast with Jeff, Alex and Dan.
John Vignocchi
Head of 3rd Party Portfolio Management at Creator/Nintendo. Former Vice President of Production for Disney Interactive Studios (primarily of Disney Infinity); formerly at Midway Games with Adam and Lang.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Johnny V. is a very nice guy with a terrible habit of saying things around the Giant Bomb crew that embarrass him or get him in trouble.
- Perhaps the worst one being the time he accidentally tweeted out Dave Lang's phone number during an E3 2015 livestream.
Xavier Woods
Xavier Woods, WWE professional wrestler and star of the Up, Up, Down, Down gaming series on YouTube.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: He and Dan have built up this relationship between several Soulcalibur matches (usually ending with Xavier having to eat something gross) and their League of Heels appearances.
