Ross Kenry O'Donovan is an Australian animator, voice actor, and Internet personality. He is known for his YouTube and Newgrounds cartoons. He co-hosted the internet show Steam Train, a spin-off of YouTube Let's Play webseries Game Grumps.[1]

Early life [ edit ]

Ross Kenry O'Donovan was born on 17 June 1987 in Perth, Western Australia to Irish parents. He graduated from Corpus Christi College.[2] On September 29, 2012, O'Donovan married Holly Conrad, a cosplayer, propmaker, and special effects artist who was featured in Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope, as well as Heroes of Cosplay.[3][4] On September 19th, 2018, Conrad and O’Donovan announced on their respective Twitter pages that they would be splitting up amicably due to reasons connected with Conrad’s recent move to Seattle.

Career [ edit ]

Animation [ edit ]

After graduating from Corpus Christi, O'Donovan studied and instructed animation at the Film and Television Institute of Western Australia in Fremantle, Western Australia.[5] O'Donovan's best known work is the series Gamer Tonight, which is voiced and co-written by animator Arin Hanson, and was produced for the ABC2 video game-based program Good Game.[6] The series features a fictitious talk show called Gamer Tonight with Richard Farkas, whose host would interview various types of gamers.[7] He also created the show Gameoverse, which featured Hanson in every speaking role. Gameoverse has since been put on hiatus, though O'Donovan has confirmed the series will return.[8] O'Donovan started animating on Newgrounds, under the name "RubberNinja." He then moved his animations to YouTube, but as a result of not being able to keep the username RubberNinja, he went under the name "RubberRoss." In January 2014, he received possession of the name RubberNinja, and uploaded a video on his old channel telling subscribers to transfer over to his new one. This video has since been removed.

In 2016, O'Donovan and Conrad were invited to Conrad's alma mater, UC Santa Barbara, to discuss their careers on YouTube at the Graphic Voices conference hosted by student organizations at the university.[9]

Game Grumps [ edit ]

After Jon Jafari's departure from Game Grumps in 2013, Hanson launched a second show on the Game Grumps platform, originally conceptualized by O'Donovan,[10] called Steam Train. This would replace a then-empty timeslot. Ninja Sex Party vocalist Dan Avidan joined O'Donovan as co-host of the show, where both play PC games (the title references the retailer Steam). This broadened the channel's output to three videos a day: on average, two standard Game Grumps episodes, and a single Steam Train episode. With the introduction of the show's second season, the parameters of Steam Train were expanded, allowing for O'Donovan and any member of Game Grumps to co-host (as opposed to only Avidan).

In addition to this, O'Donovan has acted as a co-host of other shows from the Game Grumps platform, including Grumpcade, Steam Rolled, and Hunting Monsters. O'Donovan was also a frequent guest on Table Flip. He has also authored multiple content-related animations for Game Grumps Animated.

Charity [ edit ]

In June 2015, O'Donovan launched a 5-episode miniseries, released on the Game Grumps channel, called Guild Grumps. O'Donovan mentored 4 members of the Game Grumps crew in a 5-day race to advance from Level 90 to Level 100 in the Warlords of Draenor expansion of World of Warcraft.[11] Each participant had $1,000 to donate to a charity of their choice, if they reached the goal. If they did not, their donation would be split between those who won. In the end, O'Donovan was the sole winner, and, combined with the participants' distributed funds, donated $5,000 to cancer research.

As of 2015, O'Donovan and Game Grumps have raised over $70,000 by hosting charity livestreams on Twitch.[12]

Influence [ edit ]

O'Donovan, alongside his cat, Orph, will appear as a playable character in the upcoming game, Hex Heroes. He will also provide voiceover work for his character.[13]

Filmography [ edit ]

Web series [ edit ]

Video games [ edit ]

Year Title Role 2017 Paradigm Double Denim Bridge Troll[14] 2017 Pinstripe Mr. Dicky TBA Hex Heroes Himself[15]