Jared Knabenbauer

Jared Lee Knabenbauer (born August 28, 1985)^[1] is an American comedic actor and YouTuber (under the pseudonyms DMJared or ProJared), known for his reviews and discussions of video games and tabletop role playing games (RPGs), especially video games that are also RPGs or retro games that most people have probably never heard of.^[2] His character in DCA is Diath Woodrow, a human rogue he's played in several previous campaigns.^[3]

Personal Life and Career

Born in Green Bay Wisconsin^[1] as the elder fraternal twin of Derek Knabenbauer (known on YouTube as DKlarations)^[4], Jared grew up playing early editions of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) with his brothers and their friends.^[3] He began posting videos on YouTube as "DMJared" in 2006, then later changed it to ProJared to apply to other game platforms.^[5] He posted his first game review in 2010 to make fun of "Two Worlds", which he felt was lacking honest reviews.^{[1, 3]} His comedic facial expressions and sarcastic style won him a large internet following even before YouTube had become a part of popular culture.^[5] He later began several series of online game reviews either on his own or as a member of ScrewAttack, including Nametags, Hard News, SideScrollers, and NewsRoom, and wrote episodes for ScrewAttack's Video Game Vault and Top Ten. While working for ScrewAttack, he lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas, then split from them in 2012 to focus on his own series of videos, including ProReview, One Minute Review, and the Nuzlocke Pokemon challenge. He joined Normal Boots after their relaunch in 2014, along with other well known YouTubers who he had worked with in the past.^[5] He moved to Los Angeles California in 2016,^[3] where he was able to hang out with fellow Waffle Crew member Holly Conrad and her husband Ross O'Donovan, who was part of the video game review group Game Grumps. Unfortunately, due to a neighbor's plumbing accident that damaged his home, he and his wife, cosplay artist Heidi O'Ferrall, were forced to relocate to Seattle, Washington in 2017.

In 2017, Jared invited Holly, Ross, and several other members of Game Grumps (who had never played a tabletop RPG before) to take part in a 5E D&D campaign that he DM'ed, which they recorded for podcast and titled "Dragons in Places".^[6]

Jared also made a cameo appearance in Nickelodeon's "Game Shakers" series.^[1]

Role in Dice, Camera, Action!

Given his YouTube fame and penchant for D&D discussions such as his D&December segments,^[3] Jared came to the attention of WotC digital marketing manager Greg Bilsland, who asked him to put together a group of fellow internet personalities who would be willing to experience an online campaign of fifth edition D&D run by Dungeon Master Chris Perkins.^[7] Jared chose to play his longtime rogue favorite, Diath Woodrow, although he admits that the character had never been as fleshed out as he became over the course of the DCA series.^[3] Jared still insisted that Diath be played as an adventurer and not the stereotypical thief, as pick pocketing was something that the character would be morally against, and he preferred using his sleight of hand for dungeon delving and disabling traps.^[7] Regarding rogues, he enjoys "all of the not-combat stuff ...the utility of finding traps, picking locks, scouting ahead. I don't really care about the sneak attack damage." ^[8] Jared admits that he enjoys playing Diath because "a lot of his personality traits are bits of me, but enhanced ten-fold" and reflect the way Jared sees himself as reacting or handling situations.^[7] With the exception that, "He's more serious than I actually am." ^[8]

Jared initially debated whether he would play Diath in ProJared's typical over-the-top style, but decided to let him be quieter and serious, to act as a foil^[7] to Holly's frantic antics as Strix, or Anna's eccentric over-enthusiastic portrayal of Evelyn. He has commented that it's easier to create comedic situations when they are all together doing live shows, because they can "play off each other" and exchange directed looks.^[9] He acknowledges that roleplaying Diath can be hard at times: "The more serious and emotional bits can get tough. It takes a certain trust around the table for someone to display raw emotions like that. I'm not great at it, but I'm getting better!" ^[8]

Jared has admitted to having certain character pairings ("ships") that he's a fan of, but has only confirmed that "PaultinXEscher was the best ship that never happened." ^[8] If there were one NPC Diath could have saved, however, Jared would have picked Falcon, saying "I really felt like they were about to become total bros." ^[8]

Although the DCA crew are all notorious for bad luck with dice rolls, Jared is particularly cursed.^[9] When any of the players roll a 1, his usual response is, "Welcome to the waffle crew!" If he were forced to let Diath die and start a new character, he has shown openness to playing a "Battlemaster Fighter or a Barbarian".^[8] If he could multiclass Diath he thought he might add another martial class, and "maybe eventually get enough Fighter levels to get the Battlemaster maneuvers, because I think those are rad and would fit with him taking lead on the battlefield".^[8] He has also expressed interest in Sorcerers, saying, "I think the metamagic options are tight and I like the innate spellcasting", with another possible option for Diath's multiclass being a Wizard due to him "being surrounded by all these magical people ...that he would somehow pick up some magic himself".^[8]