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Adam Lee Kovic (born February 20, 1985)[1][2] is a Croatian American online video content creator, content producer, actor (esp for live-action), voice actor (for animated cartoons), on-camera host (for shows and podcasts), reviewer, writer, director, gaming journalist, video game entertainer and Internet and YouTube personality who is best known for his recent, former work in Funhaus and Inside Gaming, divisions of Rooster Teeth. The segment combines the aspects of creating machinima and delivering gaming news. Throughout his time at Machinima, Kovic has since risen to be a popular star within the Machinima community. He was often seen in Halo 3-themed machinima form, which is recognizable by his lava-red Recon helmet.

Having recently worked as the Creative Director, main host and main personality of the Funhaus Team,[3] Adam is also a contributing co-anchor and gaming journalist of The Know (similar to Inside Gaming Daily or SourceFed) and is noted for his contributions in machinima animation from the Halo franchise, a form of film-making that uses video game technology in its production, and also works with animation and live action. Kovic is additionally known for his work in gaming journalism, hosting and podcasting field.

Having worked extensively at Machinima and Rooster Teeth, Adam Kovic has starred in numerous live action shows and animated cartoons such as Critical Flaw, Million Dollars, But... The Eleven Little Roosters, Creepy Text Theatre Animated, Civilization: The Movie, Inside Gaming Animated, Sex Swing, Red vs.Blue, Arby 'n' the Chief and Dr. 1UP. Before he and the rest of Funhaus got hired at Rooster Teeth, he was on Team Internet Celebrity (alongside Freddy Wong, iJustine, and Greg Miller) in the Gauntlet, and also appeared during the 2014 Extra Life Stream.

Formerly the "leader and face" (co-founder, co-creator, original host, main host and personality) of the Machinima Inc. subsidiary Inside Gaming, Adam was the "leader and face" (Creative Director, leading main host and main personality) of the FH team, where he visually lead the other co-hosts by providing the most on-screen and on-camera talent hosting (almost) every show. By focusing on the creative and artistic output direction of Funhaus and The Know, Adam was the go-to guy host representing the FH team when it came to hosting, producing, starring and competing in video content outside of Funhaus and The Know elsewhere at Rooster Teeth, YouTube and beyond, having a huge hand in the creative direction of things.[4]

Adam was fired from Funhaus and Rooster Teeth on October 7, 2020.[5]

Description

Adam is the resident straight man of Funhaus. He offsets the wackiness of Bruce, and cynicism of James. While he is the straight man, Kovic is the quietest of the trio, usually focused on playing games. He is usually seen accompanying his so-called "bitch face" which he calls his rested face. Many jokes and fan art imitate him as an emotionless person and as Pikachu. Let it also be known that Ben Affleck once tweeted @adamkovic.

Adam's Bio

Born to a family of some sort, Adam grew up around videogames maybe. After dropping out of what he thought was a college he went to work at some dump that was across the street from another dump. At that second dump, Adam found out about a place called MAACHEENNEMMMA. Seven years later he’s still here doing what he loves: Bruce.
— InsideGamingDaily.com bio[6]

Early Life and education

Adam Kovic grew up in the Los Angeles County, California area where he attended elementary and junior high school but lived in Santa Clarita, California for his high school and college. He grew up around (presumably) video games.

Education

Adam studied at Saugus High School for 4 years from 1999 until 2003. He began studying film, television, video editing and video production at College of the Canyons in 2003 at age 18 until dropping out in 2006 at age 21.[7][8][9][10][11]

When asked what did he think he was going to do for a living when he was growing up, Kovic replied: “I wanted to go into the military, I have a couple of family members who enlisted.” He then revealed an interesting fact, “My uncle Ron Kovic was actually played by Tom Cruise in the movie, ‘Born on the Fourth of July.”[12]

Career

Early career on TV shows: 2005-2008

Kovic started his early career working for a program called Attack of the Show, for the G4 channel. First, Adam worked in the Miscellaneous Crew department as a talent booking assistant (or Talent Assistant) in the Editorial Department at G4 Media for 10 months from September 2005 until June 2006. During an interview, Kovic stated: "That’s actually where I interned at in college and from there I got a job, dropped out of college to work at G4."[13] There, he worked on Attack of the Show along with the other assistants to the writer/producers before that whole "switch up" incident, interning there at college. He also made some friends, plenty of arch rivals and got to be in a few skits. Adam highly recommends this.

“It was a fun, but hectic time.” Kovic stated in an interview, “It was 2006, and no other show was reporting about what went on behind the scenes in the video game industry, my job was to cover things like developers going out of business, certain projects being cancelled or delayed, or reporting on any plot leaks to any game that was coming out soon.” Kovic explained he would then write scripts for the anchors to read on air as he was part of the behind the camera personnel. He then named many of the people he met through this job like Will Wheaton, Chris Hardwick, and Jessica Chobot. He also said he befriended James Willems and Bruce Greene, who he would work at Machinima with after his job at G4 had ended.

When asked as to why did he leave G4, Kovic replied: "I didn’t leave, I got fired.” He then continued, “Me and several other guys were fired after about a year because the network wanted to revamp the show because they weren’t happy with the ratings.” He then stated that his friend Bruce Greene got him a job at Machinima which would be a launchpad for his career.

Adam worked as a talent assistant on two episodes of Attack of the Show! (TV Series) from October 20, 2005, until May 15, 2006.

Next, he worked in the Editorial department section as an Additional Editor at 32Thirteen, LLC based in Culver City, California for 11 months from January 2008 until December 2008. There, he did a large portion of assembling first cut of a House Music Documentary, titled Unconscious Therapy (Documentary), which released on April 24, 2012.

Hosting and producing work: 2008–present

Machinima and Inside Gaming: 2006-2015

After this, Adam served as a Managing Producer (Executive Producer)/Host at Inside Gaming, a division of Machinima.com based in West Hollywood, CA for 8 years and 7 months from August 2006 until January 2015. There, he worked as a Host and producer for Machinima Inc. Adam Kovic co-hosted the Machinima series Inside Halo, which didn't do well due to a lack of Halo news; soon, Adam was the sole host. Inside Halo's lack of news caught up with it and the show was canceled in 2012. This led to him hosting the successor to Inside Halo, Inside Gaming Daily.

“I was there for eight years.” he continued, “It was my longest job I held by 6 and a half years.” He then went on to describe his transition from being behind the scenes to in front of the camera, “We had to not only write and produce our stories but then film, edit and upload them to YouTube.” It was because of this job that he began to get a bigger following and attracted fans to his new gaming news show which he, Bruce Greene, and James Willems and others titled it, ‘Inside Gaming’. Kovic and the other Inside Gaming guys and the other Inside Gaming guys were one of the earliest news shows on YouTube. "At first we were judged for being on YouTube and not on TV or being published in any gaming magazines.” He continued “People thought we were just dumb vloggers.” He then talked about how over the years newspapers and magazines have declined and now many have embraced YouTube and the internet as the future platform, ”Now almost every major news outlet has a YouTube channel.” He listed companies like CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.  He explained why he thinks the internet has taken over as the superior outlet, ” People like digestible content that only takes a few minutes to watch, they don’t have time to sit through an hour- long program where they don’t care about half of the news reports on TV.”

During their years at Machinima, the guys have not only been able to play games for a living but travel, meet fans and host events. Some of their fondest moments include a road trip where they barely spent time apart, and Bruce and Adam getting to host Inside Gaming Daily on the E3 stage live.

Kovic also explained how hectic the industry can be to report on, “Nothing is certain ever, not the content or release of a game, not the production of a funded kick starter, or an interview that you were promised, everything is always changing and nothing is ever guaranteed. He revealed how he tends to be very hard on himself and mainly remembers his screw-ups, one of his favourite screw-ups was during a review he referred to the game’ Far Cry 2′ as being, “like skyrim with guns” which was a comment his viewers didn't like. “I still get tweets that say stuff like, ‘ Hey x is like y with z‘.” His other memory was interviewing Nintendo COO, Reggie Fils-Aime, “Although Nintendo is very strict when it comes to press interviews and he had already scripted the questions I would ask him.”

During this time, Adam also appeared in several live-action shorts and animated cartoons at Machinima in addition to IG's gameplays, podcasts, fan Q&As, and video gaming news segments. He first appeared in the live-action web series Critical Flaw (TV Series) as himself (Kovic / Anonymous). The show ran for 11 episodes from October 23, 2009, until May 29, 2010, and was eventually cancelled due to its lack of popularity. On April 2, 2012, Adam starred as himself, representing Machinima during 1 episode (Nerdist vs. Machinima) of Chris Hardwick's All-Star Celebrity Bowling (TV Series). On February 7, 2013, Kovic hosted The 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards (TV Special) as the Green Room Host. On October 27, 2013, Kovic once again represented Machinima and Inside Gaming as Himself by taking part in one episode of Rooster Teeth's competition show The Gauntlet (TV Mini-Series). In early 2014, Adam voiced Master Chief in Dr. 1UP (TV Series). From October 27, 2014, until January 28, 2015, Adam voiced himself in 10 episodes of Inside Gaming Animated (TV Series). From January 29 till February 3, 2015, Adam voiced himself in Creepy Text Theatre Animated (TV Series). In regards to leaving Machinima, Kovic explained: “The company was going in a different direction than many people didn’t agree with, many of my friends were also leaving and I decided I wanted to roam greener pastures.” He then addressed the tough parts of leaving, “Machinima owns the name ‘Inside Gaming’, so I was leaving something I worked so hard on to reach the level of success that it did.” He then stated he was able to find another job at a web show called The Know and was actually able to find Bruce Greene a job, finally returning the favor he received in 2008.

Rooster Teeth (Funhaus, The Know): 2015-2020

On January 26, 2015, Adam Kovic has since left Machinima Inc and a large majority of InsideGaming left with him including, but not limited to, Bruce Greene, James Willems, Lawrence Sonntag, Sean Poole, Joel Rubin and Matt Peake. They all left together and formed the group Funhaus with Rooster Teeth , based in Rooster Teeth's offices and in Los Angeles, California. (more info here, here and here). He has since worked as a Content producer for Rooster Teeth Productions (Funhaus, The Know).

On February 19, 2015, Kovic was the first FH member to star in On The Spot. On February 20 (his 30th birthday), Adam joined Bruce, James and Lawrence at the first inaugural Let's Play Live concert at ACL Live, the Moody Theatre in Austin, Texas. On October 18, 2015, Kovic voiced Bully #2 in X-Ray and Vav (TV Series).

From February 28 till April 3, 2016, Kovic starred in three episodes of AH's Off-Topic Podcast. On February 3, 2016, Adam (representing Funhaus) starred in 1 episode of Million Dollars, But... and on December 31, 2016, Adam starred in Civilization: The Movie. From January 16, till March 6, 2017, Adam acted as Koko in 6 episodes of The Eleven Little Roosters (TV Mini-Series), the biggest live-action filming he had ever done since Critical Flaw. From February 17 till April 2017, Kovic voiced Tha Schling in Sex Swing. The show was cancelled after Season 1 due to weak viewership and poor reception. More recently, Adam starred as himself in 8 episodes of the live action YouTube web series Sugar Pine 7 (TV Series short) 

Adam was terminated from Rooster Teeth Productions on October 7, 2020. 

Role at Inside Gaming

Burnie Burns and Adam Kovik Machinima 2011

Adam Kovik and Burnie Burns presenting 'Best Animation' at Inside Gaming Awards 2011

Kovic was the co-anchor of the Inside Gaming Daily new show, with Bruce. He is the main face of Inside Gaming (as he is in Funhaus) in a way. Kovic could often be seen as the person who represents the audience during gaming and gaming related arguments.

Adam also worked as an Actor, Voice Actor, On-Screen Talent On-Camera Host, Content Producer, Gaming Journalist and Video game news reporter for Machinima, as he wrote, hosted, produced, and edited news updates spanning video games, movies, TV, tech, science, and pop culture in addition to weekly podcasts discussing video game culture and events as well as to appear in live action scripted and unscripted video content for Machinima.

Adam was also the Creative Director of Machinima, by visually serving as the leading main host, providing the most on-screen talent by sitting/standing in the area closest to the camera while Bruce, James, Lawrence, Spoole, and Joel were co-hosting in the background. Adam also represented Machinima and Inside Gaming when it came to hosting, producing, starring and appearing in video content (game shows, awards ceremonies, live streams, conventions and expos, etc.) outside of the Machinima and Inside Gaming office, thus focusing more on the company's visual artistic advertising and creative output direction.

  • Adam produced, wrote, filmed and edited comedy sketches for the weekly shows.
  • Hosted various weekly station shows
  • Acted as a host and reporter to interview guest celebrities.
  • Performed as host talent for weekly live-streamed shows and weekly pre-taped shows

While on the Inside Gaming channel Kovic was usually the one who controls the games as he does on Funhaus. Kovic is usually the one who suffers through the terrible games they play. While Bruce and James riff on the games in the background Kovic usually offers his opinion.

Role At Funhaus

Adam formerly worked as an online video content creator, actor, voice actor, main host (in shows, live streams and podcasts), Content Producer (in live-action shorts) and a Creative Director for the Funhaus division of Rooster Teeth Productions and was Bruce's right-hand man.

Adam was essentially the Creative Director of FH. Like Burnie, he visually lead the other hosts by providing the most on-screen and on-camera talent as he hosts every videos' shows, as he is a lot more visible and has a huge hand in the creative direction of things. He also represented Funhaus when it came to hosting, producing, starring and appearing in videos and live streams elsewhere at Rooster Teeth, YouTube and beyond.

On The Know, Adam writes, produces, hosts, co-stars and edit news updates spanning video games, movies, TV, technology products, science, and pop culture. He also hosts videos, live streams and weekly podcasts discussing video game culture and events, reviewing TV shows, movies and video games in a retrospective and comedic manner. Last but not least, Adam also appears as an actor, voice actor, content producer, and on-camera host in scripted and unscripted video content for Rooster Teeth, ranging from live action shorts and animated cartoons, such as Million Dollars, But... Red vs. Blue, Rooster Teeth Shorts, Camp Camp, Sex Swing, The Eleven Little Roosters, Rooster Teeth Shorts and more.

As the Creative Director, main host and main personality of Funhaus, he was seen being more visible as the leader by sitting/standing in the area of the office closest to the camera and providing the most on-screen and on-camera talent, as he hosts almost all of the shows with Bruce, James, Lawrence and Elyse standing and sitting behind him, visually leading the hosts. He also focused on Funhaus' creative direction by being the go-to guy for hosting and producing on-camera talent work outside of FH's office elsewhere at RT, representing the Funhaus team when it comes to appearing, hosting, starring and participating in live streams, fan events, and collaborations with other friends and colleagues of Rooster Teeth and YouTube outside of Funhaus and The Know.

Adam was also the co-anchor on The Know with Bruce Greene every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a job same to the one he used to do on the Inside Gaming Daily news show while at Machinima. Lawrence, James and Elyse serve as occasional secondary co-anchors. On The Know, Adam reviews video game news and technology products.

On the Funhaus channel, Kovic was one of the five main personality hosts. He primarily hosted most of the shows ranging from gameplays to podcasts to fan Q&As, and more. Outside of The Know and on the Funhaus channel, Adam also reviews video games, technology products, television shows and movies in a retrospective and comedic manner with Bruce, Lawrence, James and Elyse.

When it came to Funhaus' gameplays, Adam was considered to be the "lab rat" (test subject) of them, generally, the person who focuses on the technical aspect of the games games, operating the mouse, keyboard and Xbox controller if the gameplays are single player with other FH members in the background. In these types of gameplays, Kovic was the one who suffers through the terrible games they play, such as Steam Roulette, Demo Disk and Wheelhaus. While Bruce, and James riff on the games in the background making jokes, Kovic usually offers his opinion. This also works to describe what he did while on the Inside Gaming.

In addition to being the lab rat when it comes to single player gameplays with the other FH members sitting in the background providing comedic commentary, Adam's job mainly entails having to endure Bruce's "humping", James' cynicism and Lawrence's salty humour (they mostly provide background commentary) and suffer through the terrible games they play as he operates the technicality of the gameplay controls (mouse, keyboard, Xbox controller) sitting on the chair closest to the camera.

In regards to Q&As like Open Haus, Adam sits at his own individual desk to answer questions from the fanbase in a laid back and non-serious style as do the rest of the hosts, who also sit at their individual workstation gaming desks.

There are also videos of multiplayer coop gameplays where Adam, along with Bruce, James, Lawrence, Elyse and formerly Spoole and Joel, would test out their teamwork skills and take down another enemy (such as in Overwatch) by all playing the game in multiplayer and providing comedic commentary from their individual gaming desks, rather than it be a single player (one FH member is the test subject while other members spectate and commentate).

As of 2017, Adam has stepped back to allow Lawrence take the spotlight and become the "lab rat" when it comes to single player gameplays against the fans and joining the other FH members (James, Bruce and Elyse) as a spectator and commentator, commenting in the background, but still continues to serve as the single-player lab rat for games such as in Demo Disk.

Awards and nominations

1 nomination

Year

Award Name

Nomination

Notes

2014 The Streamy Awards Nominated Streamy Award Best Collaboration

The Gauntlet (2012) 

Shared with:

Freddie Wong 

Justine Ezarik 

Greg Miller 

Family life

Adam was born and raised in the Los Angeles, California, where he currently resides but resided in Santa Clarita, California for his high school and college education. His mother's name is Suzanne Marie Goddard. He is of Czechoslovakian and Croatian descent.[14][15][16][17][18] His wife's family is of Hispanic descent.[19] His dad's side of the family comes from Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Croatia. In terms of his heritage, he was raised speaking English, and has always spoken English (along with a bit of Spanish, having lived in Southern California his whole life) and hardly learned any of the languages of his dad's side. He cannot speak Czech or Croatian but has future plans to learn Japanese and German[20] Even Kovic's surname actually derives from Kovachevich/Cavachkovic, just like how his paternal uncle Ron Kovic's father Eli was born with the last name Kovacevic in Chisholm, Minnesota to a Croatian immigrant mother Anna Delivuk.[21][22] Because he is of Croatian descent, his surname is pronounced as "Kovich" and it's also a very common Croatian surname. Kovač, which is a Croatian surname shortened form Kovačević, is a South Slavic surname meaning son of blacksmith or any other son of surnames ending in ković. It ended up getting shortened when his family came to Ellis Island in America after World War II from Croatia and Yugoslavia, they changed Kovachievich to Kovic because America was founded on the belief that you can do anything as long as your name is less than three syllables and has no accents. He said he's of split Croatian and Czech heritage, ince that is where his grandparents were from.[23] He has a sibling named Jessica Marie and a brother Louis Bon "Louie" Kovic.[24][25]

Adam's paternal uncle is Ron Kovic, a Vietnam War veteran hero and anti-war activist upon whom the novel and film Born on the Fourth of July are based.[26] Born on the Fourth of July is a movie about his life. He was an activist during Vietnam for the war to end and also for reform in the treatment of disabled veterans and for better military hospitals. Adam has previously confirmed this on the Inside Gaming subreddit as well as a video on his personal YouTube channel, stating that his father, uncle and grandfather served in the military. His father served in the Gulf War, while his uncle (Ron Kovic) served in Vietnam. The movie Born on the 4th of July has Tom Cruise portray Adam's uncle, while Adam's grandfather served in the Korean War and his mother served as a police officer. This made Kovic initially want to serve as a fireman.

On August 4, 2012, he married his Hispanic girlfriend Jessica "Jess" Auten in North Hollywood, California.[27][28][29] They currently reside in Los Angeles, California. His uncle Ron Kovic resides in Redondo Beach, California, but they "hardly interact nowadays".[30]

Gallery

Trivia

  • Adam's first musical viewing was Les Misérables
  • Adam has Galeophobia, a fear of sharks.
  • Adam talks and snores in his sleep, much to the dismay of his wife, Jess Kovic, and Bruce.
  • Adam made a video with the answer to life's questions
  • Adam has revealed that he has appeared in two feature movies, these being 'Girl Next Door' and 'Little Nicky'.
  • Adam Kovic said the infamous "like Skyrim with guns" quote, Adam Kovic defending the quote here
  • Adam was one of the lead singers (alongside Bruce Greene) in a song named 'We love video games' (which was created by the people behind 'Friday', 'Thanksgiving', and 'Chinese Food')
  • Is the nephew of Ron Kovic. 
  • He looks very similar to Jeremy Dooley, often confusing people.
  • He first became a host with Machinima when the hit Xbox game Halo 3 was in its prime. He was one of the original hosts (with SodaGod, aka Mike Rouse) of Inside Halo.
  • He was in a pilot for Machinima called Critical Flaw, a live-action production YouTube web series which didn't succeed past the first season.
  • He has made appearances in/on On The Spot, Extra Life stream, The Gauntlet, various episodes of The Know, AHWU, a few Achievement Hunter Let's Plays, as well as various episodes of Funhaus shows.
  • He has a thin tattoo around his left arm that says "God's in his heaven. All's right with the world." Originally penned by Robert Browning, Adam got the idea from the NERV logo in Evangelion.
  • His mother is a police officer.
  • Last name Kovačević from name Kovač [č read as 'ch' - ć read as 'chy'], which means blacksmith.
  • He has worked with Bruce since mid-July 2012.

External links

References

  1. https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VGZG-LLD
  2. http://www.californiabirthindex.org/birth/adam_lee_kovic_born_1985_16904895
  3. https://www.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/4e8bgo/who_is_the_boss_of_achievement_hunter/d1xxws6/
  4. https://www.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/4e8bgo/who_is_the_boss_of_achievement_hunter/d1xx1pr/
  5. [1]
  6. https://web.archive.org/web/20150429124642/http://www.insidegamingdaily.com:80/about-us/
  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saugus_High_School_(California)#Notable_alumni
  8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_the_Canyons#Notable_alumni
  9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ewPK2MixAw
  10. https://twitter.com/adamkovic/status/81838122861735936
  11. https://www.reddit.com/r/funhaus/comments/4h4ahm/what_did_each_member_of_funhaus_major_in_whilst/
  12. https://javierrojosite.wordpress.com/2016/10/13/first-blog-post/
  13. http://www.sofiahariz.com/blog/2014/9/22/interview-inside-gaming
  14. https://twitter.com/adamkovic/status/404487578369286144?lang=en
  15. https://twitter.com/adamkovic/status/379112307441164288
  16. https://twitter.com/adamkovic/status/379112845427748864
  17. https://twitter.com/adamkovic/status/38762228060663808
  18. https://www.reddit.com/r/InsideGaming/comments/1xvafg/til_the_deepest_secret_adam_kovic_holds_what_kind/
  19. https://twitter.com/adamkovic/status/379112845427748864
  20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qfgFXJRcQ
  21. https://twitter.com/adamkovic/status/232616111680663552?lang=en
  22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Kovic
  23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qfgFXJRcQ
  24. https://twitter.com/adamkovic/status/627152172606578688?lang=en
  25. https://www.instantcheckmate.com/people/adam-kovic/
  26. https://www.reddit.com/r/funhaus/comments/4l9mao/what/
  27. https://registry.theknot.com/jessica-auten-adam-kovic-august-2012-ca/1375036
  28. http://jessandadam.tumblr.com/aboutus
  29. https://www.instagram.com/p/rSnhgLr1JM/?hl=en
  30. https://www.reddit.com/r/InsideGaming/comments/2stq1i/is_adam_related_to_ron_kovic/
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