Burnie Burns

Michael Justin "Burnie" Burns is an American writer, actor, producer, comedian, host, independent filmmaker and director living in Austin, Texas as well as a co-founder of Rooster Teeth Productions. He is known for his work with Rooster Teeth, an Austin, Texas based film production company which he co-founded. His most notable contributions have been in Machinima, although he has also worked with live-action. Burnie served as a main co-writer and director for Red vs. Blue, is best known for providing the voices of Church, Epsilon, and Lopez in the series, and was co-writer and starred in Rooster Teeth's first full-length film, Lazer Team. Burns voiced character Leonard L. Church in Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles which was a very popular character with his fans. In April 2003, Burns, along with several of his friends, created the Internet Machinima series Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, filmed using the Xbox video games Halo and Halo 2. Burns has become the fatherly figure of the staff and looks after everyone. He plays the lead character in the majority of their series and is a very skilled comedic writer.

He is a co-founder, former chief executive officer, and current chief creative officer of Rooster Teeth. He is noted for his contributions in machinima, a form of film-making that uses video game technology in its production,  and also works with animation cartoons, live action production and podcasts. Burns is also known for his work in the hosting and podcasting field.

In April 2003, Burns, along with several friends and co-workers, created the machinima series Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles. Filmed using the video game Halo, Red vs. Blue was acclaimed for its humor and originality, making Burns an Internet celebrity. His success allowed him to co-found the production company Rooster Teeth. After the immediate popularity of Red vs. Blue, Burns attracted the attention of video game company Electronic Arts, who asked him to create a promotional series using their upcoming game, The Sims 2. The result was The Strangerhood. Burns also premiered P.A.N.I.C.S., a mini-series that utilizes the F.E.A.R. game engine. In 2016, Burns starred in the science fiction comedy film Lazer Team, which he co-wrote. He has appeared at several film festivals, including Sundance. He currently lives in Austin, Texas, having divorced from his wife Jordan Burns in 2011.

As one of the innovators in the field of machinima, he has made guest appearances at the Penny Arcade Expo, San Diego Comic-Con International, Sundance and The Sydney Film Festival. For his work on Immersion (2010), a live action series that tests video game tropes in the real world, and The Gauntlet (2013), Rooster Teeth's reality game show, he has been nominated for two IAWTV awards in the "Best Host of a Web Series (Pre-Recorded)" category. He was named one of the "Top 25 Digital Stars" by The Hollywood Reporter in 2015.

About
Burnie Burns is an American film producer, animated filmmaker known for his Machinima work on the Red vs. Blue series. Also an actor, he appeared in the 2015 movie The Outfield. He joined the cast of The Amazing Race in season 28. He is also one of the co-founders of Rooster Teeth Productions. He also is a comedian, host, and director living in Austin, Texas. He is a co-founder, former chief executive officer, and current chief creative officer of Rooster Teeth. He was a voice actor for The Strangerhood, Halo 3, and P.A.N.I.C.S. His work on 2010's Immersion earned him an IAWTV award for Best Hosted Taped Web Series.

Pre-Rooster Teeth and Education
Burnie studied film making, digital media and media production at Alief Elsik High School. After high school, he was accepted at the University of Notre Dame but, unable to afford the tuition, he chose to attend The University of Texas at Austin, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and graduated with a Bachelor of Art's degree in Computer Science from The University of Texas at Austin. While there, Burns got his start in video production by volunteering at K29HW-D, Texas Student Television. During his time with TSTV, he foundedSneak Peek, the longest-running student television program in the world, in which he reviewed films and conducted interviews with guests such as Adam Sandler.

Burns went on to become the president of the tech support company teleNetwork Partners, and eventually broke out to form his independent company Rooster Teeth.

First film and viral video: 1997–2002
In his final year of university, Burns was intent on making a movie. Joel Heyman and Matt Hullum, who were roommates at the time, agreed to help, with the former agreeing to star and the latter helping write, produce and direct. They shot The Schedule (1997) over a three-month period on 16mm film for $9,000.[15] It took 10 months to edit on a non-linear editor Burns himself built.[16] That same system was used in his early videos, including their first viral hit.

Burns became frustrated with the difficult distribution process and the film only screened in a few festivals. They turned down an offer of about $25,000 to buy because they, "wanted to hold onto the story."[16] A few VHS copies of The Schedule exist in Burns' possession. Soon after, the trio parted ways. Heyman and Hullum went to Los Angeles, while Burns accepted a position at a local tech support company.

There, he met his co-workers and future Red vs. Blue collaborators Geoff Ramsey and Gus Sorola. In June 2002, Burns teamed up with his colleagues to create their first viral video, a Mac Gamer Switch parody.[17]

Burns attributes "two vectors that came together, the movie guys and the tech guys," as being a catalyst for their success.

In 2003, Burns joined the staff of a website called "drunkgamers". Hosted by Texans Geoff Fink and Gustavo Sorola, drunkgamers brought Burns into contact with what would become his future team for Red vs. Blue.

Burns began to add weekly videos of his favorite game, Halo on the Xbox, to the drunkgamers site. As the videos progressed, Burns began adding voiceovers to make the videos more entertaining. While playing Halo with Fink and Sorola, the three began wondering why a certain in-game vehicle was named the Warthog, sparking the idea for what would later become the machinima series (a version of the conversation would become the plot of Episode 2). He also credits the birth of the series to being "extremely bored". In early 2003, Computer Gaming World asked the owners of drunkgamers for permission to use an Apple Macintosh commercial parody featured on the site, which by this time had shut down. This was an opportunity Burns saw to attract viewers to a possible new project. A trailer of The Blood Gulch Chronicles was made. A few months later, Burns rallied the entire staff of drunkgamers, as well as friends Matt Hullum and Joel Heyman, and created the first episode of The Blood Gulch Chronicles. The episode began an Internet phenomenon that is still continuing today.

Burns met 2 of the Rooster Teeth staff whilst studying at the University of Texas at Austin. He was childhood friends with Matt Hullum (Sarge from Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles) and eventually they met with Joel Heyman (Michael J. Caboose from Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles) whilst making an independent film called "The Schedule". Hullum and Heyman pursued their dreams of being famous and traveled to Hollywood leaving Burns in Texas. Burns then found management work at local Help desk company TeleNetwork. This is where he met Geoff Ramsey (Dexter Grif from Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles) and Gustavo Sorola (Dick Simmons from Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles). The three clicked automatically and had 2 loves, drinking and video games, this caused them to create Drunkgamers.com where the three created a scheme to get free video games and asked companies to send them games to review. According to Ramsey, the group tried to receive free games to review, but "incurred the wrath" of several game developers in doing so. They finished with 2. One of which was Halo: Combat Evolved they loved the game, especially Burns. Burns whilst playing the games noticed a few things:


 * The multiplayer characters didn't have voices
 * They were fighting for no real reason apart from being told to
 * They didn't even know anything about the enemies
 * The Warthog looks like a Puma

This caused Burns to think about creating a series based on this points which seemed interesting. He consulted Ramsey and Sorola who were very cautious about the idea and turned it down. The coming weeks brought Burns to write more sketches and become more into his multiplayer voice idea. Whilst writing the ideas Drunkgamers.com was slowly coming to a halt with a lack of users and people knowing about the website. This caused Ramsey and Sorola to panic, then finally after a few weeks work Burns finally talked them into his multiplayer voice idea. The first 3 minute episode was filmed. Six months later, the Drunkgamers.com website closed. However, the following week, the magazine Computer Gaming World asked permission to include the Switch parody in a CD to be included with an issue. To take advantage of the resultant publicity, the three re-encoded the video to point to Redvsblue.com which at the time was a website which was created in no time and was very low key.

Rooster Teeth Productions was born.

Rooster Teeth: 2003-present
Burns joined Geoff Ramsey and Gus Sorola in one of their many Internet ventures, drunkgamers.com creating voiceover-enhanced gameplay videos for the website. The trio were giant enthusiasts of the 2001 first-person shooter video game Halo: Combat Evolved, leading them to discuss whether an automobile in the game known as a Warthog looks like apuma. Burns has said that this discussion was "the spark for the whole series".[19] Seeing potential for a full story, Burns created a trailer for Red vs. Blue, which was released September 5, 2002 on the drunkgamers website, but it was largely ignored, and, for unrelated reasons, drunkgamers soon closed. Four months later, Computer Gaming Worldcontacted Ramsey for permission to include a different drunkgamers video in a CD to be distributed with the magazine. Ramsey granted permission, but he and Burns felt that they needed a website to take advantage of the exposure from Computer Gaming World. They therefore resurrected Red vs. Blue and re-released the trailer to coincide with the Computer Gaming World issue. Burns founded the production company Rooster Teeth to produce the show with Sorola, Ramsey, Matt Hullum and Joel Heyman. The first episode was released on April 1, 2003. The series is primarily produced using the machinima technique of synchronizing video footage from a game to pre-recorded dialogue and other audio.[20]

Burns initially envisioned Red vs. Blue to be short, but the series grew beyond his expectations. Burns and Ramsey had preconceived a list of jokes for which they allocated six to eight episodes. By episode 8, however, they realized that the series had fleshed out more than expected; they had covered only about one third of their original list.[21] Later in season 1, Burns estimated a series of 22 episodes; however, driven by the series' popularity, he realized that there was more potential story than could be covered in that length,[22] and was able to conceive an extension of the season 1 plot. Burns and the whole production team eventually quit their jobs and began to work full-time on the series; to generate revenue they created an online store to sell T-shirts.

After the first season of Red vs. Blue, Burns, voicing the character of Church, became a celebrity in the machinima community. As the director, writer, and lead actor of the series, he was the driving force behind the series. His series earned three awards at the 2003 Machinima Film Festival – Best Picture, Best Writing, and Best Independent Machinima Film – and was nominated for three others.[23]

The series completed its original five season 100-episode run on June 28, 2007, collectively known as the Blood Gulch Chronicles. Subsequent seasons were re-tooled with The Recollection Trilogy for seasons 6–8 (Reconstruction, Recreation, and Revelation), and The Freelancer Saga for seasons 9 and 10. Since season eleven, which premiered on June 14, 2013, Burns handed directorial and head writing duties to Miles Luna to shift his focus onto other projects.

After the first season of Red vs. Blue, Burns, voicing the character of Church, became an instant celebrity in the machinima community. As the director, writer, and lead actor of the series, Burns is sharing the fame of being the star of Red vs. Blue, but is also the driving force behind the series. His series earned three awards at the 2003 Machinima Film Festival — Best Picture, Best Writing, and Best Independent Machinima Film — and was nominated for three others. The series is still ongoing and completed its thirteenth season on September 7, 2015. Burns regularly attends conventions featuring Red vs. Blue and has made several appearances on G4techTV.

The first episode was a big hit with gamers and became one of the most loved Viral videos ever made. Burns figured that the staff could be bigger and offered Joel Heyman and Matt Hullum a place on the staff, which they graciously accepted. The five were then catapulted into internet fame and went onto create 100 episodes which made up Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles.

Halo and Halo 2 was then catapulted into a broader audience and the sales were increased due to a series about voiceless character with humorous voice overs. This caused Electronic Arts (EA) to approach Burns and the staff to ask if they would make a series for their upcoming game "Sims 2". Burns graciously accepted and then The Strangerhood was born. Although been not as famous as Red vs. Blue, the series still kicked off and gained a cult following dedicated to the spectrum of characters featured.

Red vs Blue Season 6, Reconstruction has been regarded as one of the greatest Machinima movies ever made. It is currently on sale on the Rooster Teeth website and is available to watch on their website. Burns wrote the full film whilst having some people chip in with some of the sketches, the movie is based around Burns' character and Burns appeared to want to go into great depths with his character Leonard L. Church. Burns appeared to have taken a lot of information from the fans by showing the fans' favorite character (Michael J. Caboose, according to a survey) in more detail and began answering questions like:


 * Did Tex die?
 * Did Sheila die?
 * What happened to Tucker Jr.?
 * What map is the new series set on?
 * What Happened to Agent Washington?

Relocated backed up a few of these questions and answers and only featured 5/6 of the members of Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles due to the aftermath of Reconstruction.

The Strangerhood and PANICS: 2004–2006
In 2004, 13 months after the first season of Red vs. Blue had finished airing, Burns and Matt Hullum created the comedy web series The Strangerhood. The series uses the same machinima technique used to film Red vs. Blue.

The idea for the series came from the E3 gaming convention where Burns and his Rooster Teeth partners were introduced to the life simulation game The Sims 2 and realized that the game would be suitable for a series that parodied reality television. The game's publisher Electronic Arts allowed them to continue with the project.[24] The series centers on eight strangers who awake one day unaware of where they are or how they arrived there.[25] Its first season of 17 episodes completed on April 27, 2006.[26] In 2005, the group collaborated with Paul Marino[27] on Strangerhood Studios, a spin-off commissioned by the Independent Film Channel.[28] This spin-off was the first machinima series to be commissioned for broadcast[28] and won an award for Best Editing at the 2005 Machinima Film Festival.[29]

The following year Burns and Rooster Teeth created the comic science fiction machinima mini-series P.A.N.I.C.S. based on and filmed using the video game F.E.A.R. developed byMonolith Productions, who asked them to produce the series for the Director's Edition of the game. The series consists of five episodes.

The story centers on a newcomer to Bravo Team, a special military group formed to battle supernatural enemies. As the series begins, Bravo Team has been sent into a military facility at night to investigate the reports of paranormal activity from within. This is a parody of the main scenario used in F.E.A.R.

Return to live-action, Captain Dynamic and RT Shorts: 2009
Burns first returned to live-action with Captain Dynamic a mini-series to promote the online game City of Heroes.[30] It was based around a team of writers hired to use the new in-game content creation tools to promote the title character, Captain Dynamic, the 'worst superhero in the world'. Directed by Matt Hullum and written by Burns, the series starred Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies, who is a long time friend.

The series was well received by fans, which led him and Rooster Teeth to begin producing a new live-action series, titled Rooster Teeth Shorts (also referred to as RT Shorts), a sketch comedy which parodies life at their offices. The series features the staff of Rooster Teeth, including Burns, who all play caricatures of themselves, as well as occasional appearances from voice actors from some of their machinima series. The first season ran for twenty episodes and five seasons have since followed, as well as six-second mini episodes released exclusively through the video sharing service Vine.

Hosting and producing work: 2008–present
On December 29, 2008 Burns co-hosted the inaugural episode of the Drunk Tank audio podcast, alongside his Rooster Teeth co-workers Geoff Ramsey and Gus Sorola. The podcast consists largely of comedic commentary on the popular culture of the week, including video games, recent news, website features, sports and upcoming projects and is available for download through iTunes,Zune Marketplace and their website. It has since become one of the more popular features of the site, at one point becoming the #1 most downloaded podcast on iTunes, as well as a featured podcast in the iTunes Store. New episodes have been released regularly every Wednesday since April 10, 2009, with occasional special episodes or multiple releases in one week.

In September 2011, the podcast was renamed The Rooster Teeth Podcast. The show has since become available in video form and Burns continues to make regular appearances. On January 7, the podcast won "Best Gaming Podcast" at the 8th Annual Podcast Awards.[31] The Rooster Teeth Podcast has recently adapted a new style of doing podcasts in which they live stream to "sponsors" on their website, in video, the night before the release of the audio podcast on iTunes and their site. The sponsor live stream is then later available 1 day on the Rooster website and 2 days later on YouTube.

Burns began co-hosting Immersion alongside Griffon Ramsey in 2010. The show tests the concepts of video games in real life, such as whether the heckling that sometimes occurs in multiplayer video games would negatively affect the performance of real soldiers. Burns joked in the The Rooster Teeth Podcastthat the series started as an "elaborate way for [them] to do fun stuff and get paid for it".[32] Geoff Ramsey and Gus Sorola were the test subjects throughout the first season. Gavin Free and Michael Jones (of Achievement Hunter) served as the test subjects for the second season.

On Halloween 2012, a partnership between Rooster Teeth and Blip was announced, with the premiere of their new 10-episode, reality game competition series sponsored by GEICO.[33] The Gauntlet follows gamers from around the United States competing in contests of skills, concentration, agility and stamina, inspired by reality competitions Wipeoutand The Voice. The first season was hosted by Ali Baker and Burns. Season two was hosted by Burns and Joel Heyman and began on September 7, 2013.

The pilot episode of Million Dollars, But... premiered on May 21, 2015, with the series continuing on July 9, 2015. The ongoing series is frequently co-hosted by Burns and Gavin Free, with another special guest taking part. Each person come up with a typically difficult scenario, for example one where the person has to date Adolf Hitler for a year — which the cast comically re-enact — for which they will be given a million dollars.

His producing work includes executive producing the 2012 documentary film Minecraft: The Story of Mojang, about the Swedish video game developer Mojang, the creators of the popular video game Minecraft. In 2013, he began executive producing the anime-influenced[34] web series RWBY, created by Rooster Teeth employee Monty Oum. A second season premiered in 2014. Oum died on February 1, 2015.[35] A third season of the show premiered on October 24, 2015.[36] Burns currently works as an executive producer on the show X-Ray and Vav, a cartoon web series starring two Achievement Hunter employees (a video gaming division of Rooster Teeth) Gavin Free and Ray Navarez, Jr. premiered in December 2014. In 2016, Burns and Gavin Free hosted the documentary World’s Greatest Head Massage: An ASMR Journey.[37]

Lazer Team and other film projects: 2015–present
In June 2014, Rooster Teeth launched a crowdfunding campaign for the film Lazer Team on Indiegogo. The fundraiser reached its $650,000 goal in under 10 hours and broke Indiegogo's record for the fastest film campaign to reach $700,000.[38][39] Within three days, Lazer Teambroke $1 million.[40] As of 2015, Lazer Team held the record for the highest funded film campaign on Indiegogo with over $2.4 million collected.[41]

Burns explained during the campaign that as it makes more money, the film's budget scales up. "The initial budget for talent was based on making the movie on the bare minimum with us throwing in the remainder of the expected budget. For instance, that meant using talent almost exclusively from in-house. As the budget grows, so do our opportunities to approach all kinds of talent. The same applies to Visual FX, quality of props and costuming, lighting, crew, etc."[42] Burns co-wrote, co-produces, and co-stars in the film as Hagan. It was released in January 2016, making it among the first titles that Rooster Teeth's parent company, Fullscreen, will be distributing in its newly launched feature film division.[43]

Burns appeared in the 2015 short film, Hit, as Officer Harris and the sports comedy-drama The Outfield.[44][45] Burns is slated to appear in the YouTube Red series 12 Deadly Days from Blumhouse Television.[46]

During a December 3, 2017 Burnie Vlog, Burns announced that he is working on a new project.

Other works
Burns has participated in two episodes of the improvisational comedy game show @midnight.[47] In 2015, Burns took part in season 28 of The Amazing Race with his fiancée, Ashley Jenkins, coming in fourth place.[48][49]

Roles at Rooster Teeth
Burns is currently writing and/or directing new episodes/series of other Rooster Teeth projects including:
 * Achievement Hunter
 * Rooster Teeth Podcast
 * Red vs. Blue
 * RWBY

Chief Creative Officer (CCO): 2015 - present
- As the Chief Creative Officer (CCO) of Rooster Teeth, Burnie will focus primarily on managing the narrative side of the equation, meaning the scripted shows, such as Red vs. Blue (RvB), RWBY, Live Action productions, animated cartoons, video game productions, and so forth, will be under his watch.

- Direct the company's creative output, developing the artistic design strategy that defines the company's brand.

- Responsible for the overall look and feel of marketing, media, and branding associated with the organization.

- Successfully managing, developing, and leading the team of creative directors, art directors, designers, and copywriters.

- Create the unique image of the firm and deliver this distinctive design to consumers and to create a clear brand image which is a fundamental and essential work throughout the company. Advertisements present a certain memorable artistic design while also structured to accomplish functional goals.

- Ensures that the design and functionality combine harmoniously so the firm can present a product that successfully represents its creative brand.

- Creative, artistic thinking, planning, blueprinting abd brainstorming and artistic graphic design, logos, brands, posters, and wallpapers of the company.

Family Life
He was married to Jordan Burns in August 2000 and divorced in December 2011. He and his ex-wife Jordan Burns had two children together named JD and Theodore "Teddy" Burns. He began a relationship with Rooster Teeth writer and host Ashley Jenkins on September 23, 2012. He and Ashley became competitors on The Amazing Race 28 in 2016. They became engaged in late January 2016

Trivia

 * Burnie is known to perform strange acts while drunk. This including handing out kettle corn to individuals at a party, proclaiming himself to be the character Catbug from the animated series Bravest Warriors, and even making out with a chair while pretending it is Gavin.
 * He has several alter egos, all of which have been featured in Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures.
 * Burnie was married to Jordan Burns, who voiced female Donut from Caboose's mind in Red vs Blue, from August 2000 to December 2011. He has had two sons with Jordan, Teddy and J.D. Burns, the latter of which is the current voice of the A.I. Theta in Red vs Blue.
 * He is currently engaged to Ashley Jenkins, whom he participated with in the twenty-eighth season of The Amazing Race. They were eliminated in the penultimate leg of the Race, finishing fourth.
 * Shares the same birthday as Chris Demarais, January 18.
 * Made an appearance in the the "Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia" episode "The Gang Tends Bar".
 * He also made a short cameo in the comedy film, "Why Him?".
 * In the Camp Camp episode, "Gwen gets a Job", the first manager that interviews Gwen bears a striking resemblance to him.