ProJared

Jared Lee Knabenbauer (born ), better known online as ProJared, is an American YouTuber, Twitch Streamer, Let's Player, and internet personality who has made online content since 2006, with a focus on gaming content. A self-taught editor, Jared is known for his reviews and occasional Top Tens. His Let's Play channel, ProJared Plays, is where he plays various games and uploads his Nuzlocke challenges. He also had a third channel, Now in the 90s, where he looked at the video game releases that happened each week 30 years ago.
On his channel, Jared is known for his ProReview series, where he takes a game he knows well and gives a review for it, as well as his One Minute Reviews and Nuzlocke series, the former of which was eventually retired. Jared has done several main shows: ProReview, One Minute Reviews, Full reviews, D&December, and Now in the 90s, the latter of which was moved to a new channel in 2022 and retired in 2024 for financial reasons. Besides those main shows, Jared does several other kind of videos, such as short skits, guides, and self-imposed challenge Let's Plays. 
In May 2019, Jared went on hiatus after accusations that he had cheated on his wife Heidi O'Ferrall with Holly Conrad, as well as allegations that he had solicited sexually explicit photos with fans. In August 2019 Jared released a video addressing his side of the story that disproved those allegations.
== Early life ==
Jared Lee Knabenbauer was born on August 28, 1985 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The elder of twin boys, he is the younger brother to Derek James Knabenbauer, known on YouTube as DKlarations. One of his biggest passions is Dungeons & Dragons, which he later began covering in detail in his YouTube series D&December. Jared worked as a GameStop Assistant Store Manager from 2004 to 2009. Jared was featured in an improv comedy group known as Comedy City using a similar style to Whose Line Is It Anyway.
==Career==
===ScrewAttack===
Jared was originally hired to run GameAttack, and when it closed down he worked for ScrewAttack itself. When first hired, he worked at GameAttack, and produced a show called 'Nametags', which he wrote, edited and acted in. Jared played himself in the series, working as a struggling assistant store manager for a retail chain video game store. The series lasted 10 episodes and is considered to be Jared's first big break online.
After Nametags, Jared became the host of several ScrewAttack shows including Hard News, Sidescrollers and Reboot or Retro. He also produced and starred in Newsroom. Jared's work with ScrewAttack included working on the shows Nametags, Newsroom, Screwin' Around (Terrible Thursday), Mario Party After Dark, Reboot or Retro, Hard News, Sidescrollers, Clip of the Week, Reviews, and The Best Ever. Jared was a self-taught editor and at ScrewAttack and did a lot of voice over work. He also had host roles in Sidescrollers, Hard News and Reboot or Retro.
Jared had one of the most quirky personalities at ScrewAttack. He developed a sort of catchphrase at the end of each Hard News episode where he would flick a pen that he was holding. It became surprisingly popular to the point that other ScrewAttack members did a pen flick whenever they hosted the show. Terrible Thursday was a popular Screwin' Around spin-off that Jared made, and Jared played up his reactions to many terrible games for the entertainment of the fans, among the most popular being Predator for the NES. Jared left ScrewAttack when he was fired in 2012, where he pursued his increasingly popular YouTube career.
===YouTube career===
Jared began his career on YouTube in 2010 with his Two Worlds review video, which was an immediate hit and established his review style. He ached further success with his Hydelide series of videos. He soon became popular for his reviews and occasional Top Tens. His shows include ProReview, One Minute Review, Full Review, Now in the 90s, and D&December. Besides those main shows, Jared does several other kind of videos, such as short skits, guides, and self-imposed challenge Let's Plays. Jared has also done several improv videos, and has shown several videos of his group performing.
Jared is known for his One Minute reviews of current titles, his more detailed reviews for games he thinks that deserves one, and the less serious Pro Reviews, often of retro games he played as a child, such as his successful Hydelide video that inspired two follow-up videos. In addition, he does occasional Top Tens, such as the Top Ten Bees in video games, and has done four Nuzlocke challenges so far. Now in the 90s was later spun-off into a separate channel in 2022 and retired in 2024 for financial reasons, the shows One Minute Reviews and Extended Thoughts were retired by Jared in 2014, and Jared stopped doing the D&December series after 2019 due to being burned out with making Dungeons & Dragons content and finding the fanbase too toxic for him.
Aside from his main channel, Jared has three other YouTube channels. His Let's Play channel, ProJared Plays, is where he plays various games and uploads his Nuzlocke challenges, and ProJared VOD features archives of his Twitch livestreams. He also had another channel, Now in the 90s, where he looked at the video game releases that happened each week 30 years ago. In April 2024, Jared announced the conclusion of the series Now in the 90s due to it being no longer financially viable to keep the show going. In 2014, he was picked up by NormalBoots but resigned from the company in 2019, and has since become an independent content creator.
==== Shows ====
*ProReview, Jared's main show on his channel. On this show, Jared gives a review about usually an NES or SNES game. After his review, he gives a "score" out of ten, but the score isn't a number, rather an object or analogy related to the game. When Jared joined Normal Boots, his ProJared reviews were the only videos uploaded there. This show has become famous for Jared's hatred of the Hydlide series, as well as beginning several recurring jokes that have made their way into other videos, such as the "Beeeeeees" joke from the Hydlide videos.
*One Minute Reviews, a retired series where Jared did a review in one minute and gave a score at the end. On occasion, he would also do a full review as well as a One Minute Review if he didn't have enough time. Jared eventually stopped doing One Minute Reviews. The last episode, 'One Minute Review -The Legend of Korra', was uploaded on December 9, 2014. Jared, on May 17, 2016, admitted on Twitter that: "I'll never do one minute reviews again. The YouTube algorithm makes them a TERRIBLE idea now. It'd honestly destroy my channel."
*Extended Thoughts, a retired spin-off series to One Minute Reviews. Sometimes, when Jared did a One Minute Review, he ran out of time to give all the information he needs to (or the One Minute Review was a gag). In these cases, he made a much longer discussion about his opinions on the game. They differed from standard reviews, as they weren't scripted - Jared just had a few dot-points written down.
*D&December, a retired series where Jared devotes the entire month of December to Dungeons & Dragons videos. This series included regular ProReviews, some gameplay videos, and tales from Jared's experiences. Jared has mentioned on his streams a few times that he’s not only burned out with making Dungeons & Dragons content, but the fan base has become too toxic for him, hence why he stopped doing D&December.
*Full Reviews, where Jared sometimes makes a normal review for a game. Unlike One Minute Reviews, they are not under a strict time limit. These are sometimes combined with an Extended Thoughts video for longer reviews. It is unrelated to a ProReview, as those are scripted skits, usually older games, and with a higher production value.
*Now in the 90s, a retired series and later spin-off channel where Jared takes a look at the video game releases that happened each week 30 years ago. It started being uploaded to the ProJared channel before moving over to a new channel called Now in the 90s in November 2022, after Episode 33 in April 2022. The series went over how each game that released that week plays, what Jared thinks of the game, how much it cost then and now, and what reviewers think of the game. There's also some miscellaneous trivia and some history surrounding the game, including the developers, development cycle, and commercials. In April 2024, Jared announced the conclusion of the series due to it being no longer financially viable to keep the show going. Every Friday, Jared discussed three relevant games released that week, giving a historical overview of each along with contemporary ratings from gaming magazines and sales figures, usually stating his own opinion as well. Editor Dylan then gave a quick rundown of the rest of the titles released that week in the Rapid-Fire Releases segment, finishing up with Jared comparing the price of each game he reviewed at launch to the average selling price of a used copy today.
===Twitch Streaming career===
Jared regularly streams on Twitch, and has 133k followers on Twitch as of 2024. He has a Twitch VODs channel on YouTube called ProJared VODs, where he uploads archives of all of his Twitch streams to make it easier for people to watch old VODs or catch up on old streams. He favors RPGs, especially anything Final Fantasy and retro games. He also loves to play Magic The Gathering.
===Collaborations and Guest Appearances===
Jared has collaborated with quite a few other YouTubers, including his NormalBoots co-stars PeanutButterGamer, JonTron and Jirard The Completionist. He has also made several guest appearances, including narrating multiple episodes of Did You Know Gaming? and appearing in several Game Grumps videos. His character in Dice, Camera, Action is Diath Woodrow, a human rogue he's played in several previous campaigns.
==Personal life==
=== Marriage with Heidi O'Ferrall===
Jared married cosplayer Heidi O'Ferrall in June 2014, three years after they started dating. Heidi appeared alongside Jared in the Asagao Academy series taking on the role of Hana making all the decisions in the game. As a bonus Heidi cosplayed as Asagao Academy's main protagonist Hana for the duration of the series. Jared and Hedi had a close relationship early on, but by 2018 their relationship became troubled despite counseling and a mutual agreement to allow outside physical relationships.
At the same time, Holly Conrad and her then husband Ross O'Donovan were amicably separating. In February 2018, with full permission from both Ross and Heidi, Jared and Holly were encouraged to explore a relationship, yet Heidi eventually withdrew consent and in October 2018 refused to allow Jared to break off their own marriage, threatening self-harm and to expose his and Holly's relationship in order to destroy DCA (in contrast, Ross continued to be supportive of Holly and Jared and moved out in August 2018).
===Alleged adultery and solicitation of nudes scandal===
On May 8, 2019, Jared revealed on Twitter that he and Heidi were getting a divorce on amicable terms.https://twitter.com/ProJared/status/1126332309567942656 Jared would subsequently face a large amount of backlash after Heidi revealed Jared's relationship with Holly and accused Jared of cheating.https://twitter.com/AtelierHeidi/status/1126339321152204801 Jared faced more controversy on the same day due to being accused of soliciting sexually explicit photos with fans, after Heidi revealed this was true and that it "kept escalating secretly". Within hours, purported fans began posting allegations of impropriety by Jared, two of whom named Chai and Charlie claimed they were under 18 at the time. It was alleged that Jared had used Tumblr to solicit nudes from fans under the username "SinJared". Heidi initially believed Jared shut it down in late 2017, but said that she "now had reason to believe it continued for long after that."https://www.thecut.com/2019/05/projared-cheating-scandal-underage-nudes.html The resulting backlash from these events caused Jared to suffer from extreme public backlash and caused him to lose more than 20% of his subscribers over the course of just a few days.
On May 17, 2019, Jared released another statement on Twitter where he claimed that he and his wife were in an open polyamorous relationship with both of them having partners on the side, which he also claimed Heidi had encouraged.https://twitter.com/ProJared/status/1129557897837342721 Heidi countered with a series of tweets saying that they had indeed attempted polyamory at one point, but she had "shut it down" later on due to Jared's lack of transparency regarding the relationship with Holly, and she considered their subsequent relationship infidelity. On May 20, 2019, Holly posted a Twitter thread corroborating Jared's version of events. She alleged Heidi encouraged Jared to explore his feelings for Holly, but expected nothing to happen due to Holly having expressed asexuality. Holly further alleged that when the feelings were returned, Heidi became abusive and threatened to ruin their careers, allegations Heidi denied. Jared intentionally left Normal Boots and asked that his fellow YouTubers dissociate themselves from him to protect their reputations until he was able to fight back.
====Jared's Response====
On August 27, 2019, Jared uploaded the video "YOU'VE BEEN LIED TO" to his channel after a long absence from the internet.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBywRBbDUjA Jared revealed that the reason why he did not provide a further response to the allegations against him at the time was that he was in talks with his lawyers and wanted to wait until he had compiled evidence against all of the claims against him before he made a full response.
In the video, Jared explained that he did indeed exchange nudes with fans on Tumblr and Snapchat, but always made it clear that it was for consenting adults only and that he never chased or abused people for nudes directly - in other words it was an open invitation to people who wanted to express themselves in that way with no incentive. Jared did however acknowledge that it was an "unhealthy" thing to do and that he understood why people took issue with this practice.
Jared then provides evidence against the claims that he solicited nudes from minors, showing that both of the allegations were unsubstantiated and could not have taken place, with the one with Chai seemingly not taking place at all, and the other with Charlie, who despite Jared having indeed talked to on Tumblr, never turned sexual. He also states he had no knowledge of the two being under 18 at the time and that they lied about their age to him.
Jared also states that he never cheated on Heidi and that he was already attempting to divorce her as early as October 2018, before he began his relationship with Holly, as well as that Heidi had refused to agree to it initially. To support his claims, Jared displayed screenshots of his talks with his divorce lawyer taken around that time. At the end of the video, Jared criticizes all of the YouTubers who commented on the situation without taking time to get a full understanding of the situation or to message him to get his side. He also urged people to spread and share the video in the hopes of reclaiming his internet fanbase.
This video resulted in a significant increase in support for Jared and his channel, with his subscriber count gradually increasing again.
==Filmography==
===Web series===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
2008 	Nametags 	Himself 	10 episodes
2008-2013 	Hard News 	Himself 	
2008-2013 	SideScrollers 	Himself 	
2008-2013 	Clip of the Week 	Himself 	
2010-present	ProReview 	Himself 	65 episodes
2011-2013 	Screwin' Around 	Himself 	
2011-2013 	Reviews 	Himself 	
2011 	Reboot or Retro 	Himself 	
2012 	Newsroom 	Himself 	19 episodes
2012-2013 	The Best Ever 	Himself 	
2012-2013 	Mario Party After Dark 	Himself 	
2013–2016 	Did You Know Gaming? 	Himself 	4 episodes
2014-present	ProJared Plays! 	Himself 	2,500 episodes
2014 	One Minute Review 	Himself 	49 episodes
2014 	Dragon Ball Z Video Game Retrospective	Himself 	5 episodes
2014 	Pokemon FireRed Nuzlocke 	Narrator	36 episodes
2014 	Pokemon Y Blind Nuzlocke 	Narrator	26 episodes
2014-2022 	Review 	Himself 	20 episodes
2014-2023 	Top Tens 	Himself 	21 episodes
2014–2017 	Game Grumps 	Himself 	
2015 	Beginner's Guide To Monster Hunter 	Narrator	4 episodes
2015-2019 	D&December 	Himself 	37 episodes
2015 	E3 2016 Press Conference Grades 	Himself 	5 episodes
2016-2019 	Dice, Camera, Action 	Himself 	141 episodes
2022-2024 	Now in the 90s 	Narrator	104 episodes
===Video games===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
2016	Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club	Jared	
===Television series===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
2015	Game Shakers	Himself	Television episode
==Quotes==
*"Hey! It's me, ProJared!" - Jared at the beginning of almost every video he makes
*"I'm playing X." - Jared's cold open intro
*"Jim the knight. Killed by bees." - Jared in his first Hydelide video
*"Yes, I cheated, and I'm okay with that." - Jared on cheating in Two Worlds
*"OH MY GOD, IT'S MONSTER HUNTER! I LOVE IT, IT'S SO MUCH FUN!" - Jared in his Monster Hunter One Minute Review
*"I rate this an X out of 10." - Jared at the end of almost every video he makes
*"Hello ladies. And dudes."
*"'Ey girl, what's up? You wanna f*ck?"
*"Ready, go!" - Jared in his One Minute Reviews
*"X gets a X out of 10 from me." - Jared in his One Minute Reviews
*"Don't be that guy! Nobody likes that guy!" - Jared in a DnDecember video
*"I have the receipts." - Jared in his "YOU'VE BEEN LIED TO" video
*"The next time you see someone being cancelled with a mob attacking them and going after them, ask 'What's the other side's story?' 'Is there more to this?' How do you know that they deserve to be bullied and shamed? Through evidence? Or through public opinion? Nobody likes cancel culture, until they get an opportunity to cancel someone." - Jared at the end of his "YOU'VE BEEN LIED TO" video
*"Ever wonder WHY a game is good? Or why it's bad? I'm ProJared, and I'll tell you why. Emphasis on RPGs and retro games most people have never heard of!"
* "Hey, it's me, ProJared! This is a retro gaming channel with heavy emphasis on RPG games, such as Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, especially from the NES/SNES era! BUT going beyond just video games, I also LOVE to talk about table top gaming, such as DUNGEONS & DRAGONS or card games like MAGIC: THE GATHERING! I like to focus on games that I have a personal connection to, things that I've played in my childhood or one that has resonated with me ever since I played it. I try my best to focus on positive aspects and games that are good, but sometimes, one of those games I played as kid was real, REAL bad. I'm looking at you, Hydlide. For more of me, be sure to check out my Gameplay channel with full playthroughs of a lot of games I've done videos on here AND be sure to follow me over on Twitch for live streaming!" - Jared's main channel description
*"Hey! It's me, ProJared, and welcome to ProJared Plays! Here are daily Let’s Play videos for games of all genres: RPGs like Final Fantasy, card games like Magic: The Gathering, horror games, and straight up comedy - ever play a drinking game with Mario? Plus every December is D&December, where we play old-school Dungeons and Dragons games and celebrate all that tabletop games have to offer!" - Jared's gaming channel description
*"Jared from Subway needs to get his shiny lip gloss and wear a dress so I can unleash a blitzkrieg out MY COCK!!!!!!!!!!! JAREDS FOREVER!!!!!!! JAREDS UNITE!!!!!!! Oh wait, he's a pedophile. Ok how about, um, no thanks. But seriously, what the fuck is wrong with Jared from Subway's lips? They look shiny as fuck. Does he want me to mine his lips with my pickaxe? That is how Minecraft became the biggest sold game. It's because kids wanted to mine the lips of their shiny lipped WHORE MOTHERS. Just think about it, how many kids have horrible parents who sin? And it's a sin to hate your sinful parents?! Come on, give me some retribution, Christianity!"
*"I exchanged nudes with my 18+ fanbase and if I liked what I saw, I would send my own nudes."
*"Your boob nipples are too clear. You think I can masturbate to a ghost? Are you serious? Just playing with you. I like nipples of all transparencies. I am inclusive."
*"Yakuza 0 doesn't forget it's a game."
*"High school is sinister. So many non-gamers... It made me shudder!"
==Channel milestones ==
===Subscriber milestones ===
*100,000 subscribers: April 13, 2013
*200,000 subscribers: December 31, 2013
*300,000 subscribers: April 17, 2014
*400,000 subscribers: August 15, 2014
*500,000 subscribers: January 15, 2015
*600,000 subscribers: May 22, 2015
*700,000 subscribers: October 1, 2015
*800,000 subscribers: June 4, 2016
*900,000 subscribers: April 20, 2017
*1 million subscribers: April 4, 2018
==== Decline====
*Below 1 million subscribers: May 9, 2019
*Below 900,000 subscribers: May 10, 2019
* Below 800,000 subscribers: May 19, 2019
====Regrowth====
*800,000 subscribers: August 28, 2019
* 900,000 subscribers: October 24, 2019
====Decline==== 
*Below 900,000 subscribers: November 16, 2019
===Video view milestones===
*50 million views: October 5, 2014
*100 million views: February 27, 2016
*150 million views: September 27, 2017
* 200 million views: June 30, 2020
==Trivia==
*In mid-early-September 2015, Jared had a guest appearance on a Nickelodeon show called Game Shakers, in which he advertised a mobile app called Sky Whale. He admitted the show was stupid but didn't regret having the experience of being on TV.
*Speculation lead people to believe that Jared had relations with Holly Conrad while she was still married to Ross O'Donovan, concluding it to be the reason behind Ross and Holly's divorce. The parties involved have said that this is false. This misconception may have arisen due to how unpublicized Holly and Ross's divorce, and the reasons for it, were.
*While away at PAX 2017 Jared's home at the time sustained very bad water damage as a result of a broken pipe. Not only did Jared and his then-wife Heidi O'Ferrall receive a lot of kind words from fellow YouTubers and fans hoping things get better soon, Jared also encouraged fans to not donate money to him, instead urging them to donate money to the victims of the 2017 hurricane season. His fans came through for him and Heidi anyway. Apparently his audience mass-rewatched his content so heavily that it caused a viewership spike in his metrics (and thus, much-needed YouTube monetization revenue).
==References==
== See also ==
*ProJared on the ProJared Wiki
*ProJared on the ScrewAttack Wiki
*ProJared on the Game Grumps Wiki
*ProJared on the PeanutButterGamer Wiki
**ProJared on the PeanutButterGamer Hardcore Series Wiki
* ProJared on the Dice, Camera, Action Wiki
Category:Users who joined in 2006
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Gaming YouTubers
Category:Review YouTubers
Category:Commentary YouTubers
Category:One million subscribers
Category:Comedy YouTubers