Burnie Burns is a well-known American writer and actor. He also performs as host and comedian and produces and directs shows. He is one of the innovators of the Machinima series on the Internet, of which he is also a writer and performer. He created the Red vs. Blue series, for which he received a significant amount of online attention. This machinima was filmed using the video game Halo, and later on he went to produce P.A.N.I.C.S. which was based on the F.E.A.R. engine.
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Burnie Burns is also the cofounder of the company Rooster Teeth Productions, a production house that specializes in making machinima movies. In this capacity, he has spoken at several big-name events across the world, including the San Diego Comic-Con, The Sydney Film Festival, the Penny Arcade Expo, and Sundance.
Early Life and Beginning of Career
Born as Michael Justin Burns in Rochester, New York, Burnie Burns spent most of his childhood in Houston, Texas. He has French-Canadian ethnicity. His father was a Physics professor and as a child, Burnie Burns wanted to take up a medical career. He even became a member of HOSA and worked briefly at the Southwest Memorial Hospital. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science.
Burnie Burns started his career by producing videos for the channel K29HW-D for their Texas Students’ Division. One of the notable productions he lent his name to was Sneak Peek. This made him quite popular and it became the longest-running student TV program in the world. Several celebrity guests were featured on this show. During this time, he was also chosen as a member of the Xbox console beta group.
In his last university year, he produced and directed a movie with his frat roommates Joel Heyman and Matt Hullum. This movie was The Schedule which was shot for a budget of $9000. However, distributing the movie was a nightmare and he decided to quit production for good.
Breakout Success
Tormented by the distribution process, Burnie Burns took up a job at a tech company where he met Geoff Ramsey and Gus Sorola. With them he made the first viral video, which was a parody of the Mac Gamer Switch. It was with these people that he collaborated later to produce the huge hit Red vs. Blue, which set trends in machinima. This made Burnie Burns a popular name on the Internet. Soon he cofounded Rooster Teeth Productions to produce more machinima movies.
He was soon called to promote upcoming games, most prominently City of Heroes and The Sims 2. Currently, he is part of a crowdfunding campaign to produce a film titled Lazer Team.
Personal Life
Burnie Burns had a short marriage with Jordan Burns from August 2000 to December 2011. He has two children. Recently he has gotten engaged with Ashley Jenkins, the host of The Know.
He is quite a popular personality on social media platforms such as Tumblr, where his blog Burnie.com is prominently featured. He is also a popular subject matter of many a meme, where his quotes such as “Filmmaking is basically spending two years of your life and getting about 90 minutes of it right” are hugely popular. His net worth is estimated to be $5 million.
Last Modified: Apr 7, 2020
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