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Daniel Hardcastle (born 23 March 1989), commonly known by his online alias Nerd3 or NerdCubed, is a British author, actor and comedian who rose to prominence as a gaming YouTuber. As of September 2018, his YouTube channel has over 1.28 billion views and 2.6 million subscribers, while he boasts 200,523 followes and 2,742,993 views on his Twitch channel.

Career
Having left university, Hardcastle set up his YouTube channel while working in a call centre and quickly gained a following through his Minecraft comic and Let’s Play series.

During the early part of his YouTube career, Hardcastle was closely affiliated with the Machinima network.

His OfficialNerdCubed channel attained 100,000 subscribers in August 2012, which he celebrated by playing games with his parents, before breaking the 1 million subscriber mark in August 2013. The OfficialNerdCubed channel surpassed 2 million subcribers in January 2015, before reaching the 2.5 million subscriber mark in June 2016. In November 2016, the channel recorded its 1 billionth view.

Through his OfficialNerdCubed channel, Hardcastle has built a close relationship with Square Enix and the Just Cause series, aiding the development of the 2015 Just Cause 3, and hosting a worldwide exclusive look at Just Cause 4 gameplay during E3 2018.

Hardcastle also owns the OfficiallyNerdCubed channel where he shares vlogs and toy reviews, in addition to the OfficialNerdCubedLive account, where he uploads footage from his Twitch account. In September 2013, Hardcastle interviewed television writer and producer Steven Moffat on his vlog channel, quizzing the showrunner about his work on Dr Who.

He is known for collaborating with Stuart Ashen, Emma Blackery and Martyn LittleWood, and has also appeared in Tom Scott (entertainer) and TomSka videos.

In 2015, HardCastle’s OfficalNerdCubed YouTube channel was been nominated for a Golden Joystick award.

The OfficialNerdCubed theme song was written and performed by Dan Bull.

Criticism of YouTube
Hardcastle has been a prominent voice in criticising the business model employed by YouTube, particularly its funding models following the Adpocalypse, and regular changes in its algorithm, which have resulted in both views and revenues for YouTubers dropping significantly in recent years.

In response to YouTube’s changing business model, Hardcastle published all 21 episodes of his Nerd3 & Planet Coaster series on the same day, totalling 15.5 hours of video content, mirroring the approach of Netflix series launches. While this was expected to play havoc with YouTube’s algorithm, which priorities shorter, daily uploads, the NerdCubed channel only lost around 6,000 subscribers in 24 hours – around 1 per cent of the channel’s total audience – and total watchtimes remained high. As of September 2018, the series had generated 1.6 million views.

Published works
On 4 June 2018 Hardcastle announced a partnership with Unbound to publish his first book, entitled Fuck Yeah, Video Games: The Life and Extra Lives of a Professional Nerd.

The book raised 100 per cent of its crowdfunding goal within 15 minutes of going live – setting a new record for Unbound. As of September 2018, the book has over 7,300 backers and is over 1,533 per cent funded.

Hardcastle has stated that a percentage of the profits from his book will be donated to a LGBT charity. Fuck Yeah, Video Games: The Life and Extra Lives of a Professional Nerd is due for publication in 2019, and Hardcastle has stated that he has already begun work on his second book.

Charity work
In 2017, Hardcastle hosted a ten-hour charity live stream in support for Red Nose Day featuring a number of other well-known YouTubers. The stream raised £17,200 for the charity – beating the initial donation goal by more than 240%. As NerdCubed, Hardcastle is also known to have collaborated with the Starlight Children’s Foundation, most famously creating several YouTube videos with child cancer patient Jay Harmer before his death on 28 June 2018.

Video games
Hardcastle’s business, Nerdcubed LTD, has produced three games.

The first, How to Snooker, was built in Construct 2 and was released in September 2014.

His second game, Systems Nominal, which challenged the player to evacuate a spaceship before it exploded, was released in January 2015.

A third game, Pi Fight, was released for Android and iOS in 2015. It has subsequently been removed from Google Play and the App Store.

While Hardcastle has hinted at plans to release multiple games, no further games have been published to date.

Personal life
Hardcastle grew up in Southend-on-Sea, England. He attended Edinburgh University, where he studied astrophysics, leaving the course at the end of his first year.

Hardcastle married [video games|games} developer and artist Rebecca Maughan on 12 November 2016.

His father, Steve Hardcastle, is also a YouTuber and is known for playing games and a regular vlog series under the name Dad3.

He is known to suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and has regularly highlighted his Arachnophobia.

Appearances in other media
Hardcastle features as a playable character in the 2017 game Heat Signature, while his channel’s YouTube logo can be found in Just Cause 3 as a hidden Easter Egg.

Hardcastle is due to appear in sequel to Ashens and the Quest for the Gamechild – his first film role – alongside Stuart Ashen, Robert Llewellyn and Warwick Davis