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The Completionist
The profile picture of the channel
Personal information
Born (1988-01-03) January 3, 1988 (age 36)
Los Angeles, California
Occupations
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2012–present
Genres
Subscribers1.61 million[1]
(April 2023)
Total views321 million[1]
(April 2023)
100,000 subscribers
1,000,000 subscribers

Jirard Khalil (born January 3, 1988), also known online as The Completionist, is a YouTuber who focuses on reviewing and completing video games.[2] Throughout his career on YouTube, Khalil has uploaded reviews of over 340 games.[3]

Early life

Khalil was born on January 3, 1988 and is a native of Los Angeles, California.[‡ 1][3] He is also the brother of Kellee Khalil, an entrepreneur who founded the wedding planner website Lover.ly.[4] He is of Lebanese descent.[‡ 2]

Khalil attended California State University, Fullerton.[3] After Khalil got his college degree in theater and film, he worked at a Best Buy. After his manager pushed him to pursue his YouTube dreams full time, Khalil started his YouTube channel, originally called ThatOneVideoGamer but later renamed The Completionist.[5][6]

Career

Khalil's YouTube career began in 2012.[6] He had attempted to start his YouTube career multiple times, but had restarted due to a lack of success in gaining an audience.[6] After meeting internet personality Arin Hanson, Khalil became inspired to create his YouTube career again, with an emphasis towards playing video games to 100% completion.[6] Khalil's content on The Completionist involves him reviewing and discovering every aspect of a video game, including completing the game on all difficulty options, finding every collectible and defeating every boss.[2][5] At the end of his reviews, Khalil also shows the number of hours taken to complete the game along with the amount of collectibles he acquired.[6] He stated that his style of completing games originated from his childhood, where he often played games repeatedly in order to convince his parents to buy him new games.[6] Mike Andronico of CNN described Khalil's videos as "backed by his articulate, authoritative and entertaining narration, which make the channel's deep dives on retro games and modern blockbusters accessible for even non-gamers."[5]

Khalil worked on The Completionist with collaborator Greg Wilmot.[7] However, due to a falling out between the two members, the first 120 episodes of the series were removed, leading Khalil to recreate the episodes.[8] In addition to The Completionist, he also creates Let's Play videos on the channel Super Beard Bros. with collaborator and friend Alex Faciane.[3]

Khalil was a member of the gaming collective Normal Boots, a YouTube network featuring creators such as PeanutButterGamer.[9] He signed with the Creative Artists Agency in 2020 alongside YouTuber Alpharad.[10] In 2021, as a part of Sonic's 30th Anniversary, the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel featured a new series called Sonic Rings. In the series, Khalil discusses his history with the franchise.[11] That same year, Khalil joined G4's Xplay, but the network was shut down in November 2022 after averaging 1,000 viewers, the lowest of any American cable network.[12][13][14]

In 2022, Khalil debuted his new series, God of Work.[5] Created alongside Emily Rose Jacobson, the premise involves Khalil portraying Kratos from God of War in an office setting.[5][13]

On March 18, 2023, Khalil uploaded a video about buying every single Nintendo Wii U and 3DS game from the Nintendo eShop before the online store closed in 2023.[15][16] The project took 328 days and cost $22,791, split between $9,673 in Wii U games and $13,118 in 3DS games.[16][17][18] The video was funded by multiple sponsorships throughout 2022.[19] Khalil planned to donate the consoles to the Video Game History Foundation.[9][20] However, most of these games were already preserved on illegal ROM websites.[21][22]

Other work

Khalil appeared as a character in the video game Asagao Academy, a dating sim and visual novel created by and featuring members of Normal Boots in 2014.[23][24]

In August 2022, he appeared in a GameSpot video with other gaming personalities to discuss the impact of Final Fantasy VII.[25]

As of April 2023, Khalil is co-developing his upcoming game Elsie with developer Knight Shift Games and publisher Playtonic Games.[26][27]

IndieLand

Following the death of his mother in 2013 from frontotemporal dementia, Khalil co-founded the Open Hand Foundation and organized the annual live-stream charity event IndieLand.[10][28] The event showcases various indie games along with interviews with developers and guest appearances from gaming personalities, with the intent to raise funds for dementia research.[29][30]

In November 2023, YouTubers Karl Jobst and SomeOrdinaryGamers uploaded videos revealing Form 990-PF records which showed that the Open Hand Foundation had not made any charity contributions between 2014 and 2022, accumulating $655,520 in unspent assets. In a call with the two YouTubers, Khalil claimed that until 2021, he was unaware that the funds had not been donated and was currently seeking an appropriate charity. However, Jobst highlighted that the foundation's website lists the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) as a recipient of research funding. Additionally, during the October 2023 IndieLand event, Khalil had claimed the Open Hand Foundation was donating to UCSF, the Alzheimer's Association, and Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration.[31][better source needed]

Awards and nominations

Year Ceremony Category Result Ref.
2019 Streamy Awards Gaming Nominated [32]

References

  1. ^ a b "About ThatOneVideoGamer". YouTube.
  2. ^ a b Yarwood, Jack (October 2, 2017). "20 gaming YouTubers you should be following". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on February 26, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d Turner, Jonathan (November 13, 2019). "Passionate video gamer 'The Completionist' comes to Rust Belt Nov. 19". The Quad-City Times. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  4. ^ Cava, Marco della (August 11, 2013). "Change Agents: Kellee Khalil has Loverly wedding ideas". USA Today. Retrieved June 6, 2023. One brother, Jirard, goes by his YouTube video-game testing moniker, The Completionist...
  5. ^ a b c d e Andronico, Mike (August 9, 2022). "We talked to The Completionist's Jirard Khalil about his new G4 show — and his favorite YouTube gear". CNN Underscored. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Yarwood, Jack (July 6, 2017). "The Completionist's toughest challenges". Red Bull. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  7. ^ Ettinger, Jared (August 8, 2013). "Watch The Completionist, Erm, Complete All of Portal For Geek Week [Video]". The Mary Sue. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
  8. ^ Eggen, Lukas (October 22, 2020). "The Completionist has long, complicated history with YouTube". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  9. ^ a b Innes, Ruby (March 20, 2023). "Jirard 'The Completionist' Khalil Buys Every Wii U And 3DS eShop Game, Donates Them All". Kotaku Australia. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  10. ^ a b Weiss, Geoff (September 1, 2020). "CAA Signs Prominent Gamers Alpharad And The Completionist (Exclusive)". Tubefilter. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  11. ^ "New official Sonic Rings YouTube series highlights Sonic megafans, starting with The Completionist". Nintendo Wire. July 15, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  12. ^ "New Xplay co-host 'had weird emotional outbursts' of G4 fandom upon joining Adam Sessler". SYFY Official Site. November 16, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  13. ^ a b Gutelle, Sam (August 10, 2022). "Can The Completionist bring his combination of video games and acting to TV? 100%". Tubefilter. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  14. ^ Maglio, Tony; Chapman, Wilson (October 17, 2022). "Why Did the G4 Channel Close? Well, It Averaged 1,000 Viewers". IndieWire. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  15. ^ Nunneley-Jackson, Stephany (February 16, 2022). "The Wii U and Nintendo 3DS eShop will be shutdown next year". VG247. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  16. ^ a b Kuhnke, Oisin (March 19, 2023). "Ahead of the Wii U and 3DS eShops' closure, YouTube's most prolific completionist bought every game". VG247. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  17. ^ Liang, Lu-Hai (March 19, 2023). "TheCompletionist Just Spent $23K Saving Every Game On Wii U And 3DS". TheGamer. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  18. ^ Plunkett, Luke (March 19, 2023). "YouTuber Buys Every Single Video Game On The Wii U and 3DS eShops Before They Close". Kotaku. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  19. ^ Bonthuys, Darryn (March 20, 2023). "YouTuber The Completionist Bought Every Wii U And 3DS eShop Game Before Shutdown, And It Cost $23,000". GameSpot. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  20. ^ Michel, Jamal (March 24, 2023). "Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives". NPR. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  21. ^ Bailey, Dustin (March 21, 2023). "YouTuber's wild $20k quest to preserve the Nintendo eShop could be the only legal way to save game history, and that sucks". GamesRadar+. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  22. ^ Doolan, Liam (March 19, 2023). "Random: YouTuber Spends Nearly $23K Buying Every 3DS & Wii U eShop Game". Nintendo Life. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  23. ^ Elderkin, Beth (May 18, 2016). "When Liking And Subscribing To Your Favourite YouTuber Isn't Enough". Kotaku Australia. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  24. ^ Carlson, Alex (November 2, 2014). "Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club Lets You Date Youtubers". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  25. ^ Klein, Dave; James, Lucy (August 7, 2022). "I Heart Final Fantasy VII (ft. The Completionist, Maximilian Dood, and More!)". GameSpot. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  26. ^ Norman, Jim (April 17, 2023). "Video: The Completionist Talks To Us About His Upcoming Roguelike Game, Elsie". Nintendo Life. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  27. ^ LeClair, Kyle (April 10, 2023). "PAX East 2023: Elsie is Pure, Glorious Chaos". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  28. ^ Desatoff, Sam (September 29, 2021). "IndieLand 2021 raises more than $100,000 for dementia research". GameDaily.biz. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  29. ^ Sheehan, Gavin (August 22, 2022). "IndieLand 2022 Livestream Set To Happen This November". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  30. ^ Williams, Hayley (October 25, 2023). "IndieLand 2023 Charity Event Is Happening This Week". GameSpot. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  31. ^ Nichols, Jake (November 13, 2023). "The Completionist's charity accused of withholding over $600K in donations". Dexerto. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  32. ^ Haring, Bruce (December 13, 2019). "9th Annual Streamy Awards Honors 'Good Mythical Morning' As Show Of The Year". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 15, 2023.

Primary sources

  1. ^ Jirard Khalil (November 21, 2018). Draw My Life The Completionist. YouTube. Event occurs at 0:34. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  2. ^ Khalil, Jirard (May 26, 2017). "What if She's Still in There Somewhere?". The Story Collider. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
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