Daniel Middleton

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT COMPLETE YET. PLEASE EXPAND IT.

Daniel Middleton (born November 8, 1991) is an English personality and professional gamer who goes by the handle The Diamond Minecart or DanTDM. His online video channels have covered video games, especially Minecraft. As of August 2017, he has over 10 billion views and 16 million subscribers. He has been listed as among the top 25 YouTube channels in the United Kingdom. In 2014, Business Insider estimated Middleton's annual income was between $213,000 and $2.15 million. In July 2015, his channel was listed as one of the most popular YouTubers in the world by viewership, gaining nearly 400 million views in that month alone. He has earned several Kids' Choice Awards as well as set Guinness World Records for his gaming and presenting.

BIOGRAPHY

Dan was born on November 8th, 1991 in Aldershot, England, United Kingdom as the oldest of two siblings. His parents divorced when he was a child. He attended The University of Northampton and started a channel in 2010 dedicated to the Pokemon while in he's in university, which he called himself PokemanDanLv45.

In 2012, Dan created a YouTube channel named The Diamond Minecart, a gaming channel whose audience consists of mostly children aged from 5-10. Due to an increasing amount of fake channels by the same name of his, Dan changed his channel name to TheDiamondMinecart//DanTDM. But on December 12, 2016, he decided to change his channel name again to just DanTDM. He then said that he thinks the new name was better than the older one because it was "awfully long". He produces videos out of his home studio in Wellingborough. In an interview with The Big Issue, Dan describes his process in making videos: he gets up around 9:00 AM and starts working on a video an hour later. He checks for Minecraft updates, edits the videos in the afternoon, and uploads the finished product at 8:30 PM, after which he checks for comments. He said "There isn't another game where free content comes out everyday made by fans, some of it is mind blowing". On weekends, he prepares videos in advance. In addition to Let's Play videos, he also makes mini movies that involves original characters.

Dan has uploaded a total of more than 2,500 videos and is still increasing daily. He is known for his daily reviews as well as several Let's Play series including The Diamond Dimensions, a modpack put together by Dan himself as well as Minecraft Xbox One, where he attempted to build a giant kingdom in survival, Crazy Craft, started by Thinknoodles (Justin) and played by Thnxcya (James), Dan and Thinknoodles, which is the newest collab series since Pixelmon, etc. He also makes vlogs, that he uploads occasionally on his second channel, MoreTDM (which is now inactive.) He also does videos featuring his pesky villager friend Dr. Trayaurus, which Trayaurus is shown doing his pesky tasks (ie. sending Dan to prehistoric ages, shrinking Dan to a small size and making him go inside to inspect a chicken). He started a Mini Challenge series where he and Dr. Trayaurus competed against each other in "Dr. Trayaurus' Challenge Colosseum". He also started Custom Mod Adventures, where Dan uses the mod and makes a story out of it. Dan is married to Jemma Middleton and they used to do videos together (e.g Husband vs. Wife Survival and Husband vs. Wife mini-games). Dan and Jemma also own three pugs, Ellie, Darcie and Peggy. So far, it's only known that Ellie is two years old and Darcie is one year old. Peggy's age is unknown but it is believed she is around 5 or 6. Dan has also fostered multiple pugs until they gained owners.

He is a regular guest at Insomnia gaming festival, where he appeared on the big stages in editions 49, 52 and 53. Dan won two Kid's Choice Awards in 2015 and 2016 and most likely for 2017 for the UK Tipster Award and also won an Bonca Award for the British Gamer Award, and also was an award presenter the Bafta Game Awards 2015, and he also holds a world record in Rocket League for scoring the most goals in 'rookie' mode on 2v2 multiplayer and a world record for the most views for a dedicated Minecraft video channel. He was featured twice on CBBC's Technobabble where he commented on several video games, and once on ITV's Lorraine. Dan also broke his hand on September 28, 2015. On November 3, 2016, he announced that we will voice the character "Cy" in the new Netflix exclusive series, Skylanders Academy. His character will also become a playable one in the new game, Skylanders Imaginators.

He released a graphic novel called: Trayaurus and the Enchanted Crystal on October 6, 2016. The graphic novel features characters from his channel including Grim the skeleton dog, Dr. Trayaurus, evil lab boss Denton and sidekick Fin. His book made it up to 2nd in bestseller in the US charts and made it up to 1st for several weeks in the UK charts. He was a featured guest at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and has planned a book tour that included parts in the UK and a visit to New York City.

In 2017, Dan had gone to another tour to the United States for 21 venues. He also has a YouTube Red Series known as DanTDM Creates a Big Scene. DanTDM Creates a Big Scene follows DanTDM and his group of animated friends as they battle to keep their live show on the road. Each episode catches their behind-the-scenes exploits as they learn skills, overcome challenges and face impossible odds. Along the way, they find that putting on an epic show isn't as easy as it looks.