The History of Rooster Teeth
The History of Rooster Teeth
(Last updated November 3, 2019)
Rooster Teeth’s history began in 1997 with Burnie, Joel, and Matt creating their movie, The Schedule. The actual company was founded on April 1, 2003 and has grown from 5 employees in 2003 to 350 employees in 2019.
I wanted to bring together some important moments in Rooster Teeth history, many of which I believe were foundational in forming the company into what it is today. While I can't hit on every milestone that Rooster Teeth has achieved, I hope that I at least focused on some of the most important ones.
Feel free to download the jpg version of The History of Rooster Teeth or just keep scrolling to the button at the bottom. There’s also a table at the bottom of the page in case you want to CMD+F or CTRL+F for a specific event.
| Historical Moment | Date |
|---|---|
| Burnie Burns, Joel Heyman, and Matt Hullum join forces to create The Schedule. | Sometime in 1997 |
| DrunkGamers.com is formed by Geoff Ramsey, Gus Sorola, and Burnie. | Sometime in 2000 |
| Rooster Teeth releases their first video, the Mac Gamer Switch Parody. | Sometime in 2001 |
| The trailer for Red Vs. Blue is created. | September 5, 2002 |
| Series premiere of Red Vs. Blue. | April 1, 2003 |
| Rooster Teeth is founded by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Gus Sorola, Geoff Ramsey, and Joel Heyman. | April 1,2003 |
| Rooster Teeth implements a Subscription-based service. | Sometime in 2003 |
| Series premiere of The Strangerhood. | November 10, 2004 |
| Series premiere of Sponsor Cut. | December 17, 2004 |
| Rooster Teeth moves into the 3-D Buda Office (and out of Burnie's house). | Sometime in 2005 |
| Rooster Teeth attends their first Sundance Festival. | January 26, 2005 |
| The first RvBTO event is held (a fan event in Toronto). | July 2005 |
| Series premiere of P.A.N.I.C.S | September 27, 2005 |
| Rooster Teeth comics is released. | Sometime in 2006 |
| Rooster Teeth moves to Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. | Sometime in 2007 |
| Jack meets Burnie at a poker game. | Sometime in 2007 |
| Series premiere of 1-800-MAGIC. | June 7, 2007 |
| Episode 100 of Red vs Blue is released, marking the end of the Blood Gulch Chronicles | July 19, 2007 |
| Ben King becomes employee #8 | Sometime in 2008 |
| Series premiere of Stroyent. | June 19, 2008 |
| Achievement Hunter is founded | July 6, 2008 |
| Trailer for Red Vs. Blue: Animated is shown at PAX. | August 2008 |
| Series premiere of The Drunk Tank. | December 9, 2008 |
| Grifball included in Halo 3 Matchmaking. | January 8, 2009 |
| Start of live action videos with Captain Dynamic. | February 26, 2009 |
| Season 1 of Rooster Teeth Shorts. | April 28, 2009 |
| Brandom Farmahini is hired. | June 2009 |
| Monty Oum is secretly hired. | August 2009 |
| Jack Pattillo hired full-time after previously doing contract work. | December 2009 |
| Rooster Teeth moves to the 636 Ralph Ablanedo office. | Sometime in 2010 |
| Series premiere of Immersion. | April 10, 2010 |
| Kerry Shawcross is hired. | May 2010 |
| First RTAA is released (AKA Drunk Tank Animated Adventures). | July 2010 |
| Series premiere of Music Videos. | September 8, 2010 |
| Chris Demarais is hired | November 2010 |
| The Slow Mo Guys is founded by Gavin Free and Daniel Gruchy. | November 3, 2010 |
| Roo Teeth community is launched by Caiti Ward in Australia. | February 2011 |
| Kara Eberle is hired. | Sometime in 2011 |
| Adam Baird is hired. | May 2011 |
| Rooster Teeth holds their first RTX in Austin with 500+ attendees. | May 27, 2011 |
| Series premiere of the RT Recap. | August 12, 2011 |
| Gray Haddock is hired. | August 2011 |
| Michael Jones is hired. | August 2011 |
| Yvonne Secretan is hired. | August 2011 |
| Ryan Haywood is hired. | August 2011 |
| Series premiere of RT Life. | September 23, 2011 |
| The Drunk Tank podcast is renamed to Rooster Teeth Podcast | September 28, 2011 |
| Kyle Taylor lands internship that would eventually lead to a full-time position. | September 2011 |
| The first RTOZ is held (a fan event in Australia). | October 2011 |
| Rooster Teeth Comics comes to an end. | November 2011 |
| Series premiere of Past Cast. | November 22, 2011 |
| Series premiere of Nature Town. | November 22, 2011 |
| Miles Luna is hired (Employee #19) | December 2011 |
| Barbara Dunkelman is hired (assumingly as employee #20). | December 2011 |
| Gavin Free is hired. | February 2012 |
| Ray Narvaez, Jr. is hired. | April 2012 |
| Jon Risinger is hired. | August 2012 |
| Series premiere of The Gauntlet, Season 1. | November 1, 2012 |
| First Trailer for RWBY is released. | November 7, 2012 |
| Nathan Zellner leaves Rooster Teeth. | December 2012 |
| Jordan Cwierz hired | December 2012 |
| Series premiere of A Simple Walk into Mordor. | December 10, 2012 |
| Rooster Teeth acquires The Slow Mo Guys. | February 20, 2013 |
| Red vs. Blue becomes an Honoree for the Webby Awards in the Animation Category | Sometime in 2013 |
| Patrick Salazar is hired. | June 2013 |
| First episode of RWBY is released at RTX | July 2013 |
| Adam Ellis is hired. | August 2013 |
| Aaron Marquis is hired. | August 2013 |
| Josh Flanagan is hired. | September 2013 |
| Jack hosts 24-hour live stream for Extra Life, raising $340,000 for hospitalized children. | October 25, 2013 |
| Launch of the monthly Rooster Teeth Newsletter | November 2013 |
| Blaine Gibson is hired | December 13, 2013 |
| Mariel Salcedo is hired. | January 2014 |
| Funhaus is founded by Adam Kovic, Bruce Greene, Lawrence Sonntag, James Willems, Sean Poole, and Matt Peake. | February 2014 |
| The first RT Community Day is held. | February 15, 2014 |
| Rooster Teeth moves to Stage 5 Studios. | April 2014 |
| RWBY is a Webby Award Nominee for Online Film & Video in the Animation Category. | Sometime in 2014 |
| The Gauntlet Season 2 earns the Webby Awards People's Voice Award in the Reality category. | Sometime in 2014 |
| Crowd funding campaign for Lazer Team closes; Raised almost $2.5 million raised. | July 6, 2014 |
| Jeremy Dooley and Matt Bragg are hired. | July 2014 |
| Series premiere of Happy Hour. | July 26, 2014 |
| Series premiere of Social Disorder. | September 13, 2014 |
| Series premiere of Minimations. | October 8, 2014 |
| Release of Ten Little Roosters. | November 4, 2014 |
| Series premiere of Screen Play. | November 6, 2014 |
| Series premiere of On The Spot, hosted by Jon Risinger. | November 7, 2014 |
| FullScreen acquires Rooster Teeth for an undisclosed amount. | November 2014 |
| Series premiere of Xray & Vav. | November 27, 2014 |
| Rooster Teeth Games department is formed within Rooster Teeth | Sometime in 2015 |
| Cole Gallian hired. | Sometime in 2015 |
| Monty Oum passes away. | February 1, 2015 |
| Marcus La Porte hired. | February 9, 2015 |
| Launch of Let’s Play Live in Austin, TX. | February 20, 2015 |
| RWBY is an Honoree in the Webby Awards Animation category. | Sometime in 2015 |
| Rooster Teeth Productions becomes an Honoree as an Entertainment Channel from the Webby Awards. | Sometime in 2015 |
| Tyler Coe is hired. | March 12, 2015 |
| Kara Eberle leaves Rooster Teeth. | April 19, 2015 |
| Series premiere of Rooster Teeth Pilots. | April 19, 2015 |
| Series premiere of RT Showcase. | April 21, 2015 |
| Yssa Badioloa is hired. | April 27, 2015 |
| RT Productions becomes an Honoree in Humor from the Webby Awards. | Sometime in 2015 |
| Stan Lewis is hired. | May 2015 |
| The pilot episode for Million Dollars, But… is released. | May 21, 2015 |
| Bethany Feinstein hired. | June 2015 |
| Eric Duncan hired | June 2015 |
| Website Beta opened to Sponsors. | July 2015 |
| First episode of Free Play is released. | August 12, 2015 |
| Series premiere of Sportsball. | August 25, 2015 |
| Rooster Teeth releases the Rooster Teeth app | September 10, 2015 |
| Series premiere of RT Docs with Let's Play Live: The Documentary. | September 13, 2015 |
| Series premiere of RT Trailers. | September 15, 2015 |
| Series premiere of #RTES. | September 24, 2015 |
| The RWBY manga is announced. | October 2015 |
| Series premiere of FIRST Member Vlogs. | October 18, 2015 |
| Jessica Vasami hired. | October 2015 |
| ScrewAttack becomes a division of Rooster Teeth. | November 4, 2015 |
| Series premiere of Buff Buddies. | November 5, 2015 |
| Series premiere of RT Specials. | December 31, 2015 |
| RTX goes upside down to Sydney. | January 23 - 24, 2016 |
| Release of Lazer Team. | January 27, 2016 |
| Ellie Main is hired. | February 2016 |
| Becca Frasier is hired. | February 2016 |
| Pilot episode of Fan Service is released. | February 19, 2016 |
| The Cow Chop channel is created. | February 29, 2016 |
| Mike Quinn is hired. | March 2016 |
| The Let's Play Family is founded. | March 21, 2016 |
| Mica Burton is hired. | May 2016 |
| Rooster Teeth announces their partnership with The Creatures. | April 4, 2016 |
| Rooster Teeth partners with Kinda Funny. | March 30, 2016 |
| Mica Burton is hired. | May 2016 |
| Sophie Turcotte is hired. | May 2016 |
| Series premiere of RWBY Chibi. | May 14, 2016 |
| First episode of Camp Camp is released. | June 17, 2016 |
| Million Dollars, But… the card game is released. | June, 2016 |
| First episode of Day 5 is released. | June 19, 2016 |
| Sponsor Subscription re-branded as FIRST membership and Double Gold. | July 1, 2016 |
| RWBY Grimm Eclipse released on Steam. | July 5, 2016 |
| Rooster Teeth hires Luis Medina, Evan Bregman, and Ryan P. Hall | July 25, 2016 |
| First episode of Always Open is released to FIRST members | September 1, 2016 |
| Series premiere of Crunch Time | September 11, 2016 |
| Members of ScrewAttack (Craig Skistimas, Shaun Bolen, Bryan Baker, and Parker Bohon) leave to create Game Attack. | October 9, 2016 |
| Website is redesigned with a dark theme, carousel for recent videos, faster load times, and an online search bar so you don't have to leave the page. | October 20, 2016 |
| Series premiere of Backwardz Compatible. | November 5, 2016 |
| Series premiere of Let Me Clarify. | November 5, 2016 |
| Rooster Teeth FIRST App becomes available on Xbox One and Apple TV. | November 8, 2016 |
| Nathan Isherwood is hired. | December 2016 |
| Pilot episode of Enjoy the Show is released. | December 21, 2016 |
| Premiere of The Eleven Little Roosters. | January 16th, 2017 |
| Rooster Teeth Games expands into game publishing. | January 25, 2017 |
| Series premiere of Burnie Vlogs. | January 26, 2017 |
| Series premiere of A Spot of Science. | January 29, 2017 |
| Launch of the RT Insider newsletter (a Sponsor only newsletter). | February 5, 2017 |
| Bendy and the Ink Machine Chapter One released | February 10, 2017 |
| Series premiere of Sex Swing. | February 18, 2017 |
| Geoff Ramsey announces his sabbatical from Rooster Teeth and Achievement Hunter (where he also began his journey to sobriety). | February 27, 2017 |
| Tinder: The Superhero Movie receives the Webby Awards People's Voice Award. | 2017 |
| The World's Greatest Head Massage: an ASMR Journey becomes an Honoree in the Weird category for the Webby Awards | 2017 |
| Burnie's Vlog becomes an Honoree in the Best Web Personality/Host category for the Webby Awards. | 2017 |
| RWBY becomes an Honoree in the Animation category for the Webby Awards | 2017 |
| Launch of FIRST Week | March 20, 2017 |
| Series premiere of Relationship Goals. | March 21, 2017 |
| Series premiere of Barbara's Vlog. | April 19, 2017 |
| Game Attack becomes independent from Rooster Teeth. | May 1, 2017 |
| JT Music announces partnership with Rooster Teeth and NoahJ456, LazarBeam, and Steven Suptic join the Let's Play Family. | May 31, 2017 |
| David Eddings hired at Rooster Teeth Games. | June 2017 |
| First episode of The Lab is released. | June 5, 2017 |
| Battlesloths 2025 is released on Steam. | June 6, 2017 |
| Rooster Teeth Announces their podcast network, The Roost. | June 14, 2017 |
| Criken2 joins the Let's Play Family. | July 7 - 9, 2017 |
| The Creatures disband. | July 13, 2017 |
| Premiere of Tuesday Night Game Fight. | July 19, 2017 |
| The Let's Play Family Reunion. | September 24 - 25th, 2017 |
| Wes Ellis hired. | October 2017 |
| The first RTX London. | October 14, 2017 |
| Series premiere of CRWBY. | October 14, 2017 |
| Series premiere of RWBY Rewind. | October 18, 2017 |
| Release of Lazer Team 2. | November 13, 2017 |
| James Buckley, BedBananas, and Tomato Gaming join the Let's Play Family. | November 15, 2017 |
| Series premiere of Master and Apprentice with Marcus LaPorte and Adam Ellis. | December 19, 2017 |
| Sugar Pine 7 becomes a division of Rooster Teeth. | January 11, 2018 |
| Fullscreen President and former COO, Ezra Cooperstein, is appointed as President of Rooster Teeth. | January 26, 2018 |
| Open Beta announced for new website. | February 2018 |
| Live from Austin | February 19-23, 2018 |
| Series premiere of Nomad of Nowhere. | March 16, 2018 |
| Launch of Rooster Teeth TV Beta. | March 2018 |
| World Premiere of Blood Fest at SXSW | March 2018 |
| Rooster Teeth UK Office is announced, headed by Eric Cherry. | April 2018 |
| Pilots released for Branded, Gorq's Quest, Achievement Haunter, Million Dollars, But ... Animated, and Rooster Teeth's Murder Room | May 2018 |
| Horror-comedy show Spikeface in collaboration with RCG is announced. | May 2018 |
| Fan Service is rebooted on Crunchyroll. | July 20, 2018 |
| Aaron Marquis leaves RT. | September 2018 |
| Chilled Chaos becomes Let's Play affiliate. | September 15, 2018 |
| RT Store goes live for UK. | September 27, 2018 |
| Rooster Teeth announces RWBY and Gen:Lock comics through their partnership with DC Comics. | October 7, 2018 |
| Series premiere of Game Time (with Burnie). | October 12, 2018 |
| Series premiere of The Bungalow with Matt Hullum and Ezra Cooperstein. | October 19, 2018 |
| Series premiere of What Do You Know? | October 21, 2018 |
| Release of the mobile game RWBY: Amity Arena. | October 2018 |
| Rooster Teeth begins shipping RWBY: Combat Ready board game. | October 26, 2018 |
| Fullscreen Media is restructured, resulting in Rooster Teeth, Crunchyroll, and VRV being consolidated under the umbrella unit Ellation. | December 4, 2018 |
| Tyler Coe leaves Rooster Teeth. | December 9, 2018 |
| Stan Lewis leaves Rooster Teeth. | December 10, 2018 |
| Premiere of The War on Christmas: a Rooster Teeth Live Holiday Spectacular. | December 13, 2018 |
| Rooster announces a partnership with CypherDen and Flashgitz that will bring additional content to the RT site. | December 18, 2018 |
| The RT Box is discontinued. | January 1, 2019 |
| Rooster Teeth's video game Vicious Circle is announced. | January 7, 2019 |
| Series premiere of Gen:Lock. | January 26, 2019 |
| Yvonne Secretan becomes Rooster Teeth's first retiree. | January 31, 2019 |
| Screw Attack is shutdown and renamed to Death Battle. | February 4, 2019 |
| Bethany Feinstein leaves Rooster Teeth | February 13, 2019 |
| Inside Gaming is (re)launched. | February 14, 2019 |
| Bloodfest is available on RT Site. | February 14, 2019 |
| Kinda Funny is added to the RT website. | February 20, 2019 |
| Burnie and Ashley announce that they are expecting. | March 11, 2019 |
| James announces his depature from Cow Chop. | March 18, 2019 |
| Retro Replay, GaLm, Tom Fawkes, and Castle Super Beast join the Let's Play Family. | April 23, 2019 |
| Game Attack leaves Rooster Teeth and the Let's Play Family entirely. | May 1, 2019 |
| Series premiere of Get Fact! | June 14, 2019 |
| Shark Week episode of Immersion premieres. | August 3, 2019 |
| Vicious Circle releases on Steam. | August 13, 2019 |
| Volume 1 of the RWBY comic is released. | August 28, 2019 |
| Bruce Greene announces his departure from Funhaus. | September 3, 2019 |
| Premiere of the Clickbait pilot. | September 4, 2019 |
| Max Kruemke announces his departure from Rooster Teeth. | September 5, 2019 |
| Premiere of Spill the Reali-Tea pilot. | September 10, 2019 |
| Rooster Teeth lays off 13% of their staff. | September 14, 2019 |
| Ellie Main announces her departure from Rooster Teeth. | September 17, 2019 |
| Matt Hullum transitions from Chief Executive Officer to Chief Content Officer. Burnie Burns steps down as Chief Creative Officer for an Executive Producer role. Goeff Ramsey steps away from Achievement Hunter to become the Executive Creative Director. Jordan Levin takes over as General Manager. Barbara Dunkelman becomes the Creative Director for Rooster Teeth. | September 24, 2019 |
| Burnie's last RT Podcast. | September 30, 2019 |
| Ashley Jenkins/Burns announces she is leaving RT | September 30, 2019 |
| Day 5 season 2 is brought back to the RT website. | October 8, 2019 |
| Premiere of Good Morning from Hell | October 10, 2019 |
| Premiere of the Face Jam podcast. | October 11, 2019 |
| Release of the Death Battle game. | October 14, 2019 |
| Release of the Rooster Teeth blog. | October 14, 2019 |
| Series premiere of Arizona Circle. | October 23, 2019 |
| Rooster Teeth Extra Life | November 2 and 9, 2019 |
| Pilot episode of Black Box Down | November 11, 2019 |
| Pilot episode of Face Jam Podcast | November 12, 2019 |
| Series premiere of Chump | December 4, 2019 |
| Doreen Copeland promoted to VP, Head of Production, Joe Cleary and Sean Hinz promoted as Co-Heads of Animation | December 12, 2019 |
| Lawrence Sonntag announces he's leaving Rooster Teeth | December 17, 2019 |
| Becca Frasier leaves Rooster Teeth | January 3, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Gary and His Demons | January 18, 2020 |
| Haunter Season 2 | January 30, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Inside Gaming Features | March 10, 2019 |
| Series premiere of We Have Cool Friends | June 3, 2019 |
| Series premiere of Morning Haus | October 8, 2019 |
| Series premiere of PS I Love You | January 7, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Gary and His Demons | January 12, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Inside Gaming's podcast, Send News | February 8, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Select All | February 19, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Hard Mode | February 21, 2020 |
| March 5, 2020 - RT Animation reaches 1million YouTube subscribers | March 5, 2020 |
| AH Live / Off Topic LA is cancelled due to COVID-19 | March 5, 2020 |
| Achievement Hunter 12 hour Live Stream extravaganza | March 14, 2020 |
| Series premiere of No Idea with Adam and James | March 20, 2020 |
| RT starts working from home due to COVID-19 | Sometime in March |
| Premiere of Anim Jam | March 30, 2020 |
| Series premiere of 7 Wonderings | April 1, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Keeping the Lights On | April 1, 2020 |
| Season 2 of Master & Apprentice | April 2, 2020 |
| Front/Back shirt is released | April 3, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Black Box Down | April 16, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Last Laugh | April 20, 2020 |
| Series premiere of F-ing Around with Ify & Fiona | April 23, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Roll Initiative | April 24, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Hat Films | April 24, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Die Is Cast | April 26, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Inside Gaming Special | April 26, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Technical Difficulties | April 27, 2020 |
| GMOD Sandbox added to the RT website | April 29, 2020 |
| Series premiere of I Have Notes | April 30, 2020 |
| Simon's Peculiar Portions is added to the RT website | May 1, 2020 |
| High Rollers: Aerois is added to the RT website | May 1, 2020 |
| Triforce is added to the RT website | May 4, 2020 |
| The Hat Chat is added to the RT Website | May 4, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Screen Time | May 14, 2020 |
| YogsCast is added to the RT website | May 15, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Talk CRWBY to me | May 23, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Co-Op Adventures | May 24, 2020 |
| Series premiere of F**k Face with Geoff, Gavin, and Andrew | June 3, 2020 |
| Off Topic, an Honest Discussion | June 5, 2020 |
| Mariel Salcedo helps raise $100k for multiple bail funds, to justice initiatives, public health initiatives for black mothers, support for black trans folks, and a therapy fund for black women. | June 5, 2020 |
| Series Premiere of Hardcore Minigolf | June 10, 2020 |
| Burnie Burns announces his departure from Rooster Teeth | June 11, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Lord of the Rings: In Review | June 19, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Doom Patrol / Doom Talkers | June 22, 2020 |
| Rooster Teeth announces that RTX has been cancelled in-person due to COVID-19 | June 25, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Death Race | July 5, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Recorded by Arizal | July 13, 2020 |
| Series premiere of Red Web | July 20, 2020 |
| Premiere of Transformers: War for Cybertron on Netfli | July 30, 2020 |
| Rooster Teeth removes certain content from their website | August 7, 2020 |
| Premiere of RWBY: The Grimm Campaign | August 15, 2020 |
| RTX At Home | September 15 to 20, 2020 |
| Miles Luna leaves Rooster Teeth | September 23, 2020 |
| Premiere of Red vs Blue: Zero | October 19, 2020 |