User:Squirminator2k
From Worms Knowledge Base
Squirminator2k is the community handle of Ben Paddon, a British writer, actor and stand-up comedian living and working in Los Angeles.
In the Worms community
After running The WormsDC Experience from 1999 to 2001, he was added to the staff of GameSpy's Worms website Wormtopia due to his extensive knowledge of Worms: The Director's Cut. In 2004 he founded Dream17, a website covering on Team17's entire body of work. In 2009 he handed off operations of the site to WorMatty and SupSuper.
He is credited as contributing to "Update Testing and Research" in the readme for Worms Armageddon. In addition to this, Ben is a credited beta tester for Worms 4: Mayhem, and has contributed to the as-yet unreleased v1.5 update for Worms: The Director's Cut. His community handle is also included in the random name generator for Worms 3D, where it exceeds the maximum character length for worm names in the game.
Other Projects
Ben is the writer and host of PortsCenter, a webseries which looks at unique and interesting ports, conversions and re-releases of video games. Several episodes of the show have featured Worms titles - the first looked at the entire series from Worms up to Worms Reloaded, while the second focused exclusively on Worms: The Director's Cut. Other episodes have looked at Superfrog and its HD remake.
Ben was the co-creator of the scifi-comedy webcomic Jump Leads from 2007-2013. A pilot for an audioplay reboot was released in 2015. In 2020, recording started on a series of six episodes.
Ben is the GM for the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game actual-play podcast The Game of Rassilon.
From 2008-09, Ben and Michelle Osorio co-wrote the four-part YouTube series Boomer's Day Off, a mockumentary focusing on Oscar, a Boomer from the video game Left 4 Dead. He and Osorio teamed up again in 2013-2014 to produce Dalek Gary, a six-part mockumentary about a Dalek from the BBC series Doctor Who stranded on Earth and trying to blend in as a human.
Ben started the infrequent vlog series British Candy Authority, in which he eats a piece of American candy (for example a Hershey bar or a Charleston Chew) and then appraises its quality. Most scores for the series are low. The series was originally produced for Kill9TV from 2013-2014, and moved to FilmJoy in 2015. No new episodes have been posted since 2016.
In 2017 Ben began co-hosting The Antiquing Hour with Ben and Mikey, a retrogaming livestream where Ben plays an old video game while chatting with Movies with Mikey creator Mikey Neumann (himself an avid Worms fan and former Worms 2 pro).
In 2018 Ben launched the podcast The Life Toyetic with Ben and Molly, "a podcast about movies about toys" which he co-hosted with LA-based artist Molly Alice Hoy. The show ended in 2019.
Ben has been co-hosting the SoulGeek Singles Night in Los Angeles, CA along with voice actor Dino Andrade (World of Warcraft, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Brütal Legend) since 2009. In 2010 the event moved to Van Nuys, CA.
Ben is often found working conventions in California. He was the MC at San Diego Who Con during its first two years, and it set to appear as a guest for the show's third year. In 2017 he MC'd at WhedonCon 2017. He has moderated panels and events at Gallifrey One, Long Beach Comic-Con, Long Beach Comic Expo, and SacAnime. He has also performed standup at Anime Los Angeles, NinjaCon, Anime Conji and Anime Expo where, in 2016, he was one of the six finalists for the Late Comedy Showcase. In 2015 he was a panelist at the RetroWare panel at MAGFest.
He debuted a live show, "Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Ports, Probably", at PAX East 2018. The show took the form of a 45-minute standup-comedy set with accompanying PowerPoint presentation detailing the history of video game ports, followed by a Q&A.
Ben has contributed to two songs by YouTube musical acts Random Encounters, including vocals for "The People of Smash Bros." and working crew for "Legends of Zelda: Tales of the Wind Waker". In 2014 he appeared as a guest on the Chainsawsuit Podcast, playing a British radio DJ for the first segment and himself for the second and third segments.
Personal life
Ben was originally born in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, and moved to Luton, Bedfordshire at the age of 3. He moved to Los Angeles in 2007, shortly after turning 21. Ben has been very open about his chronic illness - in 2015 he developed symptoms believed by his doctor to be signs of fibromyalgia. He is also open and public about his mental health, including an anxiety disorder and clinical depression.
Ben's mother, Jackie, passed away in September 14th. He flew to England to surprise her for her birthday only to find she had passed away while his plane was in the air. His father, Peter, passed away the following month. Peter, like Ben, resided in Los Angeles. Following this, Ben produced several episodes of PortsCenter including one about games his mother made, before taking two years off for personal reasons.
