Indy Neidell
Indiana "Indy" Neidell (born 28 September 1967) is an American-Swedish documentarian, actor, voice actor, musician and YouTube personality, best known for presenting the video series, The Great War on The Great War Channel[2][3] which documented World War I in real time using modern research, various secondary sources and archival footage.[4][5] A similar project, World War Two (about World War II) began in September 2018.[6] Neidell is also a writer and actor with credits that include Metropia and numerous commercials in Europe, as well as video game voice-acting.[3]
Indy Neidell | |
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Neidell in 2018 | |
Born | Pennsylvania, U.S.[1] | 28 September 1967
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Early life and education
Neidell was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Houston, Texas when he was nine months old. Neidell attended St. John's School, graduating in 1985.[3] He studied history at Wesleyan University, graduating in 1989 with honors.[3][7]
During an episode of World War Two, Neidell stated that his mother was born in Egypt. Neidell's grandfather, Basil, worked for the Egyptian Ministry of Education before joining the Royal Air Force during World War II. At some point after the war ended, he became the Secretary of the International Lawn Tennis Federation.[8]
Career
Mediakraft and The Great War series
Neidell was approached by Mediakraft, the producers of The Great War, to host the series after they saw a series of videos he had produced between May and September 2013 about the history of baseball, entitled Watch Sunday Baseball.[9] The Great War spin-off YouTube channel "It's History" also featured Neidell as a guest host for episodes on famous military campaigns.
The Great War project officially ended on November 11, 2018, exactly 100 years after the signing of the Armistice at Compiègne which formally ended all hostilities in the First World War. Neidell stated in his finale video that the channel will continue to release some episodes about events following the First World War. As for himself, Neidell has moved on to focus on other projects, such as the aforementioned World War II series.
TimeGhost History
Neidell would launch the TimeGhost History YouTube channel in June 2017 with Spartacus Olsson, the creator of The Great War and the producer of it for its first two years. The first feature was day-by-day coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis, 55 years to the day after the event. In April 2018, they launched the "Between 2 Wars" series to recap the Interwar period.
World War Two
With The Great War project (a similar web series which followed World War I) coming to a close in November 2018, Indy Neidell and Spartacus Olsson prepared for an equivalent YouTube project focusing on World War II, which they would produce themselves through their own TimeGhost channel (unlike The Great War) with a projected start date for September 1, 2018. Accounting for the war's longer duration and larger scope for this independent project without the participation of Mediakraft Networks, it is a collaboration of various channels: TimeGhost will focus on a weekly series on the general historical events of the war in the European and Pacific Theatres of the war. To raise the seed money for this project, there has been a successful Kickstarter campaign which raised €54,380 ($63,816).[10] With those funds available, a new studio was built from the ground up in its own building and arrangements were made with media providers such as Reuters News Service for archival footage.[11] The series also has an Instagram account which runs parallel to it and follows the events of World War II on a day-by-day basis.[12] As of January 9th, 2021, the YouTube channel had received 57,108,954 views and has over 575,000 subscribers.[13]
Sabaton
In February 2019, Neidell teamed up with Swedish power metal band Sabaton for a project called Sabaton History, for which he is the host and writer. The series documents the historical events surrounding the band's songs. He also portrayed T. E. Lawrence in the music video for Sabaton's song "Seven Pillars of Wisdom".[14]
Personal life
Neidell would leave the United States in 1992[15] living in Prague, Budapest, Istanbul, London and Edinburgh prior to moving to Stockholm in 1996.[15][16] He has dual citizenship of the United States and Sweden.[3]
References
- "Interview with Indy Neidell I THE GREAT WAR - Special"
- "The Great War".
- Brown, Steven (September 4, 2014). "Houstonian hosted 'The Great War' series on Youtube". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
- "This Documentary Is Telling the Story of World War I in Real Time - VICE - United States". VICE. August 30, 2016.
- "WWI YouTube Series Builds A Week-By-Week Horror Story". NPR.
- "World War Two".
- "American Veterans Radio Interviews Indy Neidell February 9, 2015 - YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
- "The Enigma of Germany's Wartime Economy - WW2 - 022 - January 26 1940". YouTube. World War Two. January 26, 2020.
- Neidell, Indiana. "Watch Sunday Baseball". YouTube. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
- "TimeGhost – Online Historical Documentaries & WWII Coop". Kickstarter. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- TimeGhost History (August 31, 2018), World War 2 in Real Time w. Indy Neidell started on Sep 1 2018, retrieved February 25, 2019
- "World War Two – Online Series (@world_war_two_realtime) • Instagram photos and videos". instagram.com. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
- "World War Two". Retrieved July 11, 2019 – via YouTube.
- "SABATON - Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Official Music Video)". December 21, 2019. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
- "Interview with Indy Neidell I THE GREAT WAR - Special". YouTube. September 19, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- "This Documentary Is Telling the Story of World War I in Real Time". Vice. August 30, 2016.
External links
- The Great War on YouTube