Adam Sessler
Encyclopedia
Adam Donovan Sessler is co-host of X-Play
on G4
(formerly TechTV
) with Morgan Webb
and, as of December 17, 2008, editor-in-chief of G4's game content for the network. He is the only remaining television personality from the G4's origin network ZDTV
.
. He graduated from El Cerrito High School
in 1991 and is a graduate of UCLA with a bachelor's degree
in English literature
. He was previously a credit analyst for a multinational Fortune 500
financial institution in San Francisco, and an actor
on the San Francisco Public-access television
show Chip Weigh Magnet Down, which he also helped to make. Adam admits that he is grateful to no longer work for Fortune 500 companies, saying in The X-Play Insider's Guide to Gaming that he was "very sad" about the job. Sessler currently lives in Los Angeles, California
, having moved from the former TechTV headquarters, which was located in San Francisco, California
. Sessler is married.
Some of Sessler's known favorite game series are: the Halo
series for its first-person shooter
qualities; the Japanese version of Rez
for its Trance Vibrator feature; the Banjo-Kazooie
, Rayman
, Ratchet and Clank, and Sly Cooper
series for their unique platform qualities; Resident Evil 4
; Call of Duty 4; and the Kingdom Hearts series, as stated on an episode of Attack of the Show!
. He also stated during the broadcast of E3 2010 that Uncharted 2 was his favorite single player experience of all time.
His favorite cabinet video game is Ghosts 'n Goblins
, which he has stated on several occasions on older episodes of Extended Play and X-Play. "When I was 9 years old I used to scam quarters from my parents and sneak out to this local bowling alley that was so seedy Hubert Selby Jr. would get the creeps there. It smelled like personal abandonment. That's what I think of when I play my favorite game" he said.
Sessler has a younger brother, Jonathan, who appeared as Adam 2.0 (in X-Plays 2005 April Fool's Day Episode), a "clone" of Adam who claims he's much better-looking than the original Adam with a "special USB port" (a reference to the Game Boy Advance SP
succeeding the original Game Boy Advance
).
, Sarah Lane
, Kevin Rose
, Chi-Lan Lieu
, Blair Butler
and Brendan Moran
, to survive the massive layoffs resulting from the May 2004 merger of G4 and TechTV, though now he, Webb and Butler are the only three hosts from TechTV still on G4.
In addition to co-hosting X-Play, Sessler also appears semi-regularly on Attack of the Show!
as a video game correspondent.
On April 1, 2005, Sessler confused many by announcing he was leaving X-Play to host a late night talk show on G4 entitled Meet the Sess. A trailer of the new show aired on X-Play, showing Sessler verbally and physically abusing his guests until they released information about upcoming video games. Despite being extremely over-the-top and obviously fake, many viewers began flooding the G4 forums
asking when the show would air and if Sessler was really leaving X-Play. Sessler has since publicly announced on several occasions that the show was in fact an April Fool's Day joke. However, he does have a podcast called "Sessler's Soapbox," as well as Feedback, where he discusses various gaming topics with other G4 correspondents and guests.
X-Play
X-Play is a TV program about video games, known for its reviews and comedy skits...
on G4
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
(formerly TechTV
TechTV
TechTV was a 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming...
) with Morgan Webb
Morgan Webb
Morgan Ailis Webb is a co-host and senior segment producer of the G4 show X-Play, and host of the show G4 Underground...
and, as of December 17, 2008, editor-in-chief of G4's game content for the network. He is the only remaining television personality from the G4's origin network ZDTV
Ziff Davis
Ziff Davis Inc. is an American publisher and Internet company. It was founded in 1927 in Chicago by William B. Ziff, Sr. and Bernard G. Davis. Throughout most of its history, it was a publisher of hobbyist magazines, often ones devoted to expensive, advertiser-rich hobbies such as cars,...
.
Background
Sessler was born in Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. He graduated from El Cerrito High School
El Cerrito High School
El Cerrito High School is a public school in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. It is located at 540 Ashbury Avenue, El Cerrito, California 94530.-Overview:The original main school building was built in the late 1930s as a WPA project...
in 1991 and is a graduate of UCLA with a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
. He was previously a credit analyst for a multinational Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
financial institution in San Francisco, and an actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
on the San Francisco Public-access television
Public-access television
Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
show Chip Weigh Magnet Down, which he also helped to make. Adam admits that he is grateful to no longer work for Fortune 500 companies, saying in The X-Play Insider's Guide to Gaming that he was "very sad" about the job. Sessler currently lives in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, having moved from the former TechTV headquarters, which was located in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. Sessler is married.
Some of Sessler's known favorite game series are: the Halo
Halo (video game series)
Halo is a multi-million dollar science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed by 343 Industries and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant...
series for its first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
qualities; the Japanese version of Rez
Rez
Rez, developed under the codename K-Project, Project Eden, and Vibes, is a rail shooter video game released by Sega in Japan in 2001 for the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, with a European Dreamcast release and United States PlayStation 2 release in 2002...
for its Trance Vibrator feature; the Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Kazooie is a platform and action-adventure video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was originally released for the Nintendo 64 in 1998...
, Rayman
Rayman
Rayman is a platform video game published, produced and developed by Ubisoft and is the first game in the Rayman series of videogames. Originally released on the PlayStation in 1995, it was re-released for the Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn and MS-DOS in 1996. It has also been ported to various formats,...
, Ratchet and Clank, and Sly Cooper
Sly Cooper
Sly Cooper is a series of platform stealth video games for the Sony PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. The series was developed by Sucker Punch Productions for the first three games, and then it was passed on to Sanzaru Games while Sucker Punch continued work on the Infamous series...
series for their unique platform qualities; Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4, known in Japan as , is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and published by multiple publishers, including Capcom, Ubisoft, Nintendo Australia, Red Ant Enterprises and THQ Asia Pacific...
; Call of Duty 4; and the Kingdom Hearts series, as stated on an episode of Attack of the Show!
Attack of the Show!
Attack of the Show! is an American live television program shown weeknights on G4, G4 Canada and Fuel TV in Australia. The program is hosted by Kevin Pereira and Candace Bailey...
. He also stated during the broadcast of E3 2010 that Uncharted 2 was his favorite single player experience of all time.
His favorite cabinet video game is Ghosts 'n Goblins
Ghosts 'n Goblins
is a 1985 platform game developed by Capcom for video arcades and has since been released on several other platforms. It is the first game in the Ghosts'n Goblins franchise.-Gameplay:...
, which he has stated on several occasions on older episodes of Extended Play and X-Play. "When I was 9 years old I used to scam quarters from my parents and sneak out to this local bowling alley that was so seedy Hubert Selby Jr. would get the creeps there. It smelled like personal abandonment. That's what I think of when I play my favorite game" he said.
Sessler has a younger brother, Jonathan, who appeared as Adam 2.0 (in X-Plays 2005 April Fool's Day Episode), a "clone" of Adam who claims he's much better-looking than the original Adam with a "special USB port" (a reference to the Game Boy Advance SP
Game Boy Advance SP
The , released in February 2003, is an upgraded version of Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. The "SP" in Game Boy Advance SP stands for Special. The SP was marketed at US$99.99 at launch. In September 2004, Nintendo lowered the price to US$79.99...
succeeding the original Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
).
Career
Sessler is the only original personality from ZDTV remaining on the network, surviving the network's progression from ZDTV (1998–2001) to TechTV (2001–2004), and subsequent transition to G4. Sessler is one of seven TechTV personalities, with Morgan WebbMorgan Webb
Morgan Ailis Webb is a co-host and senior segment producer of the G4 show X-Play, and host of the show G4 Underground...
, Sarah Lane
Sarah Lane
Sarah Christina Lane is an American television and Internet personality. She is most notably known for her appearances on TechTV's The Screen Savers, G4's Attack of the Show!, and Revision3's popSiren...
, Kevin Rose
Kevin Rose
Kevin Rose is an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Revision3, Digg, Pownce, and Milk...
, Chi-Lan Lieu
Chi-Lan Lieu
Chi-Lan Lieu previously worked on the TechTV show Fresh Gear as a correspondent until it was canceled following the merger of TechTV and G4. She later became an on-air contributor for The Screen Savers in November of 2004 until departing the network in January of 2005.Chi-Lan appears in the music...
, Blair Butler
Blair Butler
Blair Butler is an American stand-up comic, and a television host, known for her work on the "Fresh Ink" segment on the G4 program, Attack of the Show!.-Career:...
and Brendan Moran
Brendan Moran
Brendan Moran is an American television personality best known for his work as a co-host and field reporter on the G4 television program Attack of the Show!...
, to survive the massive layoffs resulting from the May 2004 merger of G4 and TechTV, though now he, Webb and Butler are the only three hosts from TechTV still on G4.
In addition to co-hosting X-Play, Sessler also appears semi-regularly on Attack of the Show!
Attack of the Show!
Attack of the Show! is an American live television program shown weeknights on G4, G4 Canada and Fuel TV in Australia. The program is hosted by Kevin Pereira and Candace Bailey...
as a video game correspondent.
On April 1, 2005, Sessler confused many by announcing he was leaving X-Play to host a late night talk show on G4 entitled Meet the Sess. A trailer of the new show aired on X-Play, showing Sessler verbally and physically abusing his guests until they released information about upcoming video games. Despite being extremely over-the-top and obviously fake, many viewers began flooding the G4 forums
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
asking when the show would air and if Sessler was really leaving X-Play. Sessler has since publicly announced on several occasions that the show was in fact an April Fool's Day joke. However, he does have a podcast called "Sessler's Soapbox," as well as Feedback, where he discusses various gaming topics with other G4 correspondents and guests.