Brennan Lee Mulligan
American writer, actor and gamemaster (born 1988)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brennan Lee Mulligan (born January 4, 1988) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and gamemaster. He often works with Dropout (formerly CollegeHumor) as a writer, performer, and producer. He is the creator and regular gamemaster for Dropout's actual play series Dimension 20 as well as the dungeon master for the first campaign of the creator-owned actual play podcast Worlds Beyond Number and the fourth campaign of the actual play web series Critical Role. He also wrote the superhero webcomic Strong Female Protagonist alongside artist Lee Knox Ostertag.
School of Visual Arts (BFA)
- Writer
- performer
- gamemaster
Brennan Lee Mulligan | |
|---|---|
Mulligan in 2026 | |
| Born | January 4, 1988 New York City, U.S. |
| Education | SUNY Ulster (AA) School of Visual Arts (BFA) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 2012–present |
| Employers | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
|
| Awards | Webby Award (2019) |
| Website | brennanleemulligan |
Early life
Brennan Lee Mulligan was born on January 4, 1988, in New York[1] to actress and writer Elaine Lee and comedian Joe Mulligan. He is of Irish descent.[1] He was introduced to the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons by his mother at age nine,[2] first gamemastering at age ten.[3]
Mulligan was introduced to theatrical gaming while attending the Hudson Valley Beltane Festival at age eleven.[4] He started attending The Wayfinder Experience, a live-action role-playing summer camp,[5] spending much of his teenage years working as a lead story writer, performer, and camp counselor there.[3][6] At age 15, Mulligan and his brother co-founded Bootleg Adventures, organizing one-day live-action role-playing games to introduce children to theatrical gaming.[4] In an interview with the Times-Herald Record, a 16-year-old Mulligan expressed conviction in theatrical gaming's potential to enable "kids [to] come out healthier beings than when they first arrive".[4]
He dealt with significant bullying in elementary school and struggled with realizing he had responded to this by becoming a bully himself.[7] He was also homeschooled as a youth.[8] In 2005, at 17 years old, Mulligan graduated from SUNY Ulster with an associate degree,[1] having majored in philosophy and humanities.[3] In 2009, Mulligan graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in screenwriting.[9]
Career
Writing
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Mulligan and Lee Knox Ostertag co-created the webcomic Strong Female Protagonist, which was named one of io9's Best New and Short Webcomics of 2012.[10] In 2015, Strong Female Protagonist won an Autostraddle Comic and Sequential Art Award.[11]
In 2017, Mulligan joined CollegeHumor as a writer and fact-checker for Um, Actually: The Web Series.[12] In 2018, CollegeHumor's streaming service Dropout launched Um, Actually as a game show, with Mulligan continuing to write for the show until 2020.[13] Mulligan was also a writer for several scripted shows on Dropout, including the Star Wars parody space saga Troopers,[14] and the mockumentary Gods of Food.[15][16] In August 2025, Variety reported that Mulligan had "struck a new three-year development deal" with Dropout.[17]
In 2023, Mulligan was a writer for Foul Play, an interactive murder mystery series created by Andrew Barth Feldman and Alex Boniello.[18][19]
Performing
In his twenties, he performed and taught[3] comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB).[6] It was working at the UCB that led Mulligan to working at CollegeHumor,[3] (premiering on December 14, 2017, with Who's the Real Cop?).[20] He has appeared on, and is an executive producer of, the comedy panel game show Game Changer and the spin-off improv show Make Some Noise on Dropout.[21][22][23] He has also appeared on other Dropout shows such as Very Important People and Gastronauts.[24][25]
In March 2026, Mulligan was a guest in "Dungeons & Dealers" for the television series Ted (2024); Mulligan helped rewrite the episode on set.[26] That month, Mulligan also appeared on the new web series Jeopardy! YouTube Edition as a contestant.[27][28]
Actual play
Since 2018,[29] Mulligan has been an executive producer, writer, and gamemaster for Dimension 20 on Dropout (which also hosts his video podcast, Adventuring Academy).[2] In his capacity as a professional D&D gamemaster, he has been cited by Bleeding Cool,[30] Comic Book Resources,[31] Wired,[32] and Wizards of the Coast's own Dungeons & Dragons podcast—Dragon Talk.[3] Glen Weldon, in a review of Dimension 20 for NPR, commented that "Mulligan is such a good DM and he's got so many improv skills. He's such a close and responsive listener that no matter what the players throw at him, he can always roll with it, without breaking the game. And that is a very rare skill, so it's terrific stuff".[33]
Mulligan was the Dungeon Master for Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, a weekly, four-part actual play web series spin-off of Critical Role that premiered on May 26, 2022.[34][35] He returned to Critical Role in 2024 as the Dungeon Master of the three-part special titled "Downfall" for the show's third campaign.[36][37] Mulligan was then the Dungeon Master for Exandria Unlimited: Divergence which premiered on February 13, 2025.[38][39]
In January 2023, it was announced that Mulligan, along with Erika Ishii, Aabria Iyengar, and Lou Wilson, would star in the creator-owned actual play podcast Worlds Beyond Number.[40][41] The show launched on March 1, 2023, and quickly became one of the top 20 Patreon accounts in the world; Mulligan was the "inaugural game master".[42] The first book of this campaign ran for four seasons with the finale airing in August 2025. The next campaign premiered in March 2026 with Iyengar as the game master and Mulligan shifting to a player role.[43][44][45]
In August 2025, Critical Role announced that Mulligan would take over as Game Master from Matthew Mercer for their fourth campaign. The new campaign premiered on October 2, 2025 and features a new world "outside its usual Exandria setting".[17] Rolling Stone stated that "the inclusion of Mulligan is huge, but not entirely surprising" given Mulligan's background as "a well-established Game Master" who created the "titanic success" Dimension 20 along with previous comments made by Mercer on eventually shifting "into a 'Professor X' role as a mentor to the next generation of storytellers rather than remaining the face of the brand in perpetuity".[46] Also in October 2025, Mulligan was the Dungeon Master for the Endless Dungeon tour in Australia.[47]
Accolades
He has received an "Excellence in Performance Award" from the New York International Fringe Festival,[48] and won a 2019 Webby Award in the "Comedy: Shortform" category for his CollegeHumor skit, Tide CEO: You Gotta Stop Eating Tide Pods.[49] In 2025, his series Dungeons and Drag Queens won "Best Web Series" at the Queerty Awards.[50][51]
Personal life
Mulligan is the godson of comics artist and writer Michael Kaluta.[52] In November 2015, Mulligan was a contestant on the American version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and won $50,000 after incorrectly answering the $100,000-question.[53][54] By 2020, he lived in Los Angeles.[31]
Mulligan met Isabella "Izzy" Roland through his work with UCB, and the two began dating in 2017, the same week he was hired at CollegeHumor.[55] On January 21, 2021, Mulligan announced their engagement via Instagram.[56] They married on April 1, 2023.[57][58] On January 23, 2024, Brennan announced the birth of the couple's first child, a daughter, on the Patreon feed for the podcast Worlds Beyond Number.[59] On March 31, 2026, on Jeopardy! YouTube Edition, Mulligan announced that he and Roland had another daughter earlier in 2026.[60]
Politically, Mulligan is a socialist,[61] though he has also described himself as a communist.[62] In August 2023, during the 2023 Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Mulligan led a Dungeons & Dragons-themed picket day at Universal Studios where the final boss was AMPTiamat.[63][64] In 2026, Mulligan supported the Los Angeles DSA local election slate, hosting a Dungeons & Dragons game with the candidates which raised over $30,000.[65]
Filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? | Himself | 2 episodes[53][54] |
| 2018–2019 | Adam Ruins Everything | Supporting roles | 2 episodes |
| 2019 | Hot Date | Man | Episode: "Apartment Hunting" |
| 2026 | Ted | Chris | Episode: "Dungeons & Dealers"[66] |
Film
Web
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Locke & Key | Tyler (voice) | Audio drama | [70] |
| 2013 | Teacher's Lounge | Matt | [70] | |
| 2017–2020 | CollegeHumor Originals | Various | [20][71] | |
| 2017 | Fallen For You | Todd | Pilot released on YouTube | [72] |
| 2018–present | Dimension 20 | Dungeon Master, various | Also creator, executive producer | [73][74][75] |
| 2018 | Liverspots and Astronots | Lancery (voice), various | [16] | |
| 2019–present | Adventuring Academy | Himself | [76] | |
| 2019–present | Game Changer | Himself | Also executive producer | |
| 2019–2022 | Mission to Zyxx | Kor Balevore (voice) | 9 episodes | [77] |
| 2019 | The Adventure Zone: The Dadlands | Game Master | [78] | |
| Ultramechatron Team Go! | Galatax | [79] | ||
| 2020 | Rude Tales of Magic | Kreedis (voice) | Episode: "Mountaintop" | [80] |
| 2021 | Hello from the Magic Tavern | Kalhaxorus the Grim (voice) | 3 episodes | [81] |
| L.A. by Night | Adrian Clairmont | Episode: "Live on the Moon", Episode: "Reign in Hell" | [82][83] | |
| Battle for Beyond | Nikhil | [84][85] | ||
| 2022–present | Make Some Noise | Himself | Also executive producer | |
| 2022 | Legends of the Multiverse | Dungeon Master | [86] | |
| Roll20 10 year Anniversary stream | Citizen Doctor Abraham Mehermblur | 3 episodes | [87] | |
| Exandria Unlimited: Calamity | Dungeon Master | 4 episodes | [88] | |
| 2022–present | Critical Role | Brigidda (one-shots) | Episode: "Elden Ring One-Shot: O Ye of Little Faith" | [89] |
| Dungeon Master (campaign 3) | Episode: "The Nox Engine", Episodes: "Downfall Parts 1–3" | [90][91][36] | ||
| Dungeon Master (campaign 4) | Main cast | [17][46] | ||
| 2023–present | Worlds Beyond Number | Dungeon Master (The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One) | Creator-owned podcast | [40][41][92] |
| XL-ZL (Solari) | [93] | |||
| 2023 | Candela Obscura: The Circle of Needle & Thread | Sean Finnerty | 3 episodes | [94][95] |
| 2024 | Bigger! With Brennan and Izzy | Himself | Improv special | [96][58] |
| The Adventure Zone: Abnimals | Sgt. Salamander | Podcast; Episode: "Bunny Heist!" | [97] | |
| 99% Invisible | Himself | Podcast; Episode: "Brennan Lee Mulligan" | [98] | |
| 2024–2026 | Very Important People | Augbert, Greg Excitement, Archimedes | 3 episodes | [99][100] |
| 2025 | Exandria Unlimited: Divergence | Dungeon Master | 4 episodes | [38][101] |
| The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi | Himself | Podcast; Episode: "Minoring in Pangolin with Brennan Lee Mulligan" | [102] | |
| Wildemount Wildlings | Padmund Pondhop | 3 episodes | [103] | |
| Last Meals | Himself | Podcast; 1 episode | [104] | |
| 2026 | Ask Hank Anything | Himself | Episode: "What Animal Should I Avoid Punching?" | [105] |
| Jeopardy! YouTube Edition | Himself | 1 episode | [27][28] | |
Video games
| Year | Title | Role | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Date Everything! | Parker Bradley (voice) | [106] |
