Daniel John Hardcastle was born on March 23, 1989. He is known online as NerdCubed (presented as Nerd). He is a British video creator, author, and actor. His YouTube channel, created in 2011, mainly features content about video games. As of December 2024, the channel has about 2.39 million subscribers and 1.37 billion video views. He wrote the best-selling book Fuck Yeah, Video Games: The Life and Extra Lives of a Professional Nerd and The Paradox Paradox. In 2025, he became a writer for Doctor Who. He collaborated with Big Finish Productions to create an audio story.

Career

Hardcastle became well-known because of a story-based webcomic made in Minecraft. After starting his YouTube channel on March 20, 2011, he first shared humorous vlogs before uploading his first let's play. His first let's play series, called Nerd³'s Minecraft Buildy Thing, ran from August 27, 2011, to August 22, 2012. After making videos about some indie games, Hardcastle uploaded his first Nerd³ Plays video on January 7, 2012. In 2012, Machinima supported him to create the series 13 Ways To Die.

In 2015, Hardcastle was nominated for a Golden Joystick Award for "online personality of the year." He has gained over 2.44 million subscribers and 1.34 billion total views. On Red Nose Day 2019, Hardcastle raised more than £16,000 for Comic Relief during an 11-hour livestream. In September 2019, his YouTube account was unverified because he was not widely recognized outside the platform.

In 2020, Hardcastle appeared in the film Ashens and the Polybius Heist with his longtime collaborator Stuart Ashen, who also co-wrote the film. Hardcastle contributed two jokes to the script. He will also appear in Ashen's film Turn Back.

Hardcastle began writing his first book, Fuck Yeah, Video Games: The Life & Extra Lives of a Professional Nerd, in 2017. On June 4, 2018, he started crowdfunding the book through the website Unbound. The book met its funding goal on the first day and reached 1000% of the goal by June 11. It achieved 1903% of its initial goal, making it the most successful crowdfunded book in the United Kingdom. The foreword was written by Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine, and a chapter was contributed by YouTuber Stuart Ashen. The book was released on September 19, 2019, and became a Sunday Times best seller.

On September 26, 2019, crowdfunding began for Hardcastle's second book, The Paradox Paradox, a science fiction novel he described as "a bit Star Trek, a bit Doctor Who, and a bit fucked up." The book met its funding goal within 20 minutes. The eBook was released early for backers on December 15, 2024, but this was later explained as a response to Unbound's bankruptcy. The physical book was released on April 17, 2025. Unbound filed for bankruptcy in January 2025. The founders tried to restructure the company as Boundless Publishing, but it went into liquidation in August 2025. This affected 238 authors, who did not receive their remaining payments. Hardcastle made a video explaining issues like £40,000 in withheld revenue, unauthorized sales, and misallocated funding. He stated that "we've lawyered up, both individually, and in groups of authors."

On February 28, 2025, Hardcastle announced he wrote a short Doctor Who story for Volume 13 of the Big Finish Short Trips. His story, Rise of the Eukaryans, featuring the Eleventh Doctor and read by Laura Aikman, is one of six stories in Short Trips Volume 13: Tales from the Vortex, released on April 30, 2025.

Personal life

Hardcastle is married to Rebecca Maughan, an artist who illustrated Fuck Yeah, Video Games.

Hardcastle's father, Steve "Dad³" Hardcastle, with whom he has regularly collaborated, started a YouTube channel in 2013. The channel gained more than 300,000 subscribers and 23 million total views. He retired from making videos on February 5, 2024.

Hardcastle studied astrophysics at the University of Leicester but left the program after the first year.