14 Celebrity Gamers With Street Cred

Usually, when a celebrity says they’re a gamer, it’s an utterly shallow ploy to try and win fans. Megan Fox, I’m looking at you. They tend to be of the “I love Wii Fit and Guitare Hero, I’m such a huge geek! Now please see my move!” However, there are some celebrities out there who aren’t faking it, who actually are legit gamers, and they’ve got the thumb calluses to prove it. These 14 actors have all shown themselves time and again to be real life gamers.

14. Jack Black

Jack Blacks a huge freaking nerd, come on, just look at him! Music, movies, video games, hes into all the pop culture stuff. He had Ren & Stimpy creator John K. animate one of his music videos, for Gods sake. You want proof that hes an actual gamer, and not just a poser? He had played Psychonauts before he had even though about working with Schafer for Brtal Legend. In interviews about gaming, hes name dropped a couple of titles that definitely add some weight to him being a decent player, most notably spending untold hours in Project Gotham Racing trying to get the nigh-on-impossible Platinum medals.

13. Xzibit

Yo dawg, I heard…wait, no, thats too lame, even for me. Xzibit, once hardcore gangster rapper and now erstwhile TV star, is a huge FPS fan (theres definitely a correlation between rap and FPSs, as youll see as we go on). Anyway, Xzibit is secure enough in his skills that hes posted up his gamertags a bunch of times so that people can take him on. If you looks at his profile, hes got a huge fucking library, but most of his efforts appear to be in the Call of Duty games despite owning it, he hasnt even played Def Jam: Icon, a franchise hes appeared in.

12. Mila Kunis

Usually, when hot girls start talking about gaming its a blatant ploy to try and get attention from guys, especially if theyre a celebrity involved in a title usually associated with fandom in one form or another. Mila Kunis, on the other hand, was hardcore into WoW. Not just a level 10 Night Elf Mage kinda way, but really deeply involved. She eventually quit cold turkey, but listen to her talk on Jimmy Kimmel live about it, and shes dropping all the right terms and phrases all over the place. She knows exactly what shes talking about, and her video gaming credentials are completely legit.

11. Soulja Boy

Good lord, I hate Soulja Boy with a fierce and fiery passion. His music is so shit, it makes my internal organs hurt, and frankly I think he deserves nothing so much as to vanish into obscurity as he appears to be doing. Even so, he plays a ton of games, just like every other 20 year old who suddenly finds themselves up to their eyeballs in cash. Hell happily smack talk anyone and everyone, and released his gamertag to all comers. If you want to try and take him on, its “Souljaboytellem.” Frankly, I hope you slaughter his mediocre ass, especially after that unutterably stupid review he did of Braid, which is arguably the greatest platformer of the last few years, and has the most understated and brilliant plot of a game in recent memory.

10. Seth Rogen

I dont think anyones surprised Seth Rogens a gamer. Hes a slightly pudgy ginger guy, with a sense of humor and a love of pot. I think itd be a minor miracle if he wasnt one. Hes talked in a bunch of interviews about his background gaming, especially oldschool stuff, as he was raised on the Commodore. Hes also a professed lover of GoldenEye on the N64, Street Fighter IV, Fallout 3, and Call of Duty. For a wedding present, Ellen gave him a vintage arcade machine with Missile Command installed. I think that counts as having pretty decent street cred for a gamer, even if he does admit hes not very good at a lot of them.

9. Nathan Fillion

In addition to being a total dreamboat, badass actor, and all around swell fellow, Nathan Fillion is a gamers gamer. When some actors sign up to do voice work for games, you just know theyre there for the paycheck, and without any real love of medium. Fillion, on the other hand, not only does voices for Halo, but is an active online player. I dream of getting smack-talked by Nathan Fillion, which would probably be the high point of my year. And you know what? Fuck Mark Wahlberg, the charmless thug, Fillion really should be the only choice for the Uncharted film.

8. Adrianne Curry

Adrianne Curry was the winner of the first season of Americas Next Top Model, and is an inveterate geek and cosplayer. Follow her on Twitter, and you get the view of someone who likes being naked and wearing geeky costumes. She often pops up in Star Wars gear (including an incredible Imperial Officer outfit), has done some gorgeous Fifth Element, Aeon Flux and Clockwork Orange costumes, and she plays WoW naked. Now, I know what youre thinking, attention whore attempting to get guys attention by playing up her body, right? Well, given that WoW gets constantly mentioned on her Twitter, Id say shes been sucked pretty deep into that particular addiction, and she gets massive extra points for the badass sexy outfits she constantly shows up in.

7. Method Man

Method Man, a member of the fucking Wu-Tang Clan, is a hardcore gamer. Like every other rapper on this list, it seems that FPSs are his genre of choice, most well known is his love of SOCOM and Modern Warfare 2. Want proof that hes hardcore? The guy had his own fucking SOCOM clan. You have to be pretty into a game to join a clan or guild, but to run one yourself? Youre hooked. Hes such a big SOCOM fan that he mentioned it a couple of times in his lyrics. Hes also professed his love for intense mystery drama game Heavy Rain, and the critically panned DJ Hero

6. Tony Hawk

You dont continue to make games with your name attached to them for so damn long that theyre unplayably bad unless you actually find some joy in the whole world of video games. The Tony Hawk games were only good for maybe the first four entries, and after that each sucked more than the one before, but Tony soldiered on, championing games for a long time. These days hes doing the responsible thing, and figuring out which games are okay to play with his young children like Guitar Hero and the Lego games. Lets face it, even if you arent a kid, the Lego games are badass, and full points to Tony Hawk for being a responsible parent.

5. Matthew Perry

You want proof of dedication to gaming? Not only did Matthew Perry play so much Fallout 3 that he got carpal tunnel and had to see a doctor about it, he admitted it on The View and Ellen, which is possibly the least gamer-friendly environments one can even imagine. Hes so into the game that he got picked up as a voice actor for New Vegas, lending his skills to the character of Benny. Hes even come out and said that any lady hes dating should be a gamer though I supposed if youre a millionaire ex-Friends star, still raking in the cash in residuals, being picky about who you date isnt really a problem. Playing a game to the point of self-injury? Thats dedication.

4. Vin Diesel

Despite being a jacked action star, Vin Diesels a huge nerd, a gamer and professed lover of D&D. He likes video games so much that he founded his own company Tigon Studio solely for the purpose of making games starring him. Theyve only put out three so far, the two amazing Riddick games and the decidedly average Wheelman, and with three more in the works. One of those upcoming games is based on one of Diesels D&D characters. It all folds into itself. Hes like a walking oxymoron, huge and ripped, stars in crazy action movies, and then hes the biggest geek on the planet. Its badass.

3. Robin Williams

Remember when Spore was still in production and it hadnt yet been dumbed down to the point of being utterly unplayable? The hype around this game peaked with the video above, where Will Wright showed off what the game could have been, and got on a special guest gamer to help him demo it. The guest? None other than former cokehead and current funny sasquatch, Robin Williams. Turns out Williams is a huge gamer geek to the point where he named his daughter Zelda after the Nintendo franchise, and his son Cody after an unnamed game character (Im guessing the guy from Final Fight). Hes also really into Call of Duty, and regularly namedrops titles like Warcraft 3, and Half-Life. The guys also a big fan of tabletop RPGs, managed to sneak Neon Genesis Evangelion into One Hour Photo, and plays Warhammer 40K. Id say he counts as a legit gamer.

2. Ice T

Ice T is motherfucking hardcore. He used to be an actual pimp, and a real-life gangster. These days hes on TV and spends his time playing video games and banging his incredibly hot wife. Yeah, Im fucking jealous. He earns bank, and lives an incredibly sweet life. Hes also majorly into his FPS games. If you want to stalk him on XBox Live, his tag is Lord 187X and on a quick digressions, not only does it appear that rap stars really freaking like FPSs, but theyre all on XBox and not PS3. Huh. Hes also the head of his own clan, and in COD:MW2 has some really hard to get accolades: The Show (10 kills/No deaths), Supernatural (Kill/Death ratio over 10), Immortal (Highest kill/death ratio). Yeah, he kicks ass, and takes names. Apparently he and Coco played through RE5 together, which is kind of sweet.

1. Wil Wheaton

Alpha geek, video gamer, actor, all around legend. Wil Wheaton, he tops this list because he should top every geek list, ever. Hes a gamer of all stripes: video, poker, and tabletop. He famously coined Wheatons Law: dont be a dick. Hell pop up in the most random places on the internet, and upstage you. Hes our number one celebrity gamer with serious street credit.