Zach Hadel
Zach Hadel , known by his pseudonym psychicpebbles, is an American YouTuber, animator, writer, director, and voice actor. He and Michael Cusack are the co-creators and co-stars of the Adult Swim animated series Smiling Friends. He is also known for his Internet animations, for co-founding a independent animation studio ZAM Studios, for being a co-host of the Let's Play web series OneyPlays, and for his nasally voice.
Early life
Hadel was born in Kansas where he began his animation career by uploading Adobe Flash animations to Newgrounds, later transitioning to YouTube. He enrolled in college to learn graphic design, but immediately dropped out before attending any classes. A self-taught animator, Hadel has stated that shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Simpsons, Dragon Ball Z, Beavis and Butt-Head, South Park, and Futurama, inspired his own animation style.Career
His short-form independent cartoons became popular online, such as his animated video responding to overuse of the "arrow in the knee" meme from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which went viral in 2011. Along with fellow Newgrounds animator Chris O'Neill, Hadel created the popular web cartoon series Hellbenders featuring exaggerated versions of O'Neill and himself, which was picked up for a pilot by Adult Swim but ultimately not pursued after several years in development hell. Hadel also collaborated with O'Neill to make a short animated video parodying the Kony 2012 documentary; the video went viral, receiving over 1.7 million views within its first weekend. Hadel was a member of the YouTube group SleepyCabin and co-hosted SleepyCast, a comedy and discussion podcast hosted by former Newgrounds animators that launched on August 30, 2014., his YouTube channel psychicpebbles has 1.6 million subscribers and 222.28 million views.Hadel animated a segment of Seth Rogen's Hilarity for Charity with Justin Roiland, co-creator of Rick and Morty. Roiland later appraised the animation as his most transgressive joke. Hadel and Roiland also appeared alongside animator Alex Hirsch on h3h3's livestream podcast for charity where they raised over $100,000 for California wildlife relief.
Hadel hosted the podcast Schmucks from 2017 to 2019, where he interviewed fellow entertainers such as Michael Stevens, Finn Wolfhard, Jon Jafari, and Ethan Klein.
In 2018, Hadel storyboarded for SpongeBob SquarePants for the season 11 episode "The Grill is Gone".