Edd Gould

Edd Gould was born on 28 October 1988 in Isleworth, in Greater London to his mother, Susan "Sue" Gould[2][3] and father Duncan Gould. He had a sister, Victoria "Vicky" Gould, and brother George Gould. Gould attended the Orleans Park School,[4] (as shown his first cartoon, titled "Edd") and met Matt Hargreaves on a sports day event. Although disliking him at first, Gould became friends with Hargreaves upon the departure of his former best friend, David Chapman, and after Hargreaves was transferred to Gould's classroom. Gould declared he had a habit of drawing his friends into comics, so he included Hargreaves in what would become Eddsworld. Although first complaining about always getting killed on his early animations, Hargreaves became a prominent part of Eddsworld.[5][6]

Gould met Tom Ridgewell online, a fan of his work, shortly after he started making stick animations. In the same way he met Tom, Gould met Tord Larsson online as well, becoming good friends. Ridgewell and Larsson were eventually included in the Eddsworld cast along with Hargreaves, appearing in Eddsworld Christmas Special 2004.[7]

In 2002, Gould began animating using a GIF animation program to publish on Stick Figure Death Theatre. Upon discovering the website no longer accepted anything with a GIF, Gould moved to Macromedia Flash in November 2002.[8] After seven months of learning the basics of Flash animation from his mentor Lavalle Lee,[9] Gould published his first Newgrounds entry on 6 June 2003, titled "Edd."[10]

In September 2008, Gould soon began his career in animation and studied as an independent animator at the University for the Creative Arts, Maidstone, England. Gould later joined Cake Bomb, a creative media group founded by Ridgewell.[11] He also voiced the "I Like Trains" kid in TomSka's "Asdfmovie" series on YouTube and animated the second episode of Asdfmovie.

On the afternoon of April 16, 2011, Gould revealed that he had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a cancer of the white blood cells. This was the second time he was diagnosed with this cancer, having been previously diagnosed in 2006.[12][13] He posted a video on YouTube entitled "Edd vs Cancer" which featured Gould, Ridgewell, and Hargreaves discussing the diagnosis. Despite his health, Gould used his illness as a platform for several sketches on his friends' YouTube accounts.

On the morning of 25 March 2012, Gould died from a recurring infection caused by his cancer.[14] Ridgewell and Hargreaves announced Gould's death in a short video, "RIP Edd Gould (1988–2012)", on 28 March 2012.[15] Gould's funeral was held on 10 April 2012 at All Saints' Church in Isleworth, and a eulogy was compiled from various video clips from fans and friends giving condolences to Gould, shown at the funeral.[12][16] The last episode he directed for Eddsworld was "Space Face (Part 1)", which was released on YouTube on 2 June 2012. Production for Eddsworld was passed to Ridgewell and he continued to produce episodes as part of Gould's will. Under Ridgewell's direction, excess money and profits went to CLIC Sargent, a program which provided support to child cancer patients.[12]

Gould was cremated at Mortlake Crematorium after his funeral. In July 2012, Hargreaves and Ridgewell scattered some of Gould's ashes in Hollywood, reportedly near the Hollywood Sign, after they had attended VidCon.[12][17]

• YouTube channel
• Newgrounds account
• Edd Gould at Find a Grave