Ninja, also known as Tyler Blevins, was born in Detroit. When he was a year old, his family moved to Grayslake, Ill., a suburb in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. He attended Grayslake Central High School, where he played soccer and never once dreamed he’d become a streaming megastar.
Who put Ninja on this path? Some of the credit probably goes to his dad, Chuck Blevins. Chuck is reportedly a huge gamer and a had big influence on Ninja as he was growing up.
“He loved video games when they started to come out and he would purchase them ‘for us,’ but really we would go to bed around as early as you can imagine when we were little, 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m.,” Ninja said of his dad. “He would play on the consoles until 2 or 3 a.m. in the morning.”
Like father, like son.
Ninja’s mom, Cynthia Blevins, devoted most of her time to raising the kids, though she also earned her Master’s degree while raising Ninja and his two brothers, Jonathan and Chris. Ninja gives a lot of credit to his mom for his morals and values, according to a letter he wrote to her for Mother’s Day, which was filmed by ESPN.
Written by: Looper