A Rio Grande Valley native is making his mark in the gaming and podcast world.

The Valley has thousands of gamers and many may have seen this guy on Twitch or YouTube or you may have heard his voice on Spotify.

Andy Cortez is an editor and host for Kinda Funny, based out of San Francisco.

"We do a lot of podcasts, we do game streams, we play a lot of video games," Cortez said. "The easiest way I can compare it to is like well, we're kinda like the ESPN for video games."

Cortez is a 2006 graduate of PSJA North High School. With interests in art, gaming and music, he left the Valley for Central Texas to attend the Art Institute of Austin.

He graduated in 2013 with a bachelor's in Media Arts and Animations.

"Go for that dream that you're really, really into, and I think a lot of it was my parents noticing a passion for the creative arts," Cortez said.

In 2017, Cortez was offered a job at Kinda Funny and moved to San Francisco.

"It's the dream job. I still can't believe I get to do this for a living, that I make money going to work and laughing with my friends at work," Cortez said.

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Kinda Funny is an 11-person content creation team, reviewing everything from video games to movies, while keeping fans up to date on what's happening in the gaming world.

January marks the company's 11th anniversary.

"Yeah, it's been awesome seeing the company grow and thrive," Cortez said.

He says for big event streams, the company can draw anywhere from 12,000 to 13,000 streamers, primarily on YouTube.

On Instagram, the company has over 50,000 followers and on TikTok that number is over 75,000.

Cortez also streams on the side on Twitch and YouTube, proudly representing the Valley both online and in California.

"It's really awesome to be representing in a way that I still get super excited whenever there are new people in our audience saying I've been listening since 2024," Cortez said.

Cortez hopes to continue representing the Valley and Latinos in the gaming world for years to come.

Andy Cortez is Made in the 956.

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