Paul Russel

Paul Russel, father of the name "Halo", commenting on the naming process.

Paul Russel was an employee of Bungie who served as an Environmental Artist for Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. Russel left Bungie in August 2010 after working there for 11 years and joined Certain Affinity in May 2011, where he is working as Senior Environment Artist as of November 2011.^[1]

Russel was born in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He lived there until moving to Washington state.

Gameography

Eight games at High Voltage software, two of them uncredited, another three unreleased.
Tempest X3 (1996), Interplay Entertainment Corp.
Halo: Combat Evolved (2001), Microsoft Game Studios.
Halo 2 (2004), Microsoft Game Studios.
Halo 2: Multiplayer Map Pack (2005), Microsoft Game Studios.
Halo 3 (2007), Microsoft Game Studios.
Halo 3: ODST (2009), Microsoft Game Studios.
Halo: Reach (2010), Microsoft Game Studios.

He came up with the title "Halo".^[2]
Is largely responsible for the Forerunner and human military architectural styles in the Halo series.^[3]
He does not like being called "The Forerunner guy".^[3]
He has been said to be "The father of Halo".
The Earth Secretary of Defense during the Battle of Earth was named Paul Huphy Russel, likely in reference to Paul Russel.
One of the randomly generated names for human soldiers in Halo: Reach is P. Russel, with the callsign PAUL.