Griffin McElroy was born in 1987 to Clint McElroy, former co-host of WTCR-FM’s morning radio show in Huntington, West Virginia, and his wife Leslie. Griffin McElroy is an alumnus of Marshall University with a degree in journalism. He married Rachel McElroy in 2013. They have one son, named Henry, born in 2016. They are expecting their second child in 2021.

McElroy’s journalism career began in 2007, when he began working as the weekend editor for Joystiq. During the 2008 United States presidential election, McElroy also acted as MTV’s local journalist for his home state of West Virginia. He departed Joystiq in 2012 in order to found Polygon along with his brother Justin McElroy and Christopher Grant, going on to later become a senior video producer for the site. During his tenure, he oversaw a large volume of video content for the site, including their Monster Factory series and several let’s plays. In 2018, Griffin and Justin both announced their departure from Polygon, in order to focus on their podcasting careers and families.

Since 2010, Griffin McElroy, along with his brothers Justin and Travis, has co-hosted the comedy podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me, an “advice show for the modren [sic] era” hosted as part of the Maximum Fun network. The brothers also starred in a 2017 TV show based on the podcast, which originally aired on Seeso.

In 2014, the McElroy brothers launched a tabletop role-playing game podcast entitled The Adventure Zone. Initially playing Dungeons & Dragons, the show moved into other game systems in later seasons. Griffin McElroy acted as the Dungeon Master and voice of numerous NPCs for the initial 69 episodes of their first campaign,Balance He later took on the similar role of “Keeper” for the Monster of the Week Powered by the Apocalypse based Amnesty campaign. Griffin currently plays the role of Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt, Knight-in-Absentia of the Realm of Goodcastle, in the show’s third campaign subtitled Graduation. Griffin also composes much of the original soundtrack for the series.

Since 2017, Griffin McElroy has also co-hosted the podcast Wonderful! with his wife, Rachel, where they discuss things they are interested in and enjoy. The two had previously hosted another podcast named Rose Buddies, in which they recapped episodes of The Bachelor and related television series.

The first sub-arc of The Adventure Zone: Balance, named Here There Be Gerblins, was later adapted into a graphic novel in cooperation with artist Carey Pietsch, and was published by First Second Books in 2018. The book topped the New York Times’ best-selling trade fiction list, becoming the first graphic novel to do so. It was followed by a second graphic novel, Murder on the Rockport Limited!, in 2019, and a third installment, Petals to the Metal, in 2020.

McElroy has appeared as a voice actor in several animated series, including Clarence, Big City Greens, We Bare Bears, and Camp Camp. He also provided voice commentary for the 2017 video game 100ft Robot Golf, alongside his brothers. In September 2018, following a successful podcasting campaign, the McElroy brothers, Travis and Justin, confirmed that they would be voicing the character Skyscraper in the film Trolls World Tour, with Griffin also voicing Country Tear.

Griffin and his brothers also co-host a yearly podcast with Tim Batt and Guy Montgomery, released every American Thanksgiving since 2015, called Til Death Do Us Blart where they review the film Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. They released a bonus episode on April 28, 2020 where they delved into the first film in the Mall Cop franchise. It remains unclear if there may be more bonus episodes to come. The brothers also host the documentary podcast The McElroy Brothers Will Be in Trolls 2, which ultimately resulted in the announcement that all three were set to make cameo appearances in the film.