The Illuminati is one of those groups people love to bring up when they’re talking about conspiracy theories. There are real-world secret societies, like the Bilderberg Group and the Freemasons, but the Illuminati seems to be one of the ones which captures a lot of attention. Thanks to the efforts of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise, the Knight’s Templar has also become a popular group for all these theories to be based around. The Illuminati can be blamed for everything and anything, which is what makes them so appealing. Terrorist attacks, political decisions which turned out to be disasters, entire wars, a divorce; the Illuminati is behind all of it.

Stephen Shellen would agree with this, though you may not recognize him by this name. Shellen provided the voice acting for David Sarif in the 2011 title Deus Ex: Human Revolution. David Sarif was the head of Sarif Industries, a world leader in human augmentation in the game’s near-future timeline.

Shellen's expletive laden, jump-cutting YouTube rant (may be removed in future)

The game dealt with the concept of the Illuminati, who are portrayed as a secret society dedicated to the ‘perfection of individuals’. Their main goal is to dominate civilization in any and every manner they can. The game’s story comes with a detailed backstory, including the argument that John F. Kennedy was installed as President through the Illuminati, and that his assassin (normally given as Lee Harvey Oswald), was an Illuminati conspirator.

Shellen believes the Illuminati are coming for him, and his time is limited before he dies for real. He uploaded a YouTube video showing the extent of his concern. According to him, the Illuminati are spying on him at present, and he is due to die on July 30th 2012. In other words, today. It’s hard to tell whether he is actually in character as David Sarif, and the whole thing is a big advertising ploy, or if he genuinely believes he’s going to be bumped off by a secret society.

In the past, he has mentioned the Illuminati during interviews and the like. He’s even complained that they orchestrated his fall from grace and his wife’s divorce. He sounds insane in this sense, but at the moment it’s possible it is acting, and Eidos are planning an additional Deus Ex title. According to some people, another piece of downloadable content was planned for Human Revolution, but information on this DLC was pulled again. Perhaps the company decided to work on another game, or they’re genuinely concerned for the mental health of Shellen.

All the same, Shellen’s apparent madness is concerning, if nothing else. He’s blaming something you’d never expect for spying on him. Fruit flies. Yes, really. Flies are working with the Illuminati. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

There was a large discussion on the /v/ board of 4chan, though this discussion has since been removed for whatever reason. There is an archive though it does not seem as complete as the main thread. Various arguments and theories came out of the woodwork then, none of which painted a happy picture. For whatever reason discussion also mentioned some link with the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, by James Holmes.

For some reason, Shellen’s Wikipedia page was edited on the 28th to add his date of death – given as the 30th. There was also evidence of what would kill him as well, so we’re going to sit and wait on this one since it seems very odd. His Wikipedia page was edited repeatedly throughout the day, with various different changes made.

Among other things, these changes included adding the words “Icarus has found you” (a reference to the original Deus Ex, and an Illuminati-built AI that acted against the player), changing his years active from ‘1982-2012’, then ‘1982-[REDACTED]’, and adding an additional entry to his filmography, crediting him as ‘Deceased Man’. It seems pointless but at the same time, it would make a fantastic promotion for an additional game if it was to be announced. It seems very outlandish, but it's intriguing to watch how a voice actor can self-destruct via technology, in a slightly depressing way.

Source: 4chan Archive (potentially NSFW)

Wikipedia: Stephen Shellen