Prior to being employed by Blizzard, Street worked as a marine biologist, eventually moving into the game design field.

He also worked with Ensemble Studios on the Age of Empires series of real-time strategy games, during which period he was also known by the screen name "Deathshrimp".

[10] Street graduated from McDaniel College in 1991 with Bachelor of Arts degrees in biology and philosophy, later earning a PhD in marine science.

[11] Street has said his work was only enjoyable to him "for the first several years or so...As I moved up the ranks, however, I was spending more and more of my time writing grant proposals, filling out paperwork and playing departmental politics."

[11] With no education or experience in the game industry, Street suspects he was accepted due to his "writing and teaching experience, historical breadth, personal hygiene, gudd speling [sic], creativity, [and] my talent at capturing live alligators", as well as the user-created scenario for Age of Empires he submitted with his application, which later appeared in Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome.