Highlighting 100 individuals around the industry who are charting the future of the industry from a diversity/inclusion perspective.

Jenny Xu

Jess Tompkins

Jessica Murrey

Kahlief Adams

Jorge García

Lukas Eggen

Maxi Graff

Mourad El-Dine Abdou

Natalie Flores

Randy "N0M4D" Fitzgerald

Royce Payne

Stephanie Rosales

Steve Saylor

Tanya DePass

Tara Mustapha

Tülay Tetiker McNally

Vic Bassey

Whitney Beltrán

Xalavier Nelson Jr.

Zachary Hartzman

Majo Felix

Dianna Lora

Elaine Gómez

Fernando Reyes Medina

Ian Hamilton

Marcus "Esports" Howard

Aleksandra Korabelnikova

2022

Abby's education includes her Double Bachelor's degrees from UC San Diego and a Master's degree from the University of Southern California with her first entry into the games industry beginning at Blizzard Entertainment’s Tespa in 2018 in community management. She now resides in Los Angeles, where she works to build out future Riot Games titles, where her intention is to shape stories and games that impact the lives of its players in visceral ways. Her work as a developer has sparked international acclaim from: Favorite Game Developed by a Female Team from Women in Games Global to the New Media Writing Prize Shortlist. (Heirloom, 2020) Through her passion for profound storytelling, stemming from years of acting experience, she spoke at the Game Developer Conference’s Narrative Summit on the topic of Empathy and Theater this past Spring. Continuing on the stage, Abby most recent achievement includes a leading performance in BAFTA-nominated game VR game Blocks. (2021) She can also be seen on camera as one of the few plus-sized femme individuals in the broadcasting space; she has had the honor of hosting Gen-G esports events, the IGDA Foundation’s Diverse Game Developers Fund, and Activision’s Overwatch League Team, the Vancouver Titans.

Abby Sherlock

Abhi (He/Him) is a game designer from Toronto who released his first game this year, Venba, to a great reception.
He wants to tell intimate stories with interesting mechanics and hopes to see more games made from around the world with their own unique perspectives

Abhi

Abigail Nakaishi (she/her) is a producer at Riot Games in LA and co-founder of "the Rejects," an indie studio. She is a USC Computer Science Games alum who is driven by creating impactful player experiences, building talented teams, and demystifying the industry for newcomers. 

Abigail Nakaishi

Hailing from a small village in the West Midlands in the UK, Aimee Hart is editor-in-chief of Gayming Magazine and has been playing video games since she was first given a PS2 in 2001. She was handpicked to lead editorially for Gayming Magazine, an LGBTQ+ games publication specializing in queer analysis and criticism, in August 2019 and has since helped bring new, diverse voices into games journalism through her mentorship, as well as highlighted queer indies from all over the world.

Even before her role at Gayming Magazine, Hart has been involved in games journalism and queer criticism of games since 2017. She desires an inclusive future where queer and marginalized developers are able to work independently, and are given the care and support that they deserve to keep them doing what they love: making games.

Aimee Hart

Alex Dunn spent most of his career in applied AI and distributed systems in the enterprise technology space but is now is on a mission to level the playing field for all players by breaking through the standard human-computer interaction paradigms we use to play the games we love. He founded Enabled Play after seeing a member of his family struggle with the dexterity required to play fast paced games at the same pace as his friends around him - the gamepad wasn't equally accessible. He began to explore alternative input methods, controls, and automation using his background as the Chief Product Officer at Voicify and his experience in building voice assistants and AI. It started with using Alexa, Google Assistant, and Snapchat to control games and has evolved into a platform that is highly performant, private, personalizable, and accessible for everyone. Players can now use their voice, face expressions, body gestures, virtual buttons, custom physical buttons, motion/tilt controls, and more without requiring game developers to build any form of custom support for these inputs. This has unlocked a future of new games for people with disabilities that were otherwise not accessible and enabled more people to play together.

Alex Dunn

Alhvi Balcarcel is a Guatemalan Game Developer/Programmer. She co-founded the studio Selva Interactive and the Guatemalan Game Developers Community, GameDevGT. Alhvi is also a part-time professor of game programming at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. Coming from a country where the game industry is still in its infancy, the work done by Alhvi and the local community is vital to supporting young aspiring game developers in their careers. Alhvi is a very active and vocal person who has volunteered for Global Game Jam as a Regional Organizer and Latinx in Gaming as Country Lead. Alhvi sees a future in the gaming industry where opportunities are not limited by where people were born, where discrimination in the workplace exists no more, and where kids in every part of the world can dream of working in the gaming industry and fulfill their dream.

Alhvi Balcarcel

Alice Winter (she/her) is a UK-based Game Designer with 8 years' experience working in both indie and AAA. In 2023, Alice founded Paper Flower Games and hopes to continue developing games that tell underrepresented stories - contributing to a diverse future for the industry.

Alice Winter

Alister Lee (he/they) is an Experience Design Lead and Mentor at Electronic Arts, Bay Area. Innovator of customizable pronouns in The Sims 4, he champions inclusivity, envisioning a gaming world where all feel valued, and an industry with diversity and inclusion as the norm.

Alister Lee 

Alyssa Askew is a Producer who is passionate about uplifting and supporting underrepresented people in games, especially those with non-traditional paths to the industry. Her aspirations to work in production started while in her first games studio role as a receptionist.



Outside of her day job, she is the Manager of Gaming for GeekGirlCon, a non-profit volunteer-run convention that celebrates marginalized groups in science, tech, comics, gaming, and all things “geek.” She's also a programming coordinator for the IGDA Foundation's Next Gen Leaders program, which supports mid-career game industry professionals from underrepresented backgrounds.



Bringing marginalized voices into gaming makes the industry better, but the real challenge lies in creating teams where marginalized game devs are welcomed, feel safe, and are treated equitably. Alyssa is currently producing Pacific Drive at Ironwood Studios, where she continues to push for more inclusive benefits, unbiased hiring practices, and healthy studio culture.

Alyssa Askew

Alyx has worked on titles including FFVII Remake and Elden Ring. In 2022 she founded her studio Silver Script Games. Currently working on debut auto-biographical game “The Quiet Things”, her hope for the future, is that games can prove their power to impact society & break stigma

Alyx Jones

Angela Dachowski (she/her) is a producer for a small Midwestern indie studio. Angela advocates to help gaming grow and diversify in her home state of Wisconsin and globally, with the hope that her work can help make the future of gaming truly reflect all players.

Angela Dachowski

Anna C. Webster (she/her) is a writer and narrative designer in the Seattle area. She holds a BA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently the Lead Writer for an unannounced title at Well Told Entertainment. Anna never anticipated becoming a game developer, having spent much of her life training to be in the performing arts. After learning to make games by modding Fallout 4, Anna began writing for titles such as Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 using her performing arts background to create bold, engaging stories on a screen, rather than on a stage. Anna is a firm believer in the innately human quality of storytelling and the inherent necessity of lifting as you climb. She believes everyone has a story: and that by creating a more diverse and equitable industry, we can continue to push the boundaries of the medium. Her other narrative interests include the horror genre and aspects of clinical psychology. Additionally, Anna was a recipient of the IGDA Foundation Velocity award in 2019, and has had talks and interviews featured at PAX, NarraScope, and MCV/Develop. She is absolutely thrilled to be a member of Future Class 2022. 

Anna C. Webster

Annie spent 10 years working in advertising before she moved into games. The biggest driving force was how limitless the games' industry still feels - location, education, gender and even socio-economic status matter much less than any other industry. Of course, there is still a lot to be desired, and the industry is not without its faults and issues. But, there is still a sense of adventure and possibility, where you can just sit down and make a game. We’re seeing more and more diverse developers creating new and innovative games, experiences and everything in between! From AAA to solo dev indies, the borders between what we want to make and the ways to make it with has never been thinner. 

Yes, the games' industry attracts so many creative people who genuinely want to make amazing work. But, as an industry, we have to recognize our own responsibility to look after and nurture those incredible talents. She wants to keep the conversations about both innovative game design, but also creating inclusive working environments going, while making sure that everyone is making the industry more accessible and the games more diverse than ever.

One of the most important things Annie does alongside her day-to-day job as a designer is pixall.org - a website/database for people who want to do better. It aims to contain information to help with making workplaces (and games themselves) more diverse and inclusive in the games' industry specifically. 

Annie Grudeva

Aria Bonczek is a Senior Animation Engineer at That's No Moon. Her personal mission is to "make moments that move people." Over the last 6 years, she has been able to make her mission happen at game companies, like Santa Monica Studio and Unity Technologies. With a passion for experiences that emphasize storytelling and character design, Aria seeks to develop software that drives the creation of products that have a diverse cast of characters in fantastical worlds. She hopes to lead by example and make AAA game development a safer and healthier environment for marginalized game developers.

Aria Bonczek

Ashley “Ash” Poprik (they/her) is a video game writer residing in sunny Los Angeles, California. As a queer and hard-of-hearing person Ash focuses on creating interesting characters with relatable backgrounds as a way to educate and support different life experiences. Ash believes all studios have a responsibility to properly support players and make them feel seen by depicting different disabilities, races, sexualities, and gender identities. Ash commits to her responsibility as a writer to bring those stories into fruition. Growing up among many loved ones with disabilities, Ash recognizes the medium’s potential and works with accessibility teams to ensure the games can be played by a variety of gamers, regardless of their background. They have led diversity and accessibility teams in both organizations and studios to create a compassionate space for players and game developers alike. Ash pushes to create a better future for the games industry and believes there will come a day when everyone can play video games, see themselves in the characters they interact with, and have a memorable experience worth playing again and again. 

Ashley Poprik

Ashraf Abi Said (he/him) is a Lebanese game developer making game development more accessible in the SWANA region. He believes games are the best form of storytelling and hopes to see more people from the Global South tell their stories and share their experiences through games.

Ashraf Abi Said

Atiya Nova (she/her) is a User Researcher at Ubisoft Toronto, credited on FC6, M+R: Sparks of Hope, and AC Mirage. She also released You're Not Family, a game about familial conflicts. Atiya does her best to have a positive impact in and out of the workplace. She participates in “Extra Life”, a fundraiser for children's hospitals. 

Atiya Nova

Audrey is the co-founder of independent game studio The Game Bakers, behind indie successes like Furi or Haven. The Game Bakers strive to create original games that leave players with long lasting memories. Audrey is the executive producer and studio manager as well as the business and publishing arm of the studio. Before that, she was game designer and producer for Quantic Dream and Ubisoft, and spent 7 years in China on AAA games.

Audrey is advocating for diversity in the game industry: she founded Women in Games France and ran as its president for 4 years. She also co-founded WINGS, funding games by women and marginalized gender developers and empowering them to self-publish and build sustainable studios.
Audrey is also advising Nordisk Games on investment in European studios and is a member of the board of the French Video Game Trade Association to support the growth and transformation of our industry.  
She is French, based in Sweden! Audrey believes that art inspires resistance and change. She's hoping we can make videogames fuel the fire of the feminist revolution and of all the revolutions needed to make our world more just and sustainable.

Audrey

Avani is a producer at Bad Robot Games based out of NYC. She produces external development and internal art & animation. She previously worked on Call of Duty, and is a South Asian game developer who strives for inclusivity in her work and aims to inspire a diverse audience

Avani Jain

Blessing Adeoye Jr.

Brandon Cole

Bria Davis is a community designer from Columbus, OH. She prides herself on facilitating unique, progressive communities for games like Bugsnax and Blaseball. She believes community work is a team sport, and supporting peers supports a sustainable future for us all.

Bria Davis

Camila Gormaz (she/her) is a game developer and artist, co-founder of studio BURA and currently a Game Designer at Globant, with more than 8 years of professional experience in the industry. During that time she has worked mainly as an artist, writer and game designer, and her work has been awarded in several parts of the world.

She's also an advocate for inclusivity within the industry, giving talks aimed towards marginalized genders, students and Latinxs. She was also part of the #1ReasonToBe GDC panel in 2019, and she's often a jury for grants and awards.

Camila has used games as a vehicle to teach about different topics and experiences, from Nanopesos, a simulator about living on minimum wage developed during the recent Chilean protests, to Long Gone Days, an RPG set in the present, focused on the impact of war on civilians and the importance of communication.

She has always been fascinated by games, starting with paper prototypes at the age of 8, and dabbling with her first computer games at the age of 11. She now aspires to help grow the Latin American industry, sharing the knowledge she has gained along the way.

Camila Gormaz

Camille Ramseur is an African- American, Jamaican descent game-developer from Florida. She currently works at Treyarch as a technical artist that focuses on shaders, pipeline, and rendering tools. As a technical artist she is able to be the bridge between art and technology. It's there she believes the true magic happens. She has worked on game titles, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Vanguard, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Before working in games Camille worked in the animation industry at Walt Disney Animation Studios as a Technical Director Trainee, then moved onto DreamWorks TV Animation to work on Wizards: Tales of Arcadia and Lucasfilm Animation's Star Wars: The Bad Batch as a technical director. Camille's goal is to help increase diversity in the games industry. She believes it's important to have different kinds of people throughout all aspects of the pipeline to make sure that diversity of thoughts and ideas are represented correctly in games, as well as having strong Black characters and plots that aren't stereotypical or tokenized.

Camille Ramseur

Casey Ramos (they/them) is a Brazilian-Filipinx writer from Jamaica, Queens NY living in Oakland, CA. They are a Narrative Designer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing, are on the leadership team for the LGBTQ & Latinx Caucuses at AWP, and teach narrative design at Gameheads Oakland.

Casey Almodovar Ramos

Founder of We Have Always Lived In The Forest, Chantal Ryan designs, directs, and produces experimental narrative games and systems built upon disruptive language technologies (see: darkwebSTREAMER). She holds a BA (Advanced) in Anthropology & English as well as multiple nerdy scholar’s titles. She founded the Women Leaders In Games network and is a Women In Games Ambassador, an IGDA International Scholar & recipient of the 2022 Humble Creator of Color Award. She has additionally given presentations at conferences like GCAP, Game Devs of Color Expo and EGX London on topics like semiotic design, empathetic meaning-making in games and the immutable politics of game design.

A first-generation South Australian, Chantal is half-Tamil Indian and half-Euro-mix, and as a result was always fascinated by identity and culture as well as cultural dispositions and dominances. Going on to specialise in the anthropology of identity as well as counter-colonialism and critical theory (particularly mass social control), Chantal, who also lives with an autoimmune disease, spends her time in the games industry cultivating networks of counter-power with a focus on lifting marginalised identities and asking provocative questions.

Chantal Ryan

Chella is a narrative designer from the UK. She is currently living in Malmö Sweden, where she is on the writing team for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, at Ubisoft Massive. She is also the co-founder and narrative designer at 3-Fold Games, working in the AAA and indie games space. Chella is committed to telling stories that elevate marginalised perspectives and challenge the accepted default. Before I Forget is the BAFTA-nominated debut from 3-Fold Games, a narrative exploration about a woman with dementia. 

A former, award-nominated games journalist, Chella is also co-founder of POC in Play, a diversity organisation focused on improving the visibility and representation of people of colour in the games industry. Her achievements include Gameindustry.biz 100 2018/19, Evening Standard Influential Londoner, Game Dev Heroes award and in 2018-19, she was part of ‘Design Play Disrupt’ the V&A exhibition on the design process behind video games. Chella considers games the modern storytelling medium and wants everyone to see themselves represented within the creative teams and the games they craft.

Chella Ramanan

Chloe Sinclair (she/her) holds the position of People Engagement Manager at Firesprite, a PlayStation Studio headquartered in Liverpool UK. Chloe has established herself as a key contributor to the people engagement strategy at Firesprite, building out key programs and initiatives within the 300-person studio to support the day-to-day experience for staff, across a variety of vital areas which impact the industry, including mental health & wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, environmental initiatives and coordinating various charity events.

Whilst overseeing the Mental Health First Aid programme, Ecologi tree planting scheme, and fulfilling her role as chair of the D&I Committee, Chloe keeps staff connected through internal events, workshops and #TimeToTalk meetings, as well as curating the Firesprite internal newsletter and podcast.

‘Inclusivity’ is a core value at Firesprite and one that resonates strongly with Chloe. Firesprite’s D&I statement denotes a visible commitment of inclusion and respect to recruit and retain industry talent from every walk of life. This is reflected in Chloe’s optimism and belief about the future of the games industry - that both the creation and enjoyment of games should be accessible to as many people as possible - and would be better for it.

Chloe Sinclair

Chris (he/him) is a Romanian Game Designer and Producer. He lives in the UK and after realising he can do more good by supporting others, worked with Creative UK before joining the British Film Institute as Fund Manager. He now funds indie screen founders (in games, film and TV)

Chris Filip

Chris Kindred (he/they) is a game designer, writer and illustrator based in Brooklyn, NY. With a master's in game design from NYU Game Center, Chris wants to make games that challenge the idea of what game storytelling can be for the player, and also for the stakeholders making the game. Their vision for the future of games sees blockbuster games becoming weirder, less formulaic, less cinematic and more viscerally affecting. Chris believes the best games are being made by people on the margins, often outside of AAA, and they want to bring those developers and their fire into the spotlight.

Chris Kindred

Chris, also known as DeafGamersTV, was born deaf. He is from Chicago and has loved gaming since 3 years old. He advocates for gaming accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing. Chris’ goal is to raise deaf awareness through gaming; he communicates in American Sign Language. Chris can speak, but he prefers signing over speaking since his voice gets tired pretty quickly and it's easier to communicate when people type or write back to him. 

He's consulted with different game studios such as Ubisoft, Santa Monica Studio, and Square Enix to help their teams understand the need for accessibility features as a deaf gamer. His hope for the future of gaming is to break down barriers that are keeping disabled gamers from enjoying games equally and to help set a standard for game design making all games as accessible as possible. 

Going into 2022, there are no excuses for some games continuing to make simple mistakes such as tiny subtitles that no one can read. It would mean a lot to Chris to be able to enjoy gaming with more features in games that'll allow all players to play comfortably and have fun.

Christopher "DeafGamersTV" Robinson

Cinzia Musio is an award-winning Diversity & Inclusion professional in the UK, with an approach focusing on intersectionality. They work across the industry helping build awareness and education, using data to drive a culture of inclusion, knowledge sharing, and allyship. Cinzia is a Diversity & Inclusion Advisor at Splash Damage, and is part of committees such as the Ukie’s EDI board, Limit Break, and helps manage the UK Games Industry Slack.

Cinzia Musio

Codie Childs (she/her) is a Senior Music Supervisor at Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe working on the music for video games and PlayStation marketing. She’s sits on D&I committees in the fields of music and gaming and relishes the opportunity to meet next generation game creators through workshops and charity initiatives.

Codie Childs

Cristina / Amaya

Since 2006, D'Juan ""Deejay Knight"" Irvin has been active in the gaming industry in various roles. Currently he is an entertainer on Twitch focusing heavily on Space & Sci-Fi as well as an event host.   

An accomplished educator, he's taught in multiple programs at Full Sail University including four years in the Game Design program and has previously worked in-industry as an Interface Designer.  

Gaming has been a major part of his life for as long as he can remember. His hopes for the future of gaming include more representation for more people & more accessibility options so that any and everyone can play more games. He looks forward to a future where gaming can affect everyone in the positive ways that it has affected him.  

Whether hosting events or entertaining in his channel, he uses his platform to promote positivity and the value of education while having as much fun as possible.

DeeJay Knight

Derek Lieu is an independent game trailer editor born and raised in Boston, MA. He’s worked on trailers for the games: Half-Life: Alyx, Among Us, Psychonauts 2, Firewatch, Spelunky 2, Subnautica, Dead Cells, Ooblets, and many more.

Since he can only produce so many trailers per year, he shares his knowledge of the game trailer making process to educate and empower both game developers and future game trailer makers. He does this through industry talks, blog posts, videos, live streams, podcasts, and social media posts (it's pretty easy to get him to talk a lot about trailers).

He loves game trailers not just for how they can excite players, but for their unique ability to let developers see their game with fresh eyes and take pride in their years of hard work.

Derek hopes game development continues to become more accessible to an even wider spectrum of people (so he can play their games) and to see new ways of storytelling only possible via games. He also wishes to foster a diverse game trailer industry so he can watch and learn from a new generation of talent!

Derek Lieu

Derrick Field

Dom Shaw is the first Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Coordinator for the UK video games and interactive entertainment trade association, Ukie, who manages the #RaiseTheGame pledge, and supports efforts towards the Video Games Ambassadors programme with Into Games. Dom is also an ambassador for the UK’s national autism research charity, Autistica, who strive to give autistic people the opportunity to live long, happy, healthy lives.
 
As an autistic, dyslexic and LGBTQ+ identifying individual from a single parent home, Dom has never been a stranger to the importance of diversity, inclusion and understands the struggle individuals from underrepresented backgrounds can face when trying to get a job in any industry, let alone the games industry that can be extra fierce due to the ratio of people to jobs there is. Having worked diligently to get his foot into the games industry, starting his journey when he was 16 in 2010, Dom’s mantra is to always be open to opportunities and has been energetically committed to encouraging, empowering and amplifying marginalised voices. Increasing representation at all levels within the industry to ensure in the future of gaming no one is excluded and anyone can seek opportunities on a fair playing field!

Dom Shaw

Dominion Ero is a Video Game Designer and Community Manager. He is the founder of Arutu, a thriving initiative that seeks to improve the African Gaming Experience. As a young Nigerian, Dom noticed an apparent difference in how games were made and played in the African region, compared to other places. Since then, He has set out to fill that gap with projects like ""NDUZI"": a gaming career-expo for young Africans, participating as a mentor in the Google Game-Up Africa program, organizing local esports tournaments and gaming-oriented festivals and writing articles to educate other aspiring enthusiasts.
 Dom has also spoken at several conferences, showcasing the change that Africans and collaborations with African talent can bring into the video gaming industry. Some of these conferences include; GDC, OpenUp Summit, Pathfindin.GS, Africa Comicade and many more. Dom believes that the Gaming Industry is embracing diversity with each passing second, and that means more people can contribute their talents and dreams to an extremely passionate ecosystem.

Dominion Ero

Dora Klindžić is a physicist and speculative fiction writer hailing from the Balkans. Her combined experience with scientific research, coding, political organizing and creative writing lends her a unique voice and a versatile skill set. She believes that the narrative art, and especially the art of the interactive narrative can be a potent driver for social change. In her work, she aims to bring to light authentic, marginalized perspectives which challenge western cultural hegemony, particularly stories of Eastern European social realism, as well as those of queerness, displacement and neurodivergence. These themes formed the backbone of her first independent project, the interactive novel / text-based RPG “Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents” published by Choice of Games, for which she was the sole writer/coder of the 200,000+ word script. In the future, she hopes to see more narrative games flourish across studios, with writers and artists given the freedom to elevate the medium to literary standards. To that end, she is currently a writer at Studio ZA/UM, working on narrative, systems design, scripting, and more. Before the games industry, she was one of the project leads on a space instrument in development for a mission to the Moon. 

Dora Klindžić

Dr. JC Lau (she/they) is a senior producer at ProbablyMonsters, where she also leverages her lived experience and academic expertise as a DEI advocate for the games industry. She is the creator of #WhatAGameDevLooksLike, an online movement to celebrate and amplify diversity in game development and challenge stereotypes about game developers, and a founding member of multiple studio DEI committees. A fierce proponent of empathy and giving back to the profession, JC also serves as President of the Board of Directors for Global Game Jam, and is a board member of the Seattle Chapter of the IGDA. 


In addition to joining Future Class, JC is the 2022 recipient of the Individual Diversity Advocate award at the Women in Games Global Awards, and a member of the 2022 IGDA Foundation’s Next Gen Leaders cohort. She was also featured as one of 2021’s Game Changers by GamesIndustry.biz, and is a member of the #ShePlaysGames list (2022) and inaugural #QueerInGames list (2021). JC aspires to build a sustainable games industry where everyone regardless of their background or experience can have a fulfilling and healthy career. 


Dr. JC Lau

Edd is the creator of the Game UI Database, and author of the upcoming Game UI Bible. As a leading voice in the field, he’s passionate about providing free tools, resources and mentorship to the game UI/UX community, as well as speaking out against injustice in the industry.

Edd Coates

Elena Gordon-Petrovskaya (she/her), London, UK. Elena is an academic researcher in ethical game design with a focus on monetisation. She wants to achieve a future where the industry can thrive by creating profitable games - which nonetheless prioritise the player.

Elena Petrovskaya

Three years ago, Emily Pitcher (she/her) took her first Unity class. Today, she is the creative director of Sondering Studio, which creates heartfelt narrative games with a focus on Asian American representation. As the founder of Sondering Studio, she writes the stories, manages the projects, designs the levels, and runs the social media. Based in Los Angeles, Emily is a content creator on TikTok, making videos uplifting marginalized genders in gaming, teaching others how to make games, and sharing her favorite indie games. She started making games when she realized they could be a powerful medium for storytelling, as they create greater immersion with player agency. She loves creating games about complicated familial relationships, the coming-of-age experience, and multi-dimensional women. Her studio has been featured in Game Devs of Color Expo 2022 and Code Coven's Solstice Program. She is currently working on her next game.

Emily Pitcher

Based in Frederick, Maryland, Emma Kidwell (she/her) started out in the industry making vignette games that evoked the human condition. The game she wrote for, Hindsight, was nominated at the Game Awards in 2022 under the Games for Impact category.

Emma Kidwell 

Farah Coculuzzi is a Video Game Producer at Capybara Games in Ontario. Farah is of Palestinian and Iraqi descent, and lived in New Zealand for most of her life before moving to Canada. She's currently leading production on Grindstone, Capy's award winning puzzle battler. In the past, Farah worked as a freelance producer with various indie game companies such as Viewport Games and Ko_op. Her hope for the world of games is that we continue to strive to make room for marginalized groups to tell their stories through video games and that we can achieve more empathy and unity as a worldwide community through this ever-changing medium.

Farah Coculuzzi

Fawzi Mesmar (he/him) is an award winning Game designer, leader, author and public speaker that has been in the gaming industry for almost two decades in a career that spanned the middle east, New Zealand, Japan and Europe working for companies such as Ubisoft, EA, Activision Blizzard, Gameloft and Atlus to name a few. Currently based in Stockholm, Fawzi has worked on many titles that have been enjoyed by millions of players worldwide including entries in Battlefield, Star Wars, Mario+Rabbids and others. He is also the author of Al-Khallab in the art of game design the first Arabic language text book on game design.

Getting into the games industry was difficult for Fawzi starting out, because of that he takes giving back to the community personally, dedicating a lot of his time to help bridge the knowledge gap between different cultures, teaching game design in various schools around the world as well as mentor and support teams to make better games in his jobs and beyond. I try to be the person I wish I met starting out answered Fawzi when asked about what giving back to the community meant for him I would have loved it if I would have met somebody to help me out. I think if somebody would have given me an hour of their time, it would have saved me months of me trying out in the wrong direction.

Fawzi Mesmar

Felice Kuan is a Narrative Director at Deck Nine Games in Boulder, Colorado. Originally from New York, she has an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU and was a bookwriter & lyricist before crossing over into games. At Deck Nine, she has been a staff writer on Life is Strange: Before the Storm and a senior staff writer on Life is Strange: True Colors, for which she helped create Alex Chen, the game’s queer Chinese-Vietnamese American protagonist. She now steers a talented team of writers and narrative designers in the creation of narrative adventure games that seek to portray marginalized perspectives with sensitivity, wit, and nuance.
Felice is passionate about facilitating authentic stories by, about, and for underrepresented groups. She firmly believes in the value of diversity, not only in the fictional worlds of our games, but even more so in the dev teams that create them. She is committed to seeking out, uplifting, and supporting new voices, a process which must be ongoing and collaborative to be successful. For her, it’s an incredible privilege to work toward a future where marginalized developers make up a significant portion of industry leadership and where diverse, respectfully-told stories are the norm.

Felice Kuan

Florence Smith Nicholls is a game AI PhD researcher based in London. They also work as a Story Tech, a member of the writers room at the indie studio Die Gute Fabrik. Building on their background as a field archaeologist, they have contributed to the field of archaeogaming through experimenting with archaeological approaches to titles such as Elden Ring and Nier: Automata. They coined the term “generative archaeology games” for their doctoral project on the archaeological recording of procedurally generated content. Their work is motivated by contributing to wider research on games preservation, ethics of game AI and procedural narrative. They are also interested in queer approaches to games, having written about queerness and documenting glitches.

Florence Smith Nicholls

Frankie "Hambo" López

G.C. "Grim" Baccaris is a writer and game developer based in western New York. Recently, Grim has worked on a number of games as a freelancer, exhibited at AdventureX 2022, and expanded their Twine Grimoire, an open-source spellbook helping Twine sorcerers conjure up new games.

G.C. "Grim" Baccaris

Gabriel Bera is a Dominican writer and QA Lead. With an extensive testing background, he is an advocate for quality assurance and its irrevocable value in game development. Gabriel strives to make the industry a space where marginalized folks can not only work in, but thrive.

Gabriel Bera

Influencer Executive for Neonhive & Founder of The Neurodivergent Game Dev Collective, Georgie hopes to continue building a safe, welcoming community for neurodivergent devs and educate the industry in putting accessibility first.

Georgie Christoforou

Glen Henry was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. His love for visual and interactive media has led him to a career as an Independent Game Developer, and establishing Spritewrench Studios, with the expressed intent of exploring the industry and his creative passion. While operating the business as a vehicle for his personal projects and freelance endeavours, he connected with like-minded individuals who eventually helped to form the Jamaica Game Developer Society (JGDS). JGDS is a grass-roots coalition of projects and people in support of Jamaica's video game communities.  
 
He uses his experience to nurture and encourage the growth of the region's Game Development sector and is eager to see more projects come out of the islands. The future of gaming will include more personal and hand-crafted projects inspired by creators sharing their unique heritage, culture and perspectives. He hopes to be able to show that there is a sustainable path for the Caribbean in the industry, and that there is more than enough room at the table for everyone.

Glen Henry

Hailey develops authentic brand love and bombastic campaigns as a Social Marketing Manager for Xbox, based in Seattle, WA. She also cares way more about Seattle sports teams than she should.

Her history includes spearheading the Gears of War franchise's voyage into the mobile gaming and PC strategy space with the launch of Gears POP!, Gears Tactics, and the AAA title, Gears 5. Hailey was an honoree on the Forbes Under 30 list for Games in 2021 and is a member of The GameHERS Advisory Board.

She strives to be an inspiration and voice for young women in the gaming industry and STEM at large. It’s her mission to ensure gaming content is representative, accessible and tells dynamic & diverse stories. As a champion for D&I, Hailey currently serves as the Communications Lead for Microsoft's Disability in Marketing Employee Resource Group and is a leader in the Women in Gaming community.

Hailey Geller

Harriet is a proud disabled & neurodivergent public speaker & accessibility consultant, dedicated to improving disability inclusion, empowerment & representation so there is a place for every disabled person in games, gamers and developers alike.

Harriet Frayling

Harris Foster takes pride in creating communities that recognize the positive impact of video games. Whether through his professional work with the award-winning game developer/publisher Finji or volunteer leadership with non-profit collectives like Fantastic Arcade, Harris’ goal is to bring video game fans together to create and share. Harris believes that the more people playing games the better, and that accessibility is the key to the future of gaming. Creating games and spaces that  recognize players of all experience and ability equally is a mission that Harris is proudly devoted to.

Harris Foster

iAsia ( she/her), a Senior Producer at Xbox in Los Angeles, CA, intertwines gaming with mental health, education, and entertainment. She seeks to create immersive experiences that heal, educate, and inspire. Her vision? A gaming world where play fosters growth and inclusivity.

iAsia Brown

Indrani Ganguly (she/they) is the co-founder of Desis & Dragons, India's largest tabletop RPG community. Under the moniker Nonagon Dice, she also became India's first handmade dice maker. She is the Marketing & Communications Lead at Pariah Interactive, an independent game studio working on 1000 Deaths, a choose-your-own-adventure platformer. Indrani is also a fledgling game writer-designer. She is based out of Mumbai, India.

As a young, queer person of color, Indrani is incredibly passionate about bringing equity to the Indian gaming industry–especially to underrepresented minorities within India with equitable opportunities. Through Desis & Dragons, Indrani, and her two co-founders have worked to spread international awareness about India’s TTRPG creators, as well as grow the nascent hobby within India. Indrani’s game-changing work within the Indian game industry has been featured in multiple reputable newspapers and magazines such as Polygon, Wired, IGN India, and Mid-Day India.

To Indrani, working within the video game industry once felt like a pipe dream. Her hope is that women like her do not face the same insecurities, and find the industry brimming with space for them. Through her advocacy, she wants to encourage industry professionals to provide people of color with the support, guidance, and validation they’ve been historically denied. It’s time to change the status quo.

Indrani Ganguly

Iris is an engineering manager at Riot Games, having worked on League of Legends for four years. She is a believer in making spaces for community and connection, having served as a lead for the marginalized genders ERG at Riot in 2019. In 2022 Iris founded the Asian & Pacific Islander ERG at her org and continues to co-lead it today. Iris leverages her background in education and to mentor those of marginalized identities looking to switch careers into engineer or break into the games industry. She has seen that the best performing teams are those that exhibit psychological safety, have the capacity to hire and mentor juniors, and have healthy pipelines for diverse talent. Iris advocates for these conditions through building onboarding programs, practical workshops, and connecting with leaders across the industry to share best practices. Iris dreams of a gaming industry that is more sustainable to the people making games.

Iris Zhang

Ivan Phelan is the director of the Impact VR Research Lab at Sheffield Hallam University. Impact VR has explored how virtual reality technology can support burn survivors, amputees and children undergoing limb rehabilitation. 

A suite of projects has succeeded in developing a set of immersive and interactive virtual reality games which have considerably improved the health, well-being and lifestyles of children and adults. These patients have been affected by neurological and musculoskeletal conditions, orthopaedic trauma, and chronic pain. 

Impact VR is now working on games to support Dysphagia patients, to help children diagnosed with the rare muscle-wasting disease Duchenne (DMD), and to support CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) in children with social anxiety (SAD). 

Gaming as a medium brings entertainment, inspiration and connects people unlike any other medium. The advances in technology are providing new experiences and possibilities that only a few decades ago seemed like science fiction. There is a significant opportunity for gaming to be utilised in other areas such as healthcare where it has the potential to transform the lives of patients.


Ivan Phelan

A QA Tester & Point of Contact at Rocksteady Studios. Jamie sees gaming breaking barriers & facilitating a safe space for people from all walks of life.
Jamie is also an accredited Mental Health First Aider and an advocate for inclusion within both the industry & the wider community.

Jamie Naden

Jarryd Huntley is a Jamaican-American programmer, designer, author, and community organizer hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, where he passionately supports the Cleveland Game Developers group as an organizer. The group is devoted to helping everyone from novices to industry professionals grow their skills and connect in the city, as well as helping to expand the local industry.
 
His book Game Programming for Artists was conceived as a ""programming book that doesn't read like a programming book”. Co-authored with Hanna Brady, the book is a resource for getting non-programmers into programming. It’s been used by universities, indie and AAA game studios, as well as numerous individuals starting their first games.
 
His studio, Polytundra, released its debut title Art Club Challenge in 2018, a year after it was featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum Arcade. Polytundra specializes in assisting studios to port games to new consoles and platforms, as well as developing original IPs. 
 Jarryd frequently speaks about managing an independent game studio, supporting marginalized communities in the game industry, alternate paths into game development, and has given talks at IndieCade, MEGAMIGS, GDC and others conferences. He is currently Lead Developer on the forthcoming game We Are OFK with team OFK.

Jarryd Huntley

Jason Kappes (26) is an education startup founder based in Chicago, Illinois. He is building and believes in video games for education because of their ability to situate and contextualize educational content. His first product, Newcomer, is a videogame for language immersion.

Jason Kappes

Jay Justice is a Jamaican American freelance writer, developer and consultant from The Bronx, NY.
While she also works in traditional publishing and the comic book industry, video games are her favorite, because of the unique, unforgettable experience of immersive gameplay.
As a cultural and disability consultant, Jay has worked to create positive representation and accessibility for marginalized communities in games, so that all players can experience that same immersion. As an advocate and educator, she has given talks at GDC, MIT and many other events, schools & libraries to further her mission of providing industry access to underrepresented developers.
As a writer, Jay works to shift the narrative from stereotypical, single-faceted portrayals to authentic, complex characterization, and creates stories that go off the beaten path. For Jay, the future of gaming is one where disabled players have as many new games to be excited about every year as able bodied players do, and where anyone can be a game developer regardless of race, gender or disability. Her goal is to build a more diverse, accessible and inclusive games industry, and make way for new voices to be heard.

Jay Justice

Jennifer Estaris (she/her) is a climate activist and game director at ustwo games. A Filipina-American immigrant in London, Jennifer is involved with UN’s Playing for the Planet, the IGDA Climate SIG, and Extinction Rebellion, and knows games can positively transform the world. 

Jennifer Estaris

As the Marketing Manager for Electric Square & Lively and Chair of 'Connected', Jerreau is a champion for DEI. Co-founding initiatives such as 'Game Devs Across Africa', Jerreau is committed to uplifting marginalised people and envisions a more inclusive future for our industry.

Jerreau Henry

Jeryce Dianingana was born in Paris, France to Congolese parents. He works as a 3D Game Artist at Rocksteady Studios in London, UK. In between his time working on AAA games projects, Jeryce has built up a powerful body of afro-centric 3D art inspired by his African heritage. He aspires to be a voice for the rich diversity of African culture, and to help increase the visibility of African-inspired design in the videogame and movie industries.

Jeryce Dianingana

Jes Negrón (she/they) has worked in media for almost 20 years as a writer, editor, producer, and designer in web, books, video games, politics, and activism, based for most of that time on the East Coast.
After experiencing abuse in the game industry, Jes helped lead the biggest class action lawsuit in video game history against Riot Games. The lawsuit helped get justice for thousands of women and secure positive change at the company for thousands more.
In 2021, Jes founded indie game studio RETCON Games to craft compelling narrative experiences that showcase diverse perspectives and stories. The studio’s first game, GOOD BONES, centers a Latina family navigating loss and grief while solving a murder mystery in their new home.
Jes is also on the founding board of the annual Decolonize & Discover festival, created to amplify the voices of BIPOC, the LGBTQIA2S+ community, and people with disabilities within the worlds of gaming, LARPing, cosplaying, and general nerdery.
It’s Jes’ hope that the game industry will continue to hold itself accountable to make room for marginalized folks to both make games and see themselves in games, without the added obstacle of discrimination in the workplace. Unionize, people!

Jes Negrón

Jessica(she/they) is a senior concept designer and part time art director who is currently working and residing in North America. Jessica aims to construct worlds in which players can lose themselves. Currently found in the wild as a casual dispensary of information and support within the artist and gamedev community, Jessica hopes to see more diverse voices thrive in positions of all stripes, in healthier work environments. With continuous retention and inclusion of more diverse voices in the gaming industry, the influx of different ideas, skills and approaches will mean the creativity in this field will reach new heights. Jessica is excited to see what sort of games will be made in the future. Gaming and work-life balance is for everyone!

Jessica Cheng

Jessica collects and protects a collection of physical artifacts from Blizzard employees and Blizzard communities. She is passionate about mentoring and fostering positivity, recording history in real time while supporting both coworkers and the Blizzard community in their legacy.

Jessica Taylor

Joanna Fang is a Taiwanese American Foley artist, and the first trans woman of color to win a Primetime Emmy. After spending eleven years in New York crafting custom and performative sound effects (Foley) for major films and TV shows like The Invisible Man and Clifford: The Big Red Dog; Joanna moved back home to Southern California to work for Sony Playstation. Joanna is the first in-house Senior Foley artist hired by Sony Interactive Entertainment in over 15 years. 

As such: she is tasked with leading, educating, and evolving the discipline of Foley for games and interactive media. In the last six months, Joanna has performed everything from the thumping of footsteps to the battering of weapons and equipment for some of Sony’s new titles including Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2, Wolverine, Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Forbidden West, and Santa Monica Studio’s highly anticipated God of War: Ragnarök. When she isn’t cracking boulders for Kratos, sharpening swords for Wolverine, or whipping webs as Miles Morales; Joanna can be found mentoring Foley artists and advocating for trans and gender-nonconforming inclusive healthcare in the games industry.

Joanna Fang

Jo is a game designer from Brighton, UK, that has spent her career working on games that anyone can play. Her first role in the games industry was on the BAFTA-winning Buzz! quiz games that are played using a gameshow-style buzzer controller. Jo never planned to have a career in games. Her first passion was TV and film production, but she loved the Buzz! games because they felt like being on a real TV gameshow. Game design turned out to be the perfect career for Jo and she's been determined to stay in the industry and keep making accessible and inclusive games for all her non-gamer friends to play together. She currently works as the Design Director at Snap Finger Click, an indie game developer that makes games that people can play together both in the living room and online over Twitch. Jo designed the innovative 'Live Show' feature that lets Twitch viewers play Snap Finger Click's games by typing into the chat without a need to have a copy of the game or even a game console. All of Jo's designs have socialising at their heart, and she believes games need more safe and accessible ways for players to connect with each other beyond the living room.

Alongside her work, Jo is an advocate for women and parents in games. She has been a mentor with Limit Break for two years, volunteering her time to help marginalised groups to progress in the games industry. Earlier this year, Jo ran a parenting workshop explaining the rights of staff in regards to pregnancy, adoption, fertility treatment, and childcare. She also laid out methods companies can adopt to make the workplace more welcoming to working parents. Jo believes retaining staff, particularly marginalised groups like women, is key to the games industry's future.

Joanna Haslam

Jonathan Tang is a Malaysian community leader and is active in organizing events. He aims to see the Malaysian industry mature, and hopes to make game dev an accessible passion-career for all. "Games are a form of art - and we're all unique artists contributing to the tapestry of the game dev industry.

Jonathan Tang Ziyi

Jordan Minor (he/him) is a journalist at PCMag and author of the gaming history book Video Game of the Year: A Year-by-Year Guide to the Best, Boldest, and Most Bizarre Games from Every Year Since 1977. He celebrates gaming’s past to improve its future. He lives in NYC

Jordan Minor

Jose Angulo (He/Him), technical sound designer at Teravision Games & founder of LOUD Institute. Leading game audio education in Spanish, he advocates for inclusivity in the industry, finding life's true value in aiding his community to reach their highest potential.

Jose Angulo

Joshi is a Chinese-Canadian narrative designer currently working on Overwatch 2 at Blizzard Entertainment. During her time in the games industry, she has taken on different projects highlighting the nuanced experiences of various minority groups. She believes that in order to properly represent diverse voices, it is important not only to research and self-educate, but to give the platform to marginalized voices so that they can speak for themselves. Joshi believes that sharing experiences through play is one of the best ways to foster empathy and understanding. She hopes that with more diverse voices entering the industry, people from all walks of life will see themselves, their communities, and their stories represented in games to be celebrated by all.

Joshi Zhang

Karoline is an accomplished game designer with a strong focus on player centric design. With a pay it forward mentality she works to empower and inspire students! She truly believes that games can change and shape our world. Because for her, games have a proven record of creating dreams, vision as well as bringing people together.

Karoline Forsberg

Kat Welsford is from London, UK and works at Square Enix as a Digital Analyst. During the day she works on nearly all of Square Enix's properties, from Final Fantasy to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, whilst in the evenings she works to increase diversity & inclusion within games and the industry.
She hosts Games Industry Gathering, a monthly worldwide and online networking event for games industry members, and also hosts Save Point Industry Gathering, a dedicated space for marginalised genders, where she provides support and a safe and inclusive space to chat.
Kat also worked as a mentor for the 2021 Tentacle Zone Incubator, helping the next generation of indie developers market their games with mentorship and advice. Kat has also presented marketing talks at Develop Brighton.
She is also an admin of London Gaymers, a group for LGBTQIA+ gamers around the world, running the dedicated areas and events for women, non-binary, and trans people. She also runs weekly events for all, including pub meets, D&D, and providing spaces for numerous multiplayer games. In her free time Kat also works a Girlguiding Leader in East London, advises TTRPGs like Dissident Whispers, and tutors children in maths.

Kat Welsford

Kathryn Yu is a designer/developer based in Los Angeles who is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the University of Southern California.
She recently worked at the indie studio Tender Claws on an unannounced VR project. Kathryn was a co-creator of the alternate reality game The Pickfair Directive, which was nominated to IndieCade. She was also featured in WIRED for her interactive story, “Metaverse Noir.” 

Kathryn is a co-creator of Heirloom, which won “Favourite game by a woman or female team” at the Women in Games Global Awards and was shortlisted for the New Media Writing Prize. Kathryn hopes to see more games like Heirloom in the future — telling multi-generational stories centering older, female characters.

Kathryn is currently creating a sci-fi virtual reality game, Penrose Station, for her master’s thesis. It features a team that is majority POC and a diverse voiceover cast composed entirely of people of marginalized genders.
 
Kathryn is also the Executive Editor of No Proscenium and a co-founder of the Immersive Experience Institute, a non-profit which aims to create a sustainable future for immersive and experiential arts and artists worldwide. She has spoken at Games for Change, The Knight Foundation, IndieCade, and more.

Kathryn Yu

Kayla P. Harris is a Senior Systems Game Designer on MLB The Show at PlayStation’s San Diego Studio. Based out of Orlando, she previously worked on EA Sports College Football, Echo VR, & DomiNations. She has dedicated time to helping minority students learn to create their own games as well as launch their game industry careers. Kayla hopes that her work to magnify diverse voices in the gaming industry will aid the industry's growth into one where minorities are well represented.

Kayla P. Harris

Khevna Shah (she/they) is a Lead Technical Designer on Fable at Playground Games, UK. She’s known for solving problems with a systemic lens, looking at root causes/processes. She’s often the first/only person with her identities, so she works to ensure everyone feels they belong.

Khevna Shah

Kyra Wills-Umdenstock is an educator and event producer based in NYC. They are a production coordinator at Games for Change, the chair of the IGDA Student SIG, and the founder/CEO of the EGD Collective, a grassroots nonprofit movement with a mission to help every student finish their education and find their place within gaming. In addition to K-12 and post-secondary institutions, they have worked on projects for indie studios, esports organizations, nonprofits, and museums.

They spend a lot of time thinking about training, recruiting, and retaining diverse talent in our industry - and how our education systems are failing our students. Nearly two million students who begin college each year will drop out before earning a diploma. Society's view that college equals privilege is woefully outdated, with 45% of students experiencing food insecurity, 56% experiencing housing insecurity, and 17% experiencing homelessness in 2019. More often than not, the students affected by these issues are from marginalized and underrepresented groups. Kyra seeks to expose students to STEM and arts career paths early in their education and ensure they don't fall through the cracks by addressing the systemic barriers that prevent students from pursuing careers in industry.

Kyra Wills-Umdenstock

Laia Bee is a Uruguayan developer, co-founder of Pincer Games, board member of the Uruguayan game dev association, and helps coordinate the Latam Video Games Federation: a unique cooperation of 12 Latin American countries. Laia was co-director of Girls in Tech Uruguay for 5 years.

She volunteers for the local Uruguayan game dev community organizing events, and helps create opportunities for indie studios. She organized the #1reasontobe panel at GDC in 2021 and was named one of the 100 Game Changers by GamesIndustry. She promotes the creation of scholarships for Latam studios to attend major events, and advocates for underrepresented devs in the region. 

Laia believes in the power of diversity and the talent of Latam, and she dreams of Latam video games being known worldwide and acclaimed right next to the big titles.

Laia Bee

Leon Y. Xiao (he/him) is an academic lawyer and the leading researcher on the regulation of video game loot boxes. He is based at the IT University of Copenhagen and holds visiting appointments at Queen Mary University of London and the University of York. Leon’s research has been relied upon by governments, and policymakers and regulators have sought his advice directly. Leon’s recent study identifying that the Belgian ‘ban’ on loot boxes has been ineffective has been widely covered, including by GamesIndustry.biz, Gamespot, Eurogamer, Kotaku, and Game Developer. Following Leon’s report, games such as Roblox finally complied with Belgian criminal law four years after the gambling regulator told them to do so. Through his research, Leon has advocated for a more nuanced understanding of how loot boxes should be designed in more ethical manners and regulated in ways that are more respectful of both the rights of video game players and the companies’ commercial interests. Instead of proposing an overly simplistic ‘ban’ on paid loot boxes, Leon’s more balanced position looks towards the industry’s future by recognising the need for a sustainable solution to loot boxes and other forms of monetisation to be developed.

Leon Y. Xiao

Maize co founded Australia's first national trade union for the games industry, Game Workers Australia. Since 2012, Maize has been an active part of shaping the Melbourne and Australian game development industry and communities. Maize works in cutting edge technical audio across indie games and big budget AAA, as well as their own experimental work. Maize's work and expertise has been showcased around the world in museums and galleries, and at conferences and industry initiatives. Highlights from Maize's extensive folio include God Fall, Receiver 2, Wayward Strand, and Cosmic Express, and their experimental work Noise Drawers.

Maize Wallin

Malek Teffaha (he/him) is a games industry professional originally from Beirut, Lebanon. He got his start in the industry in 2014, when he joined Ubisoft to help set up their MENA team in Dubai. In his role there, he helped develop the company’s regional strategy, especially in communications and the expansion of Arabic localization support across key franchises like Assassin’s Creed, The Division, Far Cry, and more.

 

In 2021, Malek moved to Paris to join the Global Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility team at Ubisoft HQ as Senior Project Manager. In addition to collaborating with HR, communications, production, ERG, and development teams across the globe on projects to promote inclusion in Ubisoft’s workplace, he now heads up Ubisoft’s Content Review Group, which empowers team members from around the world to lend their diverse perspectives during the game production and marketing processes.

 

Working in the games industry always felt like a farfetched dream for Malek, and his ambition is now to ensure that that dream is a possibility for all and to expand the reach of video games within communities that have often been overlooked. He hopes to contribute to building an inclusive games community where people from all backgrounds not only have the opportunity to see themselves represented in games but get to have a hand in making them.

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