Meet The POC Taking The UK Gaming Industry By Storm

The London Games Festival has returned for its eighth year and will run from March 29 to April 9, 2023.

A flagship feature of the festival is the Ensemble showcase of the UK’s top video gaming talent. Black, Asian, and underrepresented ethnic backgrounds.

Led by Games London and supported by PlayStation and the Mayor of London, Ensemble spotlights and showcases influential and up-and-coming names in gaming, promoting diversity, advocating for new voices, and changing perceptions in the industry.

Ensemble curator Sharna Jackson said: “I’m delighted to be once again curating Ensemble, for its fourth edition, with another extremely bright, bold, and brilliant cohort of talent drawn across different roles in the UK games industry.”

“Once again,” she continued, “we forefront the importance of a diverse industry, by demonstrating its significance in the creation of rich and intoxicating worlds and experiences for everyone.”

Get to know this the 8 members of Ensemble 2023

1. Taiwo Omisore

Taiwo Omisore is a self-taught digital designer and independent game developer from London. He learned to code from books at the local library, and his curiosity led to his family’s purchase of their first computer, he told Apple in an interview. Today, Omisore has eight apps–and counting–ranging from social experiment ‘Who Am I?’ to viral hit 1 Chance, in which you have just one attempt to get high scores in 14 mini-games.

2. Leah Muwanga-Magoye

Born in the UK and raised in Kenya and Namibia before returning to the UK, Leah Muwanga-Magoye has always been an avid gamer.  Her writing and directing career has spanned radio, film, theater, and, of course, gaming. She is the Senior Narrative Designer at Fusebox Games, a narrative-driven mobile game company behind popular story-driven games, including Love Island. 

3. John Lau

John Lau is a producer, writer, and game designer. In addition to his MA (Distinction) in Game Design & Development from the National Film and Television School, he is a scrum-certified games producer with eight years of production experience. His work includes the narrative adventure South of the Circle for BAFTA-winning studio State of Play. He is also a Senior Producer at ustwo games.

4. Lili Ibrahim

Lili Ibrahim is a London-based conceptual artist and art director. After studying visual art and illustration, she applied for an illustrator job for a games company and never looked back.Today she is a lead artist working on socially impactful games at Ustwo Games, working on the next installment in the Monument Valley series. She has also worked for clients like Nintendo, Fantasy Flight Games, and Imagine Publishing.

5. Jay-Ann Lopez

Jay-Ann Lopez is the CEO and Founder of Black Girl Gamers, an online safe space and platform that heightens the visibility of Black Women in Gaming and advocates for Diversity & Inclusion. With over 8000 community members, BGG is the largest community of Black women gamers in the world and an influential agent of change, growing the influence, representation, equity and experience of Black women in gaming.

6. Jay Shin

Jay Shin is the co-founder of Arrogant Pixel LTD, ndependent video game and software development studio based in South London. Shin is also a course leader and senior lecturer at University of West London in Games, Design and Animation. A keen educator and advocate in the UK games design and development space in the UK, she is a University of London PhD student investigating the business of independent game development, sits on the UKIE board of directors, and is an active and visible Women in Games Ambassador (Discord Server admin)

7. Haroon Thantrey

Haroon Thantrey has been a games sound and audio designer for several years, freelancing before joining Rebellion Developments and Splash Damage. Thantrey has worked on titles such as Dirt 5, Grid: Legends, Sniper Elite 4, Battlezone VR, and Madden 17. He is currently part of the Audio Department at Codemasters, which has recently become a part of Electronic Arts.

8. Adam Campbell

Adam Campbell is an award-winning producer and diversity campaigner with a decade-long games career. He is the co-founder of POC in Play, a representation and inclusion movement for people of color in the video games industry, and a program manager at Amazon Games. Campbell previously worked several games at award-winning global EdTech company, Macademia and is a board member of The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment.