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Mia Ginae WatkinsCreative Operations CoordinatorRiot Games

Mia Ginaé Watkins is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and public speaker. She creates and tells stories in different mediums, having written and directed short films and music videos that screened at 15+ festivals such as LA Music Video Festival, Citizen Jane Film Festival, Alice Fest, Tacoma Film Festival, NFFTY, Portland Unknown, Auckland Film Festival, and accumulated accolades including Best Music Video at the DC Black Film Festival and Toronto Short Film Festival, and the Platinum Award at Mindfield Film Festival LA. Mia's been in the video game industry for almost seven years, starting at PlayStation and now at Riot Games, she has been recognized as one of She Plays Games' 2022 Top 100 Women in Gaming and one to watch out for. Her event experience began at PlayStation, where she created and hosted industry voice-acting panels, department town halls, and fireside chats. Recognized as one of She Plays Games' 2022 Top 100 Women in Gaming, Mia got her start as a video editor at PlayStation where she worked on Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part II, and Days Gone. She moved to internal comms for PlayStation Studios, where she created and directed a five-part documentary series for Days Gone in collaboration with PlayStation Visual Arts and Bend Studio, which has 138k views on YouTube. Her advocacy for representation in gaming led her to be a co-lead for Black@PlayStation, where Mia curated and moderated industry voice-acting panels, department town halls, and fireside chats with Forspoken's Ella Balinska, Golden State Warriors' Damien Lee, and the Head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst. She also supported Black in Gaming's (BIG) annual award show in 2019, helping the organization create an award that honored Jerry Lawson. Mia works at Riot Games as a Creative Operations Coordinator and a co-lead for Riot Noir, Riot's Black identity group. She strongly advocates for representation in the games industry, serving as the Director of Community Development for the Black in Gaming Foundation and a volunteer for their Los Angeles chapter, speaking to inner-city kids at Aim High St. Louis, and mentoring students. She's moderated industry panels at the Game Developers Conference, San Diego Comic-Con, WonderCon, DreamCon, and the Music and Gaming Festival. Elon University recently recognized her as one of 2022's Top 10 Under 10 Alumni. Creativity, empathy, and storytelling are at the core of everything she does and what she plans to do next.

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Connecting the Global Game Development Community