Creator, executive producer and co-host of “The Electric Playground,” and “Reviews on the Run,” Victor Lucas is a videogame television pioneer. His first original TV series, “The Electric Playground,” hit the airwaves in 1997 and is now a daily TV series seen coast to coast in Canada and the US.
Victor is also the creator and executive producer of one of the world’s first High Definition videogame TV series, “The Art of Play” for Gameplay HD and the creator, executive producer and host of the Emmy-winning, “GameTap News,” for Turner’s GameTap network. Additionally, Victor, through his Vancouver-based company, Greedy Productions Ltd., was the executive producer of two technology-based programs produced for G4TechTV Canada: “The Lab with Leo Laporte” and “Torrent.” Victor also executive produces, directs and narrates documentaries through his company’s Greedy Docs division and has worked with numerous partners over the years including Activision, Sega, Kojima Productions, Bethesda, Disney and Warner Brothers.
Recent projects include, “The Making of Metal Gear Solid 4,” “Awakening The Giants: The Making of Turok,” “The Vault-Tec Files: The Making of Fallout 3,” “The Making of Iron Man,” and “The Making of The Incredible Hulk.”
Consider her Blabbermouth Briana. She began speaking at a very early age and hasn’t, really, ever stopped.
Always a constant source of news, Briana decided that her future career had to involve speaking and delivering information because a library wasn’t exactly the best place for her.
She thought her chances at public speaking were nil when her family informed her that she was actually a cyclops who slept with one eye open. But, as it turns out – no one ever noticed her lazy eye.
Until now, oops. I guess the secret is out!
She is a graduate of BCIT’s Journalism Program and is a seasoned veteran in the broadcast industry (You only need 5 years in the biz to become a veteran – right?) 
Scott Jones has cast a jaundiced eye on videogames since the Atari 2600 era. Despite forays into football (12 years) and poetry (M.F.A., three years), Jones never stopped haunting game stores and studying screenshots in all the latest videogame magazines.
During a five-year stint at a men’s sophisticate magazine in the late ’90s — which Jones refers to as “My Years Among the Depressed and the Damned” — he began secretly penning game reviews for GameCritics.com over his lunch hour. After finally parting ways with the men’s sophisticate world, Jones began filing game reviews and game-centric editorials — and actually getting paid for game writing — for Maxim and Stuff’s Web sites on a freelance basis.
He’s since written for Playboy, Sports Illustrated for Kids, USA Weekend Magazine, GameDaily, Blender, The A.V. Club and Time Out New York, among others. He currently lives in Vancouver, BC Canada with his two sideburns.
Blessed with a deft tongue, an enormous nose and a vivid imagination, longtime game industry veteran Ben Silverman is a notorious liar. This has caused all sorts of problems in Ben’s life, mostly with girls, occasionally with waiters, and nearly always resulting in his pants catching on fire. But despite his penchant for BS (OMG check out his initials!), there’s one subject about which Ben simply cannot lie: video games.
Technically, his career as a game journalist started in the late ’70s, when his dad made the tragic mistake of buying the family a Pong machine. That was soon followed by a Fairchild Channel F, then an Atari 2600, then a Colecovision, Vectrex, NES and so on. He might be the spitting image of Johnny Depp (it’s okay to tell him this if you meet him, he’s not embarrassed), but beneath that flawless bone structure beats the heart of an old-school, first-gen, dyed-in the-wool game geek. If a game sucks, he knows why.
In 1996, Ben began writing reviews for a website called Game Revolution, which he’d go on to helm as Editor in Chief. A decade later he would try his hand at freelance writing, a gig that eventually led to his current role as Senior Editor at Yahoo! Games, where he helps both you and your mom figure out what games to play today. When he’s not doing that, he’s talking about games on TV for Reviews on the Run, writing terrible songs, arguing with a Chihuahua, cooking up a storm and moonlighting as a magician’s assistant*.
*Fact: only one of those is a lie.
Who would have thought that all those years of playing games as a child/teenager/adult would eventually pay off? Jose “FUBAR” Sanchez knew, that’s who! Ever since the days when the original console war was between Atari, Intellivision and ColecoVision, Jose knew he had found his calling. Even while writing videogame reviews as a child about NES games, Fubar knew that videogames would always be a part of his life.
Originally working with Greedy Productions Ltd. as a production assistant beginning in 2003, Fubar, (which stands for “Friends United Beyond All Races”, in case you were confused) made his dreams a reality in 2005 when he became a correspondent on “The Electric Playground.” In 2007, he began guest reviewing alongside host, Victor Lucas, in Greedy’s series, “Reviews on the Run.”
Fubar conitues to write reviews for the Electric Playground website at Elecplay.com and has been a production assistant on numerous Greedy projects including, “GameTap News,” “The Making of Metal Gear Solid 4,” “The Vault-Tec Files: The Making of Fallout 3,” and the “The Making of Iron Man.”
Who would have thought that all those years of playing games as a child/teenager/adult would eventually pay off? Jose “FUBAR” Sanchez knew, that’s who! Ever since the days when the original console war was between Atari, Intellivision and ColecoVision, Jose knew he had found his calling. Even while writing videogame reviews as a child about NES games, Fubar knew that videogames would always be a part of his life.
Originally working with Greedy Productions Ltd. as a production assistant beginning in 2003, Fubar, (which stands for “Friends United Beyond All Races”, in case you were confused) made his dreams a reality in 2005 when he became a correspondent on “The Electric Playground.” In 2007, he began guest reviewing alongside host, Victor Lucas, in Greedy’s series, “Reviews on the Run.”
Fubar conitues to write reviews for the Electric Playground website at Elecplay.com and has been a production assistant on numerous Greedy projects including, “GameTap News,” “The Making of Metal Gear Solid 4,” “The Vault-Tec Files: The Making of Fallout 3,” and the “The Making of Iron Man.”
Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Miri’s love of storytelling and communicating ideas developed early. Following a childhood filled with movies, TV shows and theatre study, at the age of 17 Miri was published and syndicated in newspapers across the U.S. and Canada. After studying critical theory and cultural studies at McGill University and graduating with honors, Miri moved to Los Angeles where she worked in brand management and PR. She quickly found that her interests were better served in the realm of new media, and so became heavily involved in user-generated online news content. Starting out as an avid participant of online news communities, she quickly evolved into curator, editor, producer and viral web host. She continuously scours the Internet for compelling content, and is passionate about the democracy of new media and information sharing.
Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Miri’s love of storytelling and communicating ideas developed early. Following a childhood filled with movies, TV shows and theatre study, at the age of 17 Miri was published and syndicated in newspapers across the U.S. and Canada. After studying critical theory and cultural studies at McGill University and graduating with honors, Miri moved to Los Angeles where she worked in brand management and PR. She quickly found that her interests were better served in the realm of new media, and so became heavily involved in user-generated online news content. Starting out as an avid participant of online news communities, she quickly evolved into curator, editor, producer and viral web host. She continuously scours the Internet for compelling content, and is passionate about the democracy of new media and information sharing.
Eons ago when video games came on things called cartridges and floppy discs, Steve Tilley discovered a love of all things gaming, and worked at soul-crushing jobs in grade school just to afford the machines to play them on. It seems to have paid off, as Steve now holds the enviable position of covering video games, gadgets and the Web for Sun Media, Canada’s largest newspaper chain.
A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Steve cut his teeth working as a crime beat reporter and entertainment writer for his hometown Edmonton Sun, before moving to Toronto in 2005 to work as an entertainment critic for the Toronto Sun and then the national tech and video games writer for Sun Media’s scores of newspapers and online properties.
In addition to his busy day job and occasional guest-hosting duties on Reviews on the Run, Steve has written for Official Xbox Magazine, PlayStation: The Official Magazine, GamesRadar and various other publications and sites. Fittingly enough, his first ever freelance game reviewing gig was for The Electric Playground’s website.
Raju Mudhar is a general assignment entertainment reporter at the Toronto Star. A lifetime pop culture junkie, he has to cover all things in that field, with a focus on breaking news, television, music, the Interweb and videogames. His first love was comics books, which led to childhood dreams of going into journalism so that he could hopefully be doused by radiation/be in a chemical accident/exposed to cosmic rays in the hopes of gaining superpowers. If that wasn?t successful, just in case, he surrounded himself with technology just so he could become either Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark.
His first computer was a Vic-20, and his first job after journalism school was at a computer trade magazine, during the first internet boom, where he learned about all sorts of technology and became a master of bars (be they open, sushi or oyster). During his career, he worked in magazines, as a freelance writer, and even a stint at Beer.com, where yes, he was drunk most of the time, because he was that committed to the cause.
After joining the Star, videogames became a natural area of coverage, because he was one of the younger dudes in the building and actually cared about them. Besides, if he can?t actually be a superhero, it?s worth it to feel like one sitting in front of his flat screen.
At the age of three, Shaun received his first videogame: a tabletop arcade version of Pac-Man. He soon learned what it was to be obsessed. Not only had he become enamoured with the little yellow character, but he also grew a fond appreciation for games. Around this time, he also became obsessed with The Transformers and Star Wars. Shaun basically still loves all the stuff he did when he was three.
As a teenager, he‘d read gaming news magazines obsessively, often daydreaming about how awesome it would be to work in the videogame industry. After graduating from Journalism at Humber College, Shaun became a contributor of a national music magazine, eventually stumbling into gaming coverage. In 2007 he started his own gaming news site with some friends, making more friends along the way, particular in the Toronto gaming and game-making community (he‘s even made a few indie games, himself!).
But gaming isn‘t the only thing keeping Shaun busy. When he isn‘t busy researching stories and interviewing people, he likes to flex his creativity by smashing his drum kit to pieces in his rock band Cobra or making danceable and dark electronic tunes with his Korg DS-10 Plus and Kaossilator synthesizer.
Halloween is Shaun‘s favorite time of the year, and he plans out costumes months in advance. Sometimes he wears them around the house just to lounge around. While in costume, he likes to re-arrange his gaming consoles in an effort to reduce wire clutter. He‘s weird like that.
At the age of three, Shaun received his first videogame: a tabletop arcade version of Pac-Man. He soon learned what it was to be obsessed. Not only had he become enamoured with the little yellow character, but he also grew a fond appreciation for games. Around this time, he also became obsessed with The Transformers and Star Wars. Shaun basically still loves all the stuff he did when he was three.
As a teenager, he‘d read gaming news magazines obsessively, often daydreaming about how awesome it would be to work in the videogame industry. After graduating from Journalism at Humber College, Shaun became a contributor of a national music magazine, eventually stumbling into gaming coverage. In 2007 he started his own gaming news site with some friends, making more friends along the way, particular in the Toronto gaming and game-making community (he‘s even made a few indie games, himself!).
But gaming isn‘t the only thing keeping Shaun busy. When he isn‘t busy researching stories and interviewing people, he likes to flex his creativity by smashing his drum kit to pieces in his rock band Cobra or making danceable and dark electronic tunes with his Korg DS-10 Plus and Kaossilator synthesizer.
Halloween is Shaun‘s favorite time of the year, and he plans out costumes months in advance. Sometimes he wears them around the house just to lounge around. While in costume, he likes to re-arrange his gaming consoles in an effort to reduce wire clutter. He‘s weird like that.
Marissa Roberto blames her strict Italian upbringing for her love of gaming. Her early curfew kept her home and well-entertained with gaming systems Santa Claus gave her and brother, Vito, for Christmas. Born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Marissa moved from the prairies to the “big city” of Toronto at 18 to study Theatre at Ryerson University.
Never feeling quite like she belonged, Marissa left the program after her second year. She spent her summer days playing Super Mario Sunshine and evenings working at Rogers Centre where she fell in love with baseball. She started a blog about the two loves in her life and decided to make her hobbies an integral part of her everyday.
While studying Journalism and Broadcast Communications at Seneca College, Marissa interned at TSN, writing and putting together highlight packs for Sportscentre. After graduating with honours, she began sneaking into video game events, camera in tow, to snag interviews with industry leaders. She produced event-coverage videos for her gaming-and-baseball culture blog and was soon invited to join the team at GameFocus.ca; which meant she would no longer have to stealth her way into events because she was invited! Marissa is delighted to be part of the ROTR crew reviewing iOS games along with Shaun Hatton, one of her first-ever gaming interviewees.
Ben Bolea loves movies. Maybe it’s because he was raised in Alaska, but does not hunt, fish or ski, leaving little else to do but watch movies. Maybe in a past life he was a film projector. Maybe it’s just because movies are awesome. Whatever the reason, Ben’s goal in life has been to watch everything (he’s about 18% done) and perhaps even write and direct his own movies (he’s about 1.8% done).
Ben graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Film and Television Writing. Before you ask, yes, the diploma does look amazing on the wall of his one bedroom apartment. While in New York, Ben worked for late-night comedy staples Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Saturday Night Live. Before you ask, yes, that is his arm holding the protest sign in the digital short “Laser Cats 3.”
Currently, Ben lives in Los Angeles where he has worked on numerous film, television and web series productions. When he is not ranting about film online, he continues to write, direct and produce content through his own production company Brothers Gorgeous Productions.
