Interested in interviewing me about gaming, diversity, feminism, fandom or related subjects? Awesome! normally, you can contact me via my form. However, I am full up on projects for the next few months. Please reach out to another consultant or sensitivity reader. I’ll update this page when I have space to take on new work again, thank you.
Upcoming conventions I plan to attend:
- PAX West, September 1-4,2023 Seattle, WA
- PAX Unplugged, dates TBA, Philadelphia, PA
Recent media appearances:
- Tanya DePass on bringing The Fifth Season to the Gaming Table (i09 & Gizmodo) by Linda Codega
- Decrypting a Fantastical Personal Brand with Creator and Creative Director Tanya DePass – (Forbes, Goldie Chan)
- ‘Go Forth and Create’ : Into The Mother Lands Successful Kickstarter is an Inspiration for Other Creators (Forbes, Rob Weiland)
- AdWeek – Named one of their Women Trailblazers for 2022
- I Need Diverse Games: How an Angry Tweet Became a Life-Changing Moment (The Guardian, 14 April by Keza MacDonald)
- Secret Nerd Podcast Session Fifty-Six: We Will Not Be Your Token
- Clockwise Episode #440 Machines Creating Machines Creating Machines – with hosts Mika Sargent & Dan Moren, and Jason Howell!
- D&D Beyond – Building Your First Blood Hunter w/Amy Dallen
- Ubisoft Game Makers – We Need Diverse Games October 14, 2021
- TableTop Babble #196 – Into the Mother Lands – James Introcaso
- Choose Inclusion (YT link but it’s audio only July 9, 2020)
- Tonal Whiplash with Laura Kate Dale 6 March 2020
- Podquisition 297 – Tiny Lego Train
Articles and Interviews
Crystal Dynamics – Black Figures In Gaming Who Inspire Us
BuzzFeed – Gaming Doesn’t Have to Be Toxic, And these Black Women are Making Sure of It – William Barrios
Nerdist – 10 Black Innovators Who Changed the Gaming Industry Joshua Mackey
Polygon – Mother Lands is a tabletop Roleplaying game free of Slavery & Colonialism – Charlie Hall
Forbes – How Afrofuturism Can Help us Tell Better Stories – Goldie Chan
Nerdist A New Series will Take You Into the Mother Lands! – Kelly Knox
Comic Book Resource – Into the Mother Lands: A Sci-Fi RPG Odyssey from an All Black & POC Team; Explained – E.L Meszaros
Polygon One of Tabletop gaming’s Biggest Awards celebrates Black Creators
Smithsonian American Art Museum Blog (Eye Level) SAAM Arcade: Breaking Barriers
D&D Beyond @ D&D Live 2019 – The Artificer: Archivist at D&D Live (with Jeremy Crawford)
D&D Beyond: Todd Talks – Tanya DePass Talks D&D Tips, Race and Representation (video)
Ozy – Black Female Gamers are Reclaiming Their Space at Last
The Mary Sue – D&D Streamers and Creators Discuss the Game’s Evolution of Representation
Sugar Gamers Blog – Fighting for A Forward Moving Game Industry
Patreon Blog – 10 Creators that Inspire Us Daily with #BlackGirlMagic
Forbes – Six Storytelling Lessons we Can Learn from D&D
Paste Magazine – Learning The Shape Of Dungeons & Dragons in 2019 at A Livestream Event
Geek and Sundry – There’s No Better Time to Catch up on Rivals of Waterdeep
Public Talks and Lectures (Videos):
- Black AF RoundTable #1
- Black AF RoundTable #2
- Black AF SideTable from D&D Live 2020
- Black AF RoundTable #3
- PixelPop Festival, The Diversity Conversation You Need, but Don’t Want September 14, 2019 New!
- Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) Arcade Keynote, August 3, 2019
- GenCon Insights Presentation: Diversity by Design, August 1, 2019
- Eff You Pay Me, I’m not Dying of Exposure, GaymerX East 2017. with Manveer Heir, Sammus Music, Riley MacLeod and Mars Dixon
- How to Get that Panel like a Pro without Being One, GaymerX East 2017. with Pat Baer, Sammus Music and Benjamin Red
- How to be Political on Twitch – TwitchCon 2017, with Adam Koebel, Jennasaisquoi and Brian Petrocelli
- How to Stay Safe in the Land of Twitch – Twitch Office September 12, 2017
- AlterConf Chicago – Hustle and Flow: Real Talk on Making it
- Game Developers of Color Expo – Diverse Character Design & Representation
- Roll20Con – I Need Diverse Games Spotlight
- Roll20Con – Run Lola Run One Shot D&D 5th Ed
My Articles:
- Dream Daddy has a problem with Bisexual Representation – and it’s name is Joseph
- The Backlash to Far Cry 5 is Pure Hypocrisy – Mic.com
- What Nintendo Gets Wrong with Twintelle; the new WOC fighter from ARMS – Mic
- Apex Magazine #95, Guest Edited by Maurice Broaddus- Time to Get Serious about Diversity and Inclusion
- Black Skin in Games is still a Radical Concept in Videogames – Waypoint, co-written with Yussef Cole
- Racism in Watch Dogs 2 is Subtle, and that’s how it won me over – Polygon
- Ride or Die Mafia III Review – Ontological Geek
- The Developer of ‘Moon Hunters’ Explains How Diversity Shaped the Game
- Ghostbusters is Still Haunted by Racial Tropes -What the Movie Got Wrong
- Book Review – Women in Game Development – Breaking the Glass Level Cap
- Nine Games That Are Doing Diversity Right – Paste Games
- Where Do We Find Community As Gamers? – Uncanny Magazine
- United Nations: Firaxis on Diversity in XCOM 2 My latest for Paste Games
- Twitch and Diversity: How to Close the Gap
- 10 POC Streamers you should be following
- In Fantasy Worlds, Historical Accuracy is a Lie – My first piece for Offworld
Interviews:
Black SciFi – Interviewed March 2018, Published March 2018
Facebook Women in Gaming #SheTalks interview – (see interviews already posted here: https://www.facebook.com/business/m/women-in-gaming/stories)
TWITCH GAMERS HOPE NEW COMMUNITY GUIDELINES WILL COMBAT ONLINE HARASSMENT – Medill Reports Chicago
Popculture Coven – Recorded, air date TBA
Black Streamers are Here to Save the Gaming Community – Andray Domise, FanBros
9 Black Twitch Streamers You Should Be Following – Andray Domise, FanBros
Chicago Tribune Interview w/ Michi Trota – Progress for some women doesn’t mean progress for all in TV
Autostraddle – 11 Women Gamers Who Let you Watch Along on YouTube and Twitch
Chicago Tribune Interview – I Need Diverse Games works to give minorities and women a louder voice in gaming
First Person Scholar – Interview with Tanya DePass
A Fresh Narrative in Gaming – NYT, Justin Porter
Being Black While Gaming and Developing – Raine Scott
Black Girl Magic Magazine – Interview by Denny Upkins
Jetspace Magazine – Eric Starker interviewed me
Black Women are Already Super Heroes; Sidney Fussell, Offworld
GX Australia Panels & my BOH Talk:
HARDER. BETTER. FASTER. STRONGER. — SELF-CARE TIPS FOR DIVERSE PEEPS
Emilie Poissenot Wren Brier Snow McNally Tanya DePass Dameyon Bonson
As part of an underrepresented group in the games industry, our careers are harder than the norm. Our actions and words may be used as a blanket representation of our whole group. The knowledge of biases against us can lead to increased self-doubt and distrust of our coworkers. All these experiences take their toll on our well-being. How can we get better at recognizing these side-effects and alleviating them faster? The panelists discuss experiences and tips that have helped them get stronger to broaden your own set of tools for similar situations.
Ashton McAllan, Tanya DePass, Dr. Jennifer Hazel, Alayna Cole, Adam Koebel & Mavis Chan
Can games be used to build better gamers? Can game design improve the outlooks and behaviours of the people that play them? Can we utilise this power to make our gaming spaces and communities safer and more inclusive? Come along and see our panelists discuss who is already doing this in their games, what they are actually doing, and how we can work this kind of magic in our own games.
DIVERSITY 404: WHAT NEXT? (PRESENTED BY THE IGDA FOUNDATION)
Tanya DePass,Felix Kramer, Katherine Cross & Rami Ismail
Diversity and inclusion is at a crossroads, with lots of performative diversity and well-intentioned-yet-ineffective strategies being touted as the Big Thing. But where are we, really? And what’s next?
My Boss of Honor talk! ❤ WHY A CUSTOMISABLE CHARACTER ISN’T DIVERSITY (PRESENTED BY THE IGDA FOUNDATION)
Tanya DePass
One of the responses that calls for better representation is often, you can customize your character in GAME! Well that’s not actually diversity, nor inclusion or an acceptable response to not thinking about inclusion in the first place. Through examples, and discussion let’s dispel this notion that customization characters = diversity.
DESTROYING TROPES AND STEREOTYPES IN GAMES
Tanya DePass, Lee Flores, Adam Koebel & Ken Wong
A look at the harm that using stereotypes and tropes does to games narratives, and why they need to be stopped.
Anna Irwin-Schutze, Jody Toomey, Katherine Cross, Tanya DePass
At first glance, it seems obvious; Writers need to write about people and places they haven’t experienced directly for themselves. Most crime writers have not personally killed their victims. This panel is all about discovering how can write diverse and interesting characters while at the same time respecting where they come from. How do we be inclusive without having to save the whole world with every game narrative we design? What can we do to write the other to actually make a positive impact on the world and keep our stories awesome and engaging and inclusive at the same time?
HOW TO BROADCAST SAFELY AS A POC/LGBT/FEMALE ID’D STREAMER
Tanya DePass, Lee Flores, Adam Koebel
Streaming on Twitch can be fun, but it can also be perilous for some of us. This panel will bring you some tips and tricks such as using bots, human mods and other methods to make your experience as stress free as possible.
Thumbstick Mafia profiled me and my streaming! Check out this awesome space for women of color in gaming.
VsThe Universe: Geek Show: I talked up #INeedDiverseGames, did Bioware Tinder and talked up my Diversity Liaison duties with GayxmerX with Aaron Amendola of the Geek Show
Interview with Meggan Scavio on GDC Conference Planning – ReMeshed
I spoke with Dark Matters about #INeedDiverseGames and going forward with doing the work full time!
Autostraddle Interview by Al Rosenberg: We All Need Diverse Games
Gadgette Interview ~ UK Gaming site Gadgette interviewed me about #INeedDiverseGames
Diversify Tabletop: Finding Diverse Designers Among the d20s (Interview with Emily Care Boss & I on the #DiversifyTabletop initiative)
10 LGBTQ Let’s Players to Watch – PasteGames by Riley MacLeod
Why #INeedDiverseGames: Brainstorming about Diversity in the Games Industry ReSpawn 2015 Sabine Han (Video)
These 6 Women are Whipping the Gaming Industry into Shape – Playboy (online only) by Katriel P.
These 5 Podcasts Led by Black Women Keep Me Company…and Give Me Life The lovely Inda Lauryn gave me props in this XOJane piece!
#GamesSoWhite Hashtag attempts conversation about race in games, and goes as well as you’d expect (the above article is mentioned and linked as well as me)
Struggles for Women in the Gaming Industry – [a]List Daily (companion article w/Bianca Anderson)
University of Minnesota Press Blog: #INeedDiverseGames and why representation in games matters
Seeking Racial Justice in Real Life and in Games
The Call for More Diversity in Video Games (WPR audio)
Why #INeedDiverseGames is vital to the Future of Gaming | Arsenal for Democracy
I Need Diverse Games and We Need Diverse Books because…anything else is shitty writing
New Hashtag Alert – #INeedDiverseGames ~ The Geek Spot
In Regards to #INeedDiverseGames (vlog by Kellmachine)
Why the hashtag #INeedDiverseGames matters to us (HelloGiggles)
Older Podcast appearances:
- Table Talkies over at Chromatic Chimera 12/28/2019 // YouTube
- Dragon Talk 10/24/2019 YouTube// Podcast
- #CauseAScene Pod with Kim Crayton
- SGDC #113
- Game Breaking Feature #29 – Leveling Up
- TANYA DEPASS ON CREATING D&D CHARACTERS – Dragon Talk, Wizards of the Coast
- Media Mavens #21 – Alistair and Cullen Fanfic
- Negro Justice League #52 – Homework
- Game Breaking Feature #17 – Representation in the Protagonist Role
- What You Talkin’ About Pikachu? – MEGASheen Pod
- Polygamer #69 – Fresh out of Tokens Post Mortem
- Skiffy and Fanty Signal boost #11
- Our Turn Podcast #38 Two Player Games
- Cast a Day 2017 #9 Queen of Fighters with Matt Peters
- Secret Sauce #3 – Powerful MTR Network & Black Woman Shoutout
- Insanity Check – This is Not Normal (incl. Shout out for I Need Diverse Games)
- First Person Scholar – Interview with Tanya DePass
- An Extra Fif – Fresh Out of Tokens
- Fansplaining #42 – Fresh Out of Tokens
- Disruption FM -Episode #35: Killer Robot Toasters
- Nerds of Prey Quick CAW- Fallout 4
- The Walk With Ricardo Brown – Regarding police violence against black people
- Nerds of Prey E3 Sound Off
- Cast A Day 2016: GCPD with Matt Peters – #13 Worldwide Appeal
- Character Reveal #1 – Talkin’ with Tanya
- Can’t Talk Media #147 – Gamer Manifest Destiny
- Creative Disruption Episode #4 – Diversity in Tech
- Game Enthus #263, No Batteries, No Strings, or Cypher’d
- Ice Cream For Everyone Episode #16 – #INeedDiverseGames
- Less Than or Equal #72 Where I talk about being Diversity Liaison for GaymerX, feminism and #INeedDiverseGames with Aleen Sims
- I’m part of a two-fer episode over at @OneShotRPG where I talk about diversity in gaming, especially in RPG’s and tabletop.
- Double Tap Episode #6 The Power of Gaming Conventions – A UK Gaming podcast where I talked up GX3, diversity in games and more.
- Justice Points #120 – Good looking Inquisitors for Bioware Month, where I visited with Applecidermage and Soefit about Bioware games, and gave love to our good looking Inquisitors.
- Unconsoleable #55 – Tanya is not the Outrage DMV – To celebrate the one year anniversary of #INeedDiverseGames, I hung out with Jessica Dennis at Unconsoleable!
- Hyrule Hyrulia podcast: Striving for Inclusiveness: w/Jillian from FemHype, Kiva Bay of #FeministDeck & 12 Hours and me! (YT Video)
- Date Night with The Dialogue Wheel ~ Fresh Out of Tokens #38 w/RedConversation
- Geek Cross #28 – The Accidental Activist
- BTA Podcasts # 29 – I visited with Heroine Podcast to talk up #INeedDiverseGames!
- Date Night with the Dialogue Wheel #33 – I spun the Dialogue wheel again along with BiancaJAnd about diversity, Mother Giselle and brown Fenris
- 10PlusClubbin’ – Talking about This War of Mine w/ Plus10David
- An Extra Fif – I stop by the Three Fifs for a chat about diversity, gaming, Dragon Age and Final Fantasy!
- Episode 58 (Part 1): The Inaugural Emily, Mike, Tanya and Kiva Disnerds Variety ‘Hour’
- Match 3 Podcast with Gita Jackson & Patrick Klepek
- Justice Point Episode #99! No More Tokens
- Slovenly Gamer Podcast #4
- GameEnthus #230, Hella Lean Pockets or Out of Tokens
- Castle2Castle Disnerds with Kiva Bay! Episode 58, Part 1
- Date Night with The Dialogue Wheel ~ Fresh Out of Tokens #38 w/RedConversation
- Date Night with The Dialogue Wheel ~ Diversity in Dragon Age #25 – Part 1 & #26 – Part 2
- Castle2Castle Disney Podcast – Episode #55 We Need Diverse Disney & Games!
- Nerdgasm Noire w/@BiancaJAnd- Live on air 4/14/2015 8:45 CST/9:45 EST, will be uploaded to their site after live stream
- Less Than or Equal Episode # 33 -Tanya DePass of #INeedDiverseGames
- Heroine’s Journey Podcast #4 – Works of NK Jemisin, gaming, other topics
- Heroine’s Journey Podcast #4 DLC – Where I chat up #INeedDiverseGames
- JusticePoints Episode # 83: Dragons Aren’t Real
- GameEnthus # 218 Gears of Bore? Or Mustard Stick
- Hard NOC Life #028: Barbarians at the GamerGate (video podcast)
- Spawn on Me Episode #36: WE Need Diverse Games
- NNN Episode #174: #INeedDiverseGames Interview with @Cypheroftyr
Conventions & Events where I’ve spoken:
- FlameCon – August 20 & 21, 2022 New York, NY
- PAX West Sept 2-5, 2022 Seattle, WA
- PAX Unplugged Dec 2-4, 2022 Philadelphia, PA
- QuakeCon At Home August 7-9, 2020, Remote
- PAX Online September 12-20, 2020 Remote
- C2E2 Feb 28 – March 1, 2020, Chicago, IL
Emerald City Comi-Con, March 12-15, 2020, Seattle, WA(Postponed until further notice)
#IndieCade15 – I’ll be at the Intel sponsored #GamingForEveryone Diversity Pavilion at #IndieCade15 along with my Fresh Out of Tokens co-host David L. Reeves to rep for the show and it’s parent org, #INeedDiverseGames
Journalism for Everyone – with Jillian of @FemHype! – October 25th, 2pm PST. Now with video!
GeekGirlCon – Seattle, WA October 10 & 11, 2015 “Stealing White People’s Superheroes” Sunday October 11th, 2pm, Room 301/302
Wizard World Chicago – August 22nd, 2015 “So You Want to be a Nerd Organizer” 3:30 – 4:15 pm
Wizard World Chicago – August 23rd, 2015 “The Most Racist Panel Ever” 1:00 – 1:45 pm
AlterConf Sessions Chicago – August 8th, 2015 “Why We Need Diverse Games”
Black Girl Nerd Panel panel at C2E2 2015
#YesAllTrolls What Happens when the Trolling Goes Too Far? panel at C2E2
Wiscon39 ; various panels on gaming, feminism, etc. 5/22-5/24/2015
6 thoughts on “Press,Interviews, Articles, Podcasts, etc.”
Comments are closed.