Creative Summit
Panelists
Alex Borthwick // Platform
UX Designer
Alex Borthwick is the UX Lead for PlayStation’s Partner and Internal Analytics platforms. For the past two and a half years, he’s helped partners harness PlayStation’s comprehensive analytics ecosystem to derive actionable insights.
Amanda Lowery // Platform
UX Designer
Amanda is a UX designer at PlayStation in the Monetization space, where she led accessibility efforts through the EAA initiatives and contributes to ABLE and other inclusion-focused work.
Andrew Jerome // PEG
Senior UX Designer
Andrew Jerome is a designer and systems thinker at PlayStation, where he works across platform UI and mobile experiences. With a background in production design, advertising, and enterprise systems, he brings clarity and warmth to complex workflows.
Angela Wu // Platform
UX Designer
My name is Angela Wu. I am a UX designer at PlayStation, currently focused on monetization subscription experiences and supporting user experience design for R&D innovation projects like the Mimic controller. Prior to PlayStation, I briefly worked on multi-platform and multimodal experiences at Apple and Amazon.
Anne-Marie Lee // PS Studios
Senior Creative Associate
Anne-Marie Lee is a development executive at PlayStation Productions. Since joining the team six years ago just as The Last of Us TV series and Uncharted movie were getting started, she has worked across key titles from the PlayStation library. Originally from a suburb of Chicago, Anne-Marie got her start in the CAA mailroom after graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Before starting at SIE, she was the coordinator at Black Label Media, where she worked on films such as 12 Strong, and Sicario: Day of the Soldado.
Anoop Shekar // Santa Monica Studios
Senior Manager, Game Design
Anoop Shekar is the Senior Manager of Game Design at Santa Monica Studio. He has been in the industry for over 25 years during which he has had roles in QA, Production, Design and Management. During the course of his career he has worked on many IPs such as FreeSpace, Saints Row, Red Faction, and most recently God of War.
Asad Qizilbash // PS Studios
SVP of Publishing
Asad Qizilbash is Senior Vice President of Publishing for Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) Studio Business Group and is also Head of PlayStation Productions with SIE. In his current expanded role, Qzilibash now oversees Games Marketing and Sales, Portfolio Management, Franchise Development, Business Development, and PlayStation Productions.
Brian Parsons // Platform
UX Designer
Brian is a Senior UX Designer at PlayStation and leads the Accessibility design team. He has been instrumental in the design of many of PlayStation's accessibility features including the Access Controller, Accessibility Tags, Audio Focus among others.
Christina Chao // Platform
Senior Manager, CSR Programs
Christina is the corporate social responsibility (CSR) senior manager on the ESG team. She leads the cross functional accessibility working group, and other CSR focus areas including PlayStation Cares
Guy Wilday // Sony Pictures
VP, Interactive Technology Development
I have previously worked at Sony PlayStation in the London Studio working on PlayStation VR and moved here to be part of the Sony Pictures Technology Development team. Our group has a focus on empowering the creators here at Sony Pictures with new technology and tools to help them make Film and Television content.
J Dietrich // Naughty Dog
Accessibility QA/Dev Support
J is a half blind, half deaf, fully positive disabled gamer that works at Naughty Dog as Accessibility QA/Dev Support! They use their life experiences as an Autistic with a neurological disability to spread awareness, for cognitive features especially, to be added as a staple in game design. In their free time they write YA novels, watch Anime, and enjoy playing RPGs.
Janet Lee // PS Studios
Manager, Film & TV
Janet Lee is a Korean American producer and development executive from Los Angeles. She earned her MFA from UCLA’s Producers Program, where she received the Streisand Sony Fellowship and the Media Services Thesis Award. A Film Independent Project Involve Producing Fellow, Janet began her career working with Oliver Stone on Savages, Untold History of the United States, and Snowden. She later served as VP of Creative Development at Baha Productions, led Film & TV development at Epic Games, and is now a development executive at PlayStation Productions overseeing film and television projects.
Joby Hirschfeld // PS Creative
VP, Global Creative
Joby is the Vice President of Global Creative in Marketing, next June will mark his 30th year in supporting the PlayStation brand. Currently he is developing a new organization within SIE, Brand Experience Design with a focus of better programming the visual journey of our brand throughout the various touch points with our gamers within our 3D and 5D worlds. In his spare time, he enjoys spend time with my family, chasing his 5 and 3 year old daughters, while remaining a kid at heart.
Joey Rabbitt // Platform
UX Designer
Joey has been at the forefront of PlayStation’s handheld, mobile, and web experience design since 2012. He most recently defined the user experience for PlayStation Portal, PlayStation’s first handheld gaming device in over 10 years. Prior to this he headed up the design for all PlayStation's "off console" products at PS5 launch timing, including the redesign of PlayStation App and PlayStation Store on web. Before designing products at PlayStation, Joey was PlayStation's lead marketing UX designer, defining PlayStation's global web experiences for millions of online customers.
Jose Cicearo // Insomniac
Principal UI/UX Artists
Jose Ciceraro is currently a Principal UI Artist at Insomniac Games and has been making UI for the last 16+ years (last 12 at Insomniac). He loves everything about drawing, cartoons, comics, pop punk, graphic design, and UI. More importantly he loves spending time with his family, and letting them win in Smash Bros.
Kayla Harris // San Diego Studios
Senior Systems Game Designer
Kayla P. Harris is a game industry veteran with over 15 years of experience working on serious games, AA, and AAA titles. She has used her game design expertise across a diverse range of game genres, live services, mobile, free-to-play, and console titles. She is currently a Senior Systems Game Designer and Product Owner at Sony's San Diego Studio where she leads MLB The Show's live service mode Diamond Dynasty. Her game credits include DomiNations, Echo VR, College Football 25, and the MLB The Show series.
Michael Ungerer // San Diego Studios
Senior Game Economy Designer
With 9 years of experience in game design, Michael has worked on a diverse range of titles across mobile, idle, casino and sports genres, including the Madden franchise. For the past two years, Michael has been a Senior Economy Designer at Sony's San Diego Studio, where he oversees reward systems and assists designers with their progression systems.
Rachael Callahan // Crunchyroll
Senior Product Designer
Rachael Callahan is a product designer with a long history in the gaming industry. After time at some agencies, she worked at Blizzard Entertainment for 9 years, then Amazon Games, Taco Bell, and now at last, her ultimate dream job -- Crunchyroll. She is the current Design Lead for Design Systems and Ecommerce.
Rohith Rao // Platform
UX Researcher
Rohith is a senior user researcher at PlayStation within PBG and also leads the accessibility research program. He has previously worked on products like the Access Controller and the accessibility tags in the PS5 store.
Scott Smiggen // Platform
Art Director
Scott Smiggen is a Principal Designer, Visual/UX, in GDC at PlayStation. He leads creative direction across the system experience, shaping design, animation, and execution for current and future platforms. His work focuses on crafting experiences that push PlayStation visually forward and deepen the emotional impact of play.
Zeresh Aria // Platform
Staff UX Designer
Zeresh is a Sr. Graphic Designer on the Communications Design team. I have been with SIE for about 6 years and have worked on a wide range of projects including marketing, events, HR, corporate, branding, facilities and more. From a young age I loved to draw and create things and have always been passionate about art. Throughout the years I continued to foster my love for illustration, it became one of my favorite forms of creative expression. I like to incorporate illustration into my designs whenever possible, and try to create memorable pieces that inspire people and make them smile. Outside of work: I love fashion, art, design, hiking, going to the coast, binge watching Frends for the 100th time, and spending time with my daughter and pup!
