The Beginning of Siobhan Reddy
Studio director Siobhan Reddy is a South African born Irish Australian who works for Media Molecule. Reddy has been based in Guildford, United Kingdom for the past 19 years working as a studio director. There is a very vibrant development community in Britain with Guildford being the heart of this community. Despite this large vibrance in Britain, development events are still primarily based in the United States with it being rare for there to be these types of events in Britain.
There were not many gaming influences on Reddy during her childhood. Reddy did have access to videogames and often played with her brother and sister, it was the thing they did together to bond. However, she was more interested in dress-up, reading, and theatre. Videogames were not really a main focus on her life. As time went on, Reddy collected many hobbies but film and music were more of a passion for her in her teeanage years. No matter the format, Reddy loved playing creatively with other people. She often regards her passion for film making in high school to have lead her into a career in games.
Reddy got accepted into film school but felt she was too young to start education in such a large place. She had started work for a web design company in the 1990’s as a personal assistant to the creative director. This then lead her into a career as a traffic manager. In this role, Reddy managed everything that came into the development process and learnt how to work in a large agency. She had employed her people skills she had learnt while working in her parent’s shop back in Australia.
As many Australians had done in the 1990’s, Reddy moved to the United Kingdom. The original plan was to get back into the web design industry or to enter the film industry. A friend of hers had suggested thinking about entering the game industry as many of her interests overlapped such as design and film. Reddy had gotten in touch with a recruiter where she got her first job in the industry with Perfect Entertainment in London at the age of 18.
When Reddy started in Perfect Enteratinemnt, she began as a production assisted knowing nothing about the industry. She had only stayed for 6 months but learnt many things about working in a team and an agency. During the end of this time, Reddy saw the development and completion of the videogame ‘Discworld Noir’.
After working in Perfect Entertainment, Reddy moved to Guildford, U.K. and got a job at Criterion. As Reddy stayed in the industry, she slowly worked her way up to becoming the studio director of Media Molecule, being part of the release of LittleBigPlanet.
https://www.idlethumbs.net/tonecontrol/episodes/siobhan-reddy
