Shauna Spenley Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EJ Panaligan editor Top gaming business leaders converged to talk about the exciting state of the industry at the Variety Gaming & Entertainment Breakfast Presented by Pixel United on Oct. 4 at the Palm in Beverly Hills. Across keynote conversations and panels with representatives from Riot Games, Pixel United, Meta and other companies, executives dished on the immense film and television crossover potential of gaming intellectual properties for mediums like television and film, the financial dominance of the mobile gaming industry and future metaverse opportunities for video games. Read on below for the key takeaways from each of the breakfast’s three conversations.

Variety’s Entertainment Gaming Leaders report is an up-to-the-minute look at the key figures driving this dynamic intersection, where nothing less than a visual media revolution is taking place. Variety teams with Pixel United for first-ever Leaders in Gaming & Entertainment Breakfast Oct.

William Earl Variety and Pixel United will host the first-ever Leaders in Gaming & Entertainment Breakfast on Oct. 4. The in-person breakfast, held in Los Angeles, will bring together some of the biggest names in the gaming industry. Marc Merrill, co-founder and president of games for Riot Games, and Shauna Spenley, president of Riot Games Entertainment, will participate in a keynote conversation, moderated by Andrew Wallenstein, president and chief media analyst of Variety Intelligence Platform, about the successful screen crossovers of Riot’s video games, such as their Emmy-winning animated series “Arcane: League of Legends.” Michael Lang, CEO of Pixel United, will be in conversation with Variety Co-Editor-in-Chief Cynthia Littleton about his vision for the mobile games industry, identifying opportunities for the wider entertainment industry to align with the passionate gaming community.

EXCLUSIVE: Riot Games, the developer behind League of Legends and Valorant, continues to bolster its entertainment studio with a handful of key executive hires hailing from Netflix, HBO Max, Paramount and more.

EXCLUSIVE: League of Legends and Valorant publisher Riot Games continues to bolster its entertainment division as former Netflix executive Brian Wright joins the studio as Chief Content Officer.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefFrank Zhu, former head of Chinese animation studio Pearl Studio, has joined Tencent-owned Riot Games as MD for Riot Games’ China Entertainment.

The need for diverse voices and inclusive storytelling extends far beyond the entertainment industry, making its way to the gaming world where companies like Riot Games see representation as more than just a buzzword or a one-time conversation.

EXCLUSIVE: Riot Games — the developer and publisher behind League of Legends — has named former Hulu and Netflix exec Ryan Crosby to head marketing and consumer products at its new entertainment division.

EXCLUSIVE: Riot Games has named former Netflix marketing and publicity VP Shauna Spenley the Global President of Entertainment of its newly formed entertainment division. The video game publisher, known for titles including League of Legends and Valorant, announced that Spenley will spearhead Riot Games’s expansions into the world of entertainment through animation, consumer products, film, television, music and beyond.