pervasive media studio

Hazel Grian | Studio Resident

Hazel Grian is a writer/director who has in the past three years grown a reputation as a world-class maker of Alternate Reality Games. Hazel creates her own projects experimenting with new kinds of storytelling and entertainment using digital media and also works commercially with agencies on games for major NGOs, big brands and Hollywood blockbuster movies.

Hazel, who has worked in film, theatre and radio, is known for her surreal and darkly comic take on life and has been hailed as ‘a funny film-making genius’ by The Simpson’s creator Matt Groening. Hazel played a creative role in the early Bristol ‘trip hop’ scene and worked very closely with bands such as Portishead, making their world tour stage visuals.

Hazel is also an academic, with a Masters in Visual Culture. In 2007 Hazel created the successful Alternate Reality Game Meigeist, which in early 2007 was avidly followed by an on-line community of tens of thousands worldwide. (Nominated for Media Innovation award 2008 and mentioned in the Government’s white paper on the Creative Industries) Meigeist began as a placement with HP Labs funded by Arts Council England and was the start of a very productive partnership.

In 2007 Hazel worked as story and script writer for KateModern the successful interactive drama hosted by Bebo and produced by the US creators of hit online series LonelyGirl15. In 2008, in partnership with HP Labs, Hazel and Jonathan Williams The Sky Remains launched a large scale GPS Mediascape with Alternate Reality Game elements. Also in 2008 she worked with Enable Interactive to create a game for a British Red Cross campaign and the game Traces of Hope won the One World Media Award.

After spending six months with Pete Postlethwaite and the  cast as artist in residence for King Lear at Liverpool Everyman theatre, Hazel then worked with digital agency Rubber Republic on the Alternate Reality Game for the 2009 Star Trek blockbuster, followed by work on 221b, the online game for the Sherlock Holmes movie, writing characters using the very latest AI 'chat-bot' technology.