Nicholas Packwood, MA

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Nicholas Packwood,
MA

Biography

Nicholas Packwood set out on a career in Canada’s entertainment industry in the early 1990s, working with Moses Znaimer on projects including CityTV, Bravo!, Space: The Imagination Station, MuchMusic, the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology and Olympus Management. As the owner of an independent film production company and partner of a digital media production company, he has since had the opportunity to work on film, television and video game productions with a variety of Canadian and international industry players including CBC, BBC, HBO, Paramount Pictures, Nelvana, Corus Entertainment, White Wolf Publishing, Ellis Entertainment, Microsoft/Xbox Live, Epic Games, and Unreal Technology.

Since 2008, Nicholas has been a member of the faculty at George Brown College's postgraduate Digital Design - Game Design program. As one of a handful of academics worldwide teaching narrative design at a postgraduate level, he participated by invitation in Nevigo's 2011 closed beta for articy:draft, a story design tool, offering feedback on the product  and its suitability for a classroom setting. Prior to this,  Nicholas taught for two years in the post-graduate International Fashion Development & Management program teaching Communication Across Cultures, and went on to facilitate a multidisciplinary Fashion Jam game-design project, contribute to curriculum development and course design at the Centre for Arts, Design & Information Technology, and participate in college-level research projects such as the Building Capacity to Measure Essential Employability Skills initiative. Since 2015, Nicholas has taken on the role of Program Coordinator for Screenwriting & Narrative Design at George Brown College’s School of Media and Performing Arts.

Academic Credentials

Recording Arts Certificate, Centennial College, 2011

Master of Arts, Anthropology, Carleton University, 1993

Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Anthropology/Religion, Carleton University, 1991

Areas of Specialization

Screenwriting & Narrative Design

Game Design

Sequential Arts

Sound Design & Production

Areas of Expertise

Narrative Design

Storytelling & Character Development

Audio Engineering

Sound Design

Marketing

Consultancy

Entertainment Business

Public Policy

Cultural Anthropology

Structural Analysis

Lacanian Psychoanalysis

Artisan Perfumery

Career Highlights

2015-Present – Program Coordinator, School of Media and Performing Arts, George Brown College

2008-Present – Professor, School of Design, George Brown College

2005-2008 – Partner, Anomaly Interactive

1999-2004 – Partner, Trophy Wife Productions

1995-1999 – Research Associate, Design, Space & Society Research, Lancaster University

Other Activities

Co-founder and Editor – Game Praxis: Game, Theory & Practice

Facilitator – Centre for Social Innovation, CSI Annex

Specialist – Ontario Science Centre, The Difference Engineers

Community Project Advisor – DisMantling Invisibility, A-Space Gallery

Advisory Board Member – AIDS Committee of Ottawa

Awards

Doctoral Fellowship, Social Science & Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1994

Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Province of Ontario/York University, 1994

York Scholarship, York University, 1993

R.W. Baldwin Award, Carleton University, 1987

Special Scholastic Achievement Medal, Ottawa Board of Education, 1987