Frankfurt, Germany (Weltexpress). Born in the UK and brought up in Cape Town, Susan moved to Germany from South Africa after completing her studies in music and drama, and spending several years managing a publishing house.
Focusing on English language media production, specializing in translating and voicing industrial, documentary and feature films, as well as scriptwriting and editing, Susan amassed extensive experience over the next two and a half decades working for a wide range of studios, TV networks, advertising agencies, and production houses in such diverse productions as eLearning programmes, corporate online podcasts and global TV co-productions. The early 2000s brought the natural progression to video/computer game production, where Susan became involved in casting, producing and voicing major projects including “The Settlers 6”, for which she still receives fan mail. Also at the end of the 90s, and in conjunction with her other activities, Susan formed The Main Event, a company that created, penned and performed business theatre, interactive, live spy stories and ‘murder mysteries’, as well as film days for corporate teambuilding, training and incentives. Today, these events have access to the social media aspect that was missing back then; they are now known as Alternate Reality Games or Transmedia events.
In an advisory capacity, Susan was instrumental in setting up a media company in Abu Dhabi, where her interest in the games industry was revitalized, in particular issue-driven games. These games – also known as “Applied Games” – use the technology and the immediacy and lasting impact of video game entertainment to convey serious content (games for health, education, virtual interactive simulations etc.). Susan is currently working towards promoting closer co-operation within the so-called “Serious Games” industry in Germany and around Europe, and boosting awareness of the value of games in education.
The female English voice for Lufthansa in-flight Video Magazine for over a quarter of a century, Susan may already be a part of your life without you even knowing it: addressing you in Siemens advertisements on CNN, or she might even have told you where to go via your GPS. An extensive client list includes Accenture, Mercedes Benz, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Nokia, Proctor & Gamble, Siemens Healthcare, and many others.
Susan speaks fluent German, still retains vestigial Afrikaans, has some knowledge of French, and can say a few unprintable things in Arabic and Italian. A Board member of the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany since 1995, and member of their former Press and Communications Committee, she is also a member of the G.A.M.E. Association of Germany, and the British Association of Journalists, as well as ProZ, the international online professional translators’ group.
