London Games Festival organisers have unveiled the eight creatives selected for Ensemble 2026, a showcase designed to highlight Black, Asian and other underrepresented ethnic talent working across the UK video games sector. The exhibition will open the festival on Monday 13 April in Trafalgar Square, where it will run as a free public installation before moving on to other venues and events later in the year.
The 2026 line-up spans writing, game direction, production, audio, community building and creator work, underlining how the programme is intended to broaden the public image of who makes games and what roles shape the industry. According to the official announcement from the festival’s LinkedIn account, the cohort was curated by author and artistic director Sharna Jackson and will also be the focus of a panel at New Game Plus on Thursday 16 April.
Those chosen for this year’s cohort are Charlie Webb, a BAFTA-nominated writer and narrative designer whose credits include Mafia III, Civilization VI and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League; Charmie Kim, game lead at Supercell known for taking Beatstar from pitch to global launch and live operations; Christopher White, managing director of Sharks Swim Backwards and an audio specialist whose credits include Jurassic World Aftermath and Phogs!; Deanne Pierre-Pacquette, content creator, Twitch ambassador and founder of Beyond; HaZ Dulull, game director and founder of Beyond The Pixels; Harún Ali, head of training at Limit Break Mentorship; Jennifer Estaris, creative director and founder of Estaris Works, with credits including Monument Valley 3 and Subway Surfers; and Sara Veal, community and culture producer, chair of GamesAid and founder of huhbub.
Festival organisers have framed Ensemble as more than a one-off exhibition. The event listing says the project is meant to “shed light” on the work being done by creatives from Black, Asian and underrepresented ethnicities and to showcase the range of careers available in games. City Hall’s event page says the aim is to show “the broad spectrum of roles and opportunities” open in the creative industries, reflecting a wider policy effort in London to tie diversity, skills and screen-sector growth more closely together.
That message lands at a time when questions of access and representation remain unsettled in the UK games business. A Ukie diversity census report says 89% of the UK games workforce was white, indicating little movement in the ethnic makeup of the sector compared with the prior survey period and showing people of colour remain underrepresented against the broader working-age population. That gap helps explain why targeted visibility programmes such as Ensemble continue to hold weight even as the games sector presents itself as modern, global and creatively open.
The festival’s backers are also using the event to reinforce London’s claim to be a central hub for games culture and business. Games London says its broader mission is to make London the games capital of the world, while the Mayor of London’s annual reporting said support for Games London helped deliver a record-attendance festival and facilitated £12 million in completed deals, alongside £4.3 million in gross value added and another £3.1 million in revenue. Those figures point to a policy model in which cultural showcase, trade development and talent promotion are being pushed together rather than treated as separate tracks.
City Hall lists the Trafalgar Square event as running from 10am to 6pm on 13 April, free to attend, and describes it as part of an open-air takeover linked to the wider festival. The festival schedule page places London Games Festival 2026 across 13 to 19 April, while the official LinkedIn post says Ensemble will be the very first moment of the week-long programme.
The 2026 line-up spans writing, game direction, production, audio, community building and creator work, underlining how the programme is intended to broaden the public image of who makes games and what roles shape the industry. According to the official announcement from the festival’s LinkedIn account, the cohort was curated by author and artistic director Sharna Jackson and will also be the focus of a panel at New Game Plus on Thursday 16 April.
Those chosen for this year’s cohort are Charlie Webb, a BAFTA-nominated writer and narrative designer whose credits include Mafia III, Civilization VI and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League; Charmie Kim, game lead at Supercell known for taking Beatstar from pitch to global launch and live operations; Christopher White, managing director of Sharks Swim Backwards and an audio specialist whose credits include Jurassic World Aftermath and Phogs!; Deanne Pierre-Pacquette, content creator, Twitch ambassador and founder of Beyond; HaZ Dulull, game director and founder of Beyond The Pixels; Harún Ali, head of training at Limit Break Mentorship; Jennifer Estaris, creative director and founder of Estaris Works, with credits including Monument Valley 3 and Subway Surfers; and Sara Veal, community and culture producer, chair of GamesAid and founder of huhbub.
Festival organisers have framed Ensemble as more than a one-off exhibition. The event listing says the project is meant to “shed light” on the work being done by creatives from Black, Asian and underrepresented ethnicities and to showcase the range of careers available in games. City Hall’s event page says the aim is to show “the broad spectrum of roles and opportunities” open in the creative industries, reflecting a wider policy effort in London to tie diversity, skills and screen-sector growth more closely together.
That message lands at a time when questions of access and representation remain unsettled in the UK games business. A Ukie diversity census report says 89% of the UK games workforce was white, indicating little movement in the ethnic makeup of the sector compared with the prior survey period and showing people of colour remain underrepresented against the broader working-age population. That gap helps explain why targeted visibility programmes such as Ensemble continue to hold weight even as the games sector presents itself as modern, global and creatively open.
The festival’s backers are also using the event to reinforce London’s claim to be a central hub for games culture and business. Games London says its broader mission is to make London the games capital of the world, while the Mayor of London’s annual reporting said support for Games London helped deliver a record-attendance festival and facilitated £12 million in completed deals, alongside £4.3 million in gross value added and another £3.1 million in revenue. Those figures point to a policy model in which cultural showcase, trade development and talent promotion are being pushed together rather than treated as separate tracks.
City Hall lists the Trafalgar Square event as running from 10am to 6pm on 13 April, free to attend, and describes it as part of an open-air takeover linked to the wider festival. The festival schedule page places London Games Festival 2026 across 13 to 19 April, while the official LinkedIn post says Ensemble will be the very first moment of the week-long programme.
Topics
Gaming