David O’Grady is a lecturer in the Department of Design Media Arts at UCLA, and a long-time staff member of the UCLA Game Lab. He also serves as Co-Director of UCLA Game Lab’s Summer Institute program. David has taught digital media theory and culture at California State University, Long Beach, and courses on media history and video games at UCLA. His scholarly work reflects interests in interactive digital media, videogames, contemporary cinema, and documentary film. Publications include How to Play Video Games (NYU Press, 2019), various entries in the Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming (2021 and 2012), a chapter on cutscenes and time in video games in The Game Culture Reader (2013), and an essay on Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou for the journal New Review of Film and Television Studies (March 2012).
CV available upon request via the Contact page
Selected articles:
“NES D-pad: Interface.” In How to Play Video Games, eds. Matthew Thomas Payne and Nina B. Huntemann. NYU Press. 2019.
“Playfully Subversive: the Many Roles of Adaptation in Making Games at the UCLA Game Lab.” Mediascape, Fall 2014.
“Movies in the Gameworld: Revisiting the Video Game Cutscene and Its Temporal Implications.” In The Game Culture Reader, eds. Jason Thompson and Marc Ouellette. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2013.
“Biomechanics” and “Gestural Interfaces.” In Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming, ed. Mark J.P. Wolf. Greenwood/ABC-CLIO. 2012.
“‘This is an Adventure’: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and the Spectacle of Nature Documentary.” New Review of Film and Television Studies 10, no. 1 (March 2012).
“Video Games: The State of the Field – A Discussion with Steve Mamber, Peter Lunenfeld, and Eddo Stern.” Roundtable discussion in Mediascape, Winter 2012.
“Towards a New Genre of Video Game Play.” Video essay with Drew Morton and Jennifer Porst. Mediascape, Fall 2009.
“Scholars on the Subject of Genre in Contemporary Cinema and Media Studies.” Roundtable discussion in Mediascape, Fall 2009.
“Low and Behold: Using Fiction/Documentary Hybridity to See the Real Damage of Hurricane Katrina.” Mediascape, Fall 2008.
“Scholars on the Subject of Media, Politics and the Academy.” Roundtable discussion in Mediascape, Fall 2008.