USC Cinematic Arts

Noah Wardrip-Fruin is Associate Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the Digital Arts and New Media MFA program (DANM) at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He co-directs the Expressive Intelligence Studio, one of the world's largest technical research groups focused on games. He also directs the Playable Media group in UCSC's Digital Arts and New Media MFA program. Noah's research areas include new models of storytelling in games and other playable forms, how games express ideas through play, and how games can help broaden understanding of the power of computation. Noah has authored or co-edited five books on games and digital media for the MIT Press, including a series on games and narrative -- First Person (2004), Second Person (2007), and Third Person (2009) -- as well as The New Media Reader (2003) which has been widely influential in digital media curricula. His most recent book, Expressive Processing (2009), has been called "inspiring" (Game Studies) and "a major step forward" (Will Wright). His collaborative playable media fictions, including Screen and Prom Week, have been presented by the Guggenheim Museum, IndieCade, Whitney Museum of American Art, Independent Games Festival, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Krannert Art Museum, Hammer Museum, and a wide variety of festivals and conferences. Noah holds both a PhD (2006) and an MFA (2003) from Brown University.