Stephanie Barish

Stephanie Barish is the founder of IndieCade, the leading stand-alone international festival of independent games. She is an award-winning producer and a prominent figure behind leading initiatives that are guiding games, digital media, interactive arts, and those who make them, into the future.

In 1999, she founded and created the blueprint for the Annenberg Center for Communications’ Institute for Multimedia Literacy (IML), urged by George Lucas. This initiative has become a prominent part of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Previously, she worked as producer and director of multimedia publications and creative director of Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. In these positions she designed and produced the Foundation’s acclaimed multimedia publications, research interface, and award-winning new-media publications and websites. Her programs at these two organizations attracted nearly $20 million in funding.

Stephanie continues to foster innovation as founder of Creative Media Collaborative, which established IndieCade: the International Festival of Independent Games in 2005. The Los Angeles Times dubbed IndieCade “the Sundance of the Video Game Industry” a claim repeated by the New York Times, Wired, MTV, and others. IndieCade has become the preeminent event for the independent game industry and an essential destination for creatives from around the globe. As CEO of IndieCade, Ms. Barish has the distinct pleasure of working with a remarkable, ever-expanding community of individuals and companies dedicated to pushing and supporting the cutting edge of the game and related industries.

In 2013, CNN named Ms. Barish one of the top-10 most powerful women in gaming.