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Raza Ahmad Highlight
Equal parts perseverance, hard work, and luck. You need all three working in your favor in order to put the wind in your sails.
About Raza
- Born and raised in Pakistan—his mother was a social activist and got him involved in the street theater that evolved out of those activist movements.
- He continued to study theater formally for most of his life and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in theater from Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.
- He then went on to earn his master’s degree in film from the University of California, Los Angeles—says he viewed this transition from theater to film as a natural evolution.
- After taking a few game design courses in graduate school, he began freelancing in that field, as well as in motion graphics and web design.
- In 2012, he was recruited to work for Niantic Labs, which was a startup within Google, working on Ingress, a location-based, augmented reality mobile mystery game.
- In 2015, when Niantic became an independent company, he joined the group of creative directors responsible for developing one of the biggest gaming sensations in decades, Pokémon GO.
- His work has mainly become focused on developing the intellectual property that Niantic owns and helping to manage the live-action games that they have become known for.
- He is passionate about utilizing augmented and virtual reality technologies to further the storytelling narratives within his designs and explore new ways to elevate them.
