Biography
Nicholas Packwood set out on a career in Canada’s entertainment industry in the early 1990s, working with Moses Znaimer on projects including CityTV, Bravo!, Space: The Imagination Station, MuchMusic, the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology and Olympus Management. As the owner of an independent film production company and partner of a digital media production company, he has since had the opportunity to work on film, television and video game productions with a variety of Canadian and international industry players including CBC, BBC, HBO, Paramount Pictures, Nelvana, Corus Entertainment, White Wolf Publishing, Ellis Entertainment, Microsoft/Xbox Live, Epic Games, and Unreal Technology.
Since 2008, Nicholas has been a member of the faculty at George Brown College's postgraduate Digital Design - Game Design program. As one of a handful of academics worldwide teaching narrative design at a postgraduate level, he participated by invitation in Nevigo's 2011 closed beta for articy:draft, a story design tool, offering feedback on the product and its suitability for a classroom setting. Prior to this, Nicholas taught for two years in the post-graduate International Fashion Development & Management program teaching Communication Across Cultures, and went on to facilitate a multidisciplinary Fashion Jam game-design project, contribute to curriculum development and course design at the Centre for Arts, Design & Information Technology, and participate in college-level research projects such as the Building Capacity to Measure Essential Employability Skills initiative. Since 2015, Nicholas has taken on the role of Program Coordinator for Screenwriting & Narrative Design at George Brown College’s School of Media and Performing Arts.
Academic Credentials
Recording Arts Certificate, Centennial College, 2011
Master of Arts, Anthropology, Carleton University, 1993
Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Anthropology/Religion, Carleton University, 1991
Areas of Specialization
Screenwriting & Narrative Design
Game Design
Sequential Arts
Sound Design & Production
Areas of Expertise
Narrative Design
Storytelling & Character Development
Audio Engineering
Sound Design
Marketing
Consultancy
Entertainment Business
Public Policy
Cultural Anthropology
Structural Analysis
Lacanian Psychoanalysis
Artisan Perfumery
Career Highlights
2015-Present – Program Coordinator, School of Media and Performing Arts, George Brown College
2008-Present – Professor, School of Design, George Brown College
2005-2008 – Partner, Anomaly Interactive
1999-2004 – Partner, Trophy Wife Productions
1995-1999 – Research Associate, Design, Space & Society Research, Lancaster University
Other Activities
Co-founder and Editor – Game Praxis: Game, Theory & Practice
Facilitator – Centre for Social Innovation, CSI Annex
Specialist – Ontario Science Centre, The Difference Engineers
Community Project Advisor – DisMantling Invisibility, A-Space Gallery
Advisory Board Member – AIDS Committee of Ottawa
Awards
Doctoral Fellowship, Social Science & Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1994
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Province of Ontario/York University, 1994
York Scholarship, York University, 1993
R.W. Baldwin Award, Carleton University, 1987
Special Scholastic Achievement Medal, Ottawa Board of Education, 1987