Aug. 30, 2019

Lecture series to feature video game designer, film producer

Gordon Bellamy

Dave Neustadter

A video game designer and a film producer will appear at Northwest Missouri State University during 2019-20 as part of its Distinguished Lecture Series.

The series features Gordon Bellamy on Wednesday, Sept. 18, and Dave Neustadter on Thursday, Feb. 13. Both presentations, which are free and open to the public, begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Charles Johnson Theater at the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building. Tickets are not necessary.

Bellamy, who will address diversity and the future of e-gaming, is a visiting scholar at the USC Games program and head of the USC Bridge incubator program, through which he helps cultivate the next generation of leaders in video game design. He has served in key business and product leadership roles at Tencent, Electronic Arts, as a designer on Madden NFL Football and at MTV, and consulted for numerous companies in the industry.

He also is the president and chief executive officer of Gay Gaming Professionals, and he serves on the Board of Directors of TheWaveVR. He has served as executive director of both the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and the International Game Developers Association. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 at GDC and was featured on Nickelodeon for Black History Month for his 25 years of contributions to game industry and culture. 

Neustadter, a Maryville native, will discuss his journey from Maryville High School to becoming a Hollywood producer. As executive vice president of production at New Line Cinema, his credits include “Annabelle Comes Home,” the latest installation in “The Conjuring Universe,” which is the highest grossing horror franchise in history. His other recent projects include the critically-acclaimed global success “Shazam!” and hit films “The Curse of La Llorona,” “Isn’t It Romantic,” “The Nun,” “We’re The Millers,” “Tag,” “Game Night,” “The Disaster Artist” and “It,” the highest grossing horror film of all time.

Neustadter, who began his career at New Line as an intern in 2003, is currently in pre-production on a highly anticipated film adaptation of “Mortal Kombat,” based on the legendary videogame franchise. Additional projects awaiting release include a female-fronted mob drama, “The Kitchen” and “It Chapter Two.”

Both lectures are funded through the James H. Lemon Lecture endowment.

“These are very current topics and – as e-gaming is popular with a broad spectrum of students – a presents us with an opportunity to present our students with an intersection of popular culture and academic inquiry,” Kenton Wilcox, the chair of the Distinguished Lecture Series Committee and an English instructor at the University, said.

The objective of the Distinguished Lecture Series is to enhance the academic environment through its exploration of interdisciplinary topics. Supported by the Office of the Provost and the Student Activities Council, the series presents the Northwest campus and surrounding communities with opportunities to hear from extraordinary individuals from around the globe. Scholars, world travelers and leaders in their fields visit the Northwest campus to share their wisdom, insight and experiences.

The Lemon Lecture is funded through the generosity of Beatrice E. Hanson, who graduated from Northwest in 1936. The program is named in honor of James H. Lemon, her grandfather and a founder of the Fifth District Normal School, which is now Northwest Missouri State University.