Dave Andrews just might be the most intelligent person when it comes to creating interactive intelligence with games and television.
Originally from the Bay Area, Dave enrolled at Cal State – Chico in the fall of 1993. He chose Chico because he visited his cousin the year prior and really enjoyed the feel of the campus and city.
Dave was recruited in the spring of 1994 by a high school friend Bryan Wilson, who was a member of the Delta Alpha Chapter at Chico State. He joined with a pledge class of nine, and stated his fraternity experience was incredible. His time at Delta Alpha as an undergraduate allowed him to develop the social skills necessary to be successful in life. He learned how to deal with difficult situations and the process of creating a goal and working to achieve it. More importantly, he formed very close friendships that still exist to this day.
During Dave’s college years, he had a variety of internships. One that seems to stick out was his internship one summer at MTV’s beach house in Malibu, CA. During his stint with MTV, an editor offered Dave a job after college. Upon graduating and moving to LA, the editor failed to deliver the job to Dave and he was left searching for work. While doing some freelance work, Dave landed a friendship with a Producer at Disney who hired him to be in charge of 20-25 animators. His work developed over 300 short form cartoons for Disney’s Saturday morning block. After Disney cancelled their Saturday morning cartoons, Dave went to work at icebox.com, a dot-com start-up. It was there Dave teamed up with Pam Brady, who co-wrote the South Park movie. Dave produced a show called Mr. Wong that was a huge hit on the internet. When the dot-com bubble busted, Dave was soon hired by GSN – The Network for Games where he currently works as Vice President of Production, Interactive Entertainment. Dave and his team created the Game Show Network’s interactive department from inception to being recognized as the world leader in interactive television. They create content for TV, Internet, Mobile, and have a lab to experiment with all forms of new media.
As a member of the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences, The Producer Guild, and Cablelabs, he has been recognized as a leader for his work in the field of games and television. Dave has been nominated for four Emmy Awards, and has received several accolades for his superior skills. He has created over 40 Interactive Television games including World Series of Blackjack, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Jeopardy, Weakest Link, Match Game, Family Feud, Lingo, and Win Ben Stein’s Money.
When thinking about who has been most influential in his life, Dave stated his grandfather because he started a family business over 50 years ago that is very successful today. He works to emulate his grandfather’s work ethic, and hopes to be half as successful as him.
Dave’s advice to Delta Sig’s undergraduates is “get the most out of your college experience while you are there. Meet as many people as you can. This is the only time in your life where you will experience college life and everything it entails – take advantage of it.”
To see Dave’s Interactive Emmy submission for 2005, click this link: http://apu.gsn.com/ftp/cbj_emmy_submission_2005.mov - QuickTime needed; be patient while movie loads 31MB.
To see episode 1 of Mr. Wong, click this link: http://www.deviousmedia.com/video/wong/WONG_E_1.SWF; (Warning: Mature Humor 2MB).
Play some of Dave’s games on his website at http://www.gsn.com.
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