Violet Berlin | |
|---|---|
 Berlin with partner Gareth Jones in 2003 | |
| Born | 2 January 1968 |
| Career | |
| Show | WildBunch, Cool Cube, Bad Influence!, Saturday Disney, The Big Bang, Real Time Apollo: One Small Step, Gamepad |
| Country | United Kingdom |
Violet Berlin (born 2 January 1968) is a British television presenter, producer and script writer for films, games and immersive experiences, best known for her pioneering coverage of innovative technology and video games.[2]
Berlin first appeared on television screens in the 1990s, as a presenter on WildBunch on BBC1 and as writer-presenter for live youth magazine show Cool Cube for BSkyB from 1990 to 1992.[3] On Cool Cube she produced and presented the first regular coverage of computer and video games on British television.[4] She went on to present Bad Influence! between 1992 and 1996, a video gaming series which she hosted with Andy Crane on ITV.[5] As well as presenting from the studio, Berlin covered outside reports in the USA and Japan and wrote and presented her own opinion features as "Virtual Violet".[6]
Berlin then went on the host a number of other terrestrial shows, including live entertainment show Saturday Disney[7] and long running ITV popular science show The Big Bang[8]. On the 30th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 flight in July 1999, along with Jon Snow, she co-hosted the live UK Channel 4 programme Real Time Apollo: One Small Step.[9]
She is also known for producing, writing and hosting video gaming shows including GameSpot TV and Gamepad, which aired on the Bravo satellite channel between 2001 and 2004. Gamepad ran for four series, and was produced by the company Berlin runs with her partner, TV presenter and podcaster Gareth Jones.
Since 2004 Berlin has been a script writer and experiential storyteller for interactive and immersive experiences for the public, including for museums, cultural and heritage sites. She helped devise branching narrative games for the BBC and Science Museum,[10] she has written the scripts for large-scale projection-mapped films, including an immersive visual poem for Gardens by the Bay in Singapore[11] and she created the dramatic characters who appear as part of the British Museum's Temple of Amaravati interactive experience in 2018, where visitors summon pilgrims to an ancient Buddhist shrine.[12][13]
Today she has written hundreds of digital games and immersive films for visitor attractions across the world.[11]
Berlin lives in Stoke Newington with Gareth Jones and their two sons, Tycho and Indi.[14] She sometimes appears on Jones's motoring podcast Gareth Jones on Speed which celebrated its 400th episode in October 2020.[15]
Berlin has cameos in at least five popular video games.[16][not specific enough to verify] She is well known as a playable character in the 1994 Codemasters racing videogame Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament and subsequent sequels, including Micro Machines World Series revived from 2017, and also appears as a non-player character in Gabriel Knight 2 and Normality[17] and as herself in Peter Gabriel's game EVE.[16] EVE was a music and art adventure game which won the Milia d'Or award Grand Prize at the Cannes in 1996.
Berlin also appeared as the cult leader in a sci-fi movie written by screenwriter Paul Rose.
In 2022, Berlin plays the role of Queen Isabella of France in an immersive film shown to visitors in the gatehouse when they visit Leeds Castle in Kent.[18][19]
