Karen (Zhiran) Xu

Master of Entertainment Technology candidate at Carnegie Mellon University
Producer & Sound Designer

See Karen's production work here and sound design work here

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Karen is currently in her second year of her masters' education at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), where she rediscovered her love for gaming. She holds a degree of Bachelor of Arts in Music and Computer Science at College of the Holy Cross located in Worcester, MA.

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Karen is an aspiring producer looking to head into the games industry, with a focus on transformational games. While in her undergrad, she had multiple leadership roles such as Orientation Coordinator, Senior Interviewer for Admissions, and she served for the Student Advisory Council for both of her majors. The skills that she cultivated in those roles has motivated her to explore doing production and leadership roles at the ETC. She is currently producing her second semester long project and serves as a representative for the ETC at the Graduate Student Assembly at CMU.

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Karen is also passionate about sound design as she believes that sound has a vital role in shaping people's experiences. She has composed music and worked on sound effects for semester-long projects, Building Virtual Worlds, and Visual Story.

Karen is originally from Shenzhen, China. While she's not brainstorming in the sound booth or musing about life, she likes to cook, read, do yoga, watch Netflix, do marathons of Civilization VI and Don't Starve Together, and exploring the food scene in her area.