Danny Peña interview: Creating a career talking about video games
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Danny Peña has one of those fairy-tale stories that the video game industry is so good at creating. He grew up in a tough neighborhood in the Bronx, the son of divorced parents, as well as the Dominican Republic.
One day, his grandmother bought him a video game system, and it changed his life. He played too many games growing up. His parents worried about his studies and what he was going to do with his life. But like so many creators and influencers, Peña decided to create his own job. He started with DJ work and then migrated to this new thing called podcasting.
In 2005, he started Gamertag Radio with his brother and was joined later by Peter Toledo and Parris Lilly. The audience grew and now his podcasts have been downloaded more than 14 million times. He showed up at the Xbox launch in 2001 and played a game with Bill Gates.
He has had a chance to interview industry luminaries such as Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer and Reggie Fils-Aime (former CEO of Nintendo of America). He co-emceed our GamesBeat Summit 2022 event last April and he interviewed Fils-Aime about his own post-Nintendo book.
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Now Peña’s inspirational story is the subject of a self-published children’s book, Danny Loves Video Games, created by 2 Quality Kids, a children’s book company run by Peña’s cousin and his wife, Mr. Luna, and Mrs. Ani. It’s out today. I’ve seen Peña’s success grow over the years and watched him become an
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