People always ask why I stay in the online space versus going to TV or film, like most people would do, and the answer is that there's opportunity for innovation online - not only innovation in storytelling, but also innovation in how you interact with your audience and that is very fulfilling to me personally.
— Felicia Day
I would never let somebody say that they're me. That would be the ultimate betrayal of what I stand for.
My goal with every show we put on Geek & Sundry is to make it that big of a success, not just within the video but within fandom itself.
I'm a huge fan of BioWare games. I think they do some of the best character-building. I mean, I have a relationship with Thane from 'Mass Effect' that is as vivid as any crush that I've had on a TV-show character.
Typecasting is something I have to be careful with, since I play myself on Geek & Sundry so much on my weekly show 'The Flog.' That's why I did 'Dragon Age: Redemption' last year, so I could do something a little more dramatic and hard-edged.
I created 'The Guild' because nobody was offering me the roles I thought I could do best at in Hollywood.
I feel like maybe I'm part of that generation that became more of a gamer than a video consumer. It's always been something I've done with my spare time. If I had three hours on a Friday night, I'm not out partying. I'm probably playing video games.
I'm in a very fortunate position, in that if I had an idea, and I could do it on a web budget, I could probably get it made; it's just a question of finding the time to really develop it, because I don't want to make anything that I don't believe in 100 percent.
Surprisingly, I think if you're known on the Internet, you're probably an introvert.
I think every role is always exciting and intimidating. I've never had a role where I wasn't intimidated by it.
I always enjoyed acting. My aunt was actually an actress.
I think Hollywood has seen what fandom can do for a project. You can definitely see that when you go to Comic-con.
Sustaining an audience with a web series is an impossible task.
'TableTop' is packed with gaming celebrities and independent game creators. This is a huge subculture that really doesn't have a vehicle to rally around or educate people with.
Now that we've transitioned to more Smart TVs, where people are broadcasting their cable box, I hope that Geek & Sundry is something that people will click on in the future, knowing that they're going to get content that they love.
I was a huge fan of video games; I wanted to write something, and I saw the tools at my fingertips to upload a video to my audience, and that's why I'm here today. I think that freedom and the lack of gatekeepers, combined with people's passion, is what really the true spirit of Internet geekdom is about.
Geek and Sundry has an eclectic line-up of shows all targeted around things I love: Comics, Tabletop Games, Books and more.
What I love about what I get to do is that I'm allowed to create the stories that I want to tell with minimal interference by some very big corporations like Microsoft and Sprint and EA and BioWare. The advantage that these tech companies have is that they understand the space organically, versus traditional media companies.
My favorite 'Mister Rogers' episodes were always the ones where Mr. Rogers would go into the community.
My goal in creating Geek & Sundry was to create a community based around web video, and we've accomplished that, especially on our budget.
If you know your characters well enough, you aren't trying to grasp for storylines. You're really thinking about their flaws and their passions and what they're chasing.
There is definitely a way in which women are raised to be less proactive, less business-oriented, and less willing to jump into creative no man's land. I think media has more of an influence on how we perceive gender identity than anything else.
Finishing games has been something I'm really proud of, seeing something through to the end.
I was a child of a tech family. My grandfather was a nuclear physicist and was always a gadget guy.
People don't appreciate that when you're on the Internet, it's a 24/7 job. Even if you're not releasing episodes, your show is living and breathing on the Internet because there's a community around it. Ninety percent of the work is after the web series is shot, and you have to constantly maintain your community, because it's all you have.
On Tumblr, I'm really careful about not following too many things. I enjoy going on there to discover new things more than anywhere else now.
I came from a dance background, so that's what I did my whole teenage years. I was at the dance studio a lot. It just becomes your social scene and part of your life.
I still do commercial work as an actor, which I love, because it's very quick, and it definitely pays my bills.
Nobody sets out to break new ground. I think change comes when people have no other choice.
I'd been on 'Buffy' - that is an amazing community, the Joss Whedon fans.
I'm super excited about gaming always. That's the thing that I geek out over; those are the vlogs that I'm surfing if I'm not already playing a game at night.
I don't appeal to everyone well. I appeal to fewer people in a much stronger way. That's what fandom is to me, and what creates fans for everything I make.
At no point am I ever threatened by people who question who I am, or why I like the things I do, or my legitimacy. Because I know who I am very strongly, and I think that's what geek culture can reinforce.
Social media is an amazing tool, but it's really the face-to-face interaction that makes a long-term impact.
Hollywood typecast me as the secretary. I could have worked as the quirky secretary for the rest of my life, but I decided not to do that.
People don't teach you how to handle the workload that comes from a little bit of success, and it's something I'd never had to handle, because I'd been rejected for so long.
That's the great thing about incubating something on the web: you have the potential to go to other platforms. Every single platform has a different audience that you find.
'The Last Of Us,' to me, is just amazing storytelling, because everything's from the character point of view, which even movies don't really do successfully a lot of the time.
I'm resigned to the fact that the corseted history of America is not as exciting as that of Britain.
I'm definitely more of a 'think game' kind of girl. I'll read every single dialogue and codex entry and lore entry. I really do love projecting myself and creating my character.
That's what I love about the Internet. Even if it's small-scale and you're just posting on a forum, that's an uncensored expression. That's what I love.
I actually did go through severe depression and anxiety attacks where I couldn't sleep for weeks. It was definitely several months of being not myself.
Whether you're a Twitter follower, a YouTube subscriber or a Facebook friend, natural social instinct is to collect people and to not kind of see them later. But unfortunately, with social media, you collect them and they're in your life, whether you really want them or not.
I guess I just always had this idea that I would go to Hollywood. I had the typical 'get up and go' attitude that you have to have in order to make the brave step into the big city.
I think the whole definition of a geek is somebody being passionate and focused, and being proud of saying that they're passionate and focused, on a narrow range of subjects.
I could go off into the wilderness and write fantasy novels for the rest of my life and probably be happy; but I always want to challenge myself.
When I go to a web video meeting and look around, at least half the show runners are women. And a lot are actors-cum-writers who are frustrated with the situation of being a woman actor in Hollywood and have decided to create their own show.
I've read every single fantasy novel there is. I mean, I would challenge a lot of people to read more fantasy novels than I have.
For the vlogging channel, I wanted to build the infrastructure and build up all the personalities in a way that felt like weren't just forcing the audience to watch everyone we have.
The substance of what it means to be a geek is essentially someone who's brave enough to love something against judgment. The heart of being a geek is a little bit of rejection.
