Lesley Smith is a seasoned freelance journalist specialising in games, anime and manga and technology. She’s written for dozens of magazines, newspapers and websites, as well as providing omake for manga.

After graduating from university with a 2:1 BA (Hons) in Theology and Religious Studies, she was still a bit lost regarding a career but had retained a passion for video games and anime that was kindled in her childhood. After dabbling in journalism during her high school and college years, Lesley took the plunge and trained as a journalist. She began her freelance career in October 2006 working for NEO before doing a stint as a staffer. After three ‘memorable’ months working as a staff writer and section editor for Dave Perry on PURE PSP, she officially went freelance full-time and hasn’t looked back since.

Now 28, Lesley has interviewed thousands of people, including game designers and developers, manga-ka, directors, artists, actors, authors and voice actors. She has attended hundreds of events around the world from UbiDays to the San Diego Comic Con and has led to a passion for travelling. Not bad given the fact that Lesley is visually impaired and one of a small number of openly disabled journalists in the UK.

Lesley now lives in Norfolk with a two black cats Ceridwen and Isis, a powerful PC, numerous consoles and a massive collection of books, manga and DVDs. When not writing she loves to read, cooking, listening to loud music, blogging and watching films. She is also learning Japanese and is working on several novels.