About

Bio

Photo of Drew Riley

Drew Riley is an artist and activist known for using art and arts events to advocate LGBTQIA+ communities. Her background as an artist includes fine art, illustration, concept art, and user interface art/design. She is also a nonprofit administrator, storyteller, event organizer, and LGBTQIA+ community organizer. She was classically trained at the Gemini School of Visual Arts, where she graduated their four-year vocational program with distinction in 2008.

Nonprofit Work

In 2013, Riley began creating an art series centered on advocacy for sex and gender minorities called Gender Portraits. Using the platform she created through that work, she founded the nonprofit project Gender Unbound in 2016 to serve trans and intersex communities through the arts. She has also served as a working board member for the nonprofit theatre company Punchkin Repertory Theatre and for the nonprofit LGBTQIA+ arts festival OUTsider Festival.

Riley served as executive director of Gender Unbound for six years. During this time she educated the general public on the complexities of the gender spectrum and led a team of community organizers to create trans community arts programming like the Gender Unbound Art Fest that uplifts trans and intersex creators. In 2017, she was awarded a Critic’s Pick for “Best Artivist” (artist/activist) by the Austin Chronicle and the “Media, Arts & Entertainment Award” from the Houston Transgender Unity Committee for her work on Gender Portraits and Gender Unbound. If you would like to learn more about the project, please visit www.genderunbound.org.

Video Game Art

Riley has over eight years of experience in the video game industry as both a concept artist and UI artist working on nine released game titles ranging from social and mobile games to MMORPGs like “Crowfall” and “Star Wars: The Old Republic.” She currently works as Senior UI Artist at Blind Squirrel Games. There, she works closely with engineers, producers, and designers to create flexible, optimized, and engaging user interfaces for BSG’s clients.

If you have any questions for Drew Riley, please contact her.


Artist CV

For a full overview of Drew Riley’s artist, work, and education history, download a pdf of her CV here:

Drew Riley CV