About
Adam Ganz is Professor in the Department of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he has maintained an academic position since 2001. He is also an active professional screenwriter and director for radio, film, and television, with notable works including "The Filmmaker's House" (2020) and "This Blessed Plot" (2023).
His research expertise centers on audiovisual narrative, with particular focus on the migration of audiovisual production processes to the digital domain, and on TV development processes and other forms of collaborative narrative including the author-audience relationship. His work also explores performance, character, and "believability" in digital media contexts. Ganz's research spans screenwriting, digital cinema, mediatization, improvisation, practice as research, and Holocaust memory studies.
Ganz serves as a Co-Investigator at the CoSTAR* National Lab for R&D in Creative Technology, a £51.1m UK Government investment. Previously, he was head of the Writers Room at StoryFutures Academy where he developed the work of dozens of writers in immersive media. His monograph "Robert De Niro at Work: from Screenplay to Screen Performance" (2020), co-written with Professor Steven Price, was based on research conducted as a Harry Ransom Fellow.
His creative output shows remarkable range and depth, from the BBC Drama Award-nominated radio play "The Gestapo Minutes" (2013) to the groundbreaking spatial storytelling project "Felix's Room" (2023), which premiered at the Berliner Ensemble. This innovative work tells the story of his great-grandfather, Felix Ganz, and his second wife Erna in their room in a so-called Jewish House in Mainz during the Nazi era.
- SpielRäume (2023)
- Spielräume! (2023)
- BBC Drama Award nomination for The Gestapo Minutes
Ganz serves as an Associate Researcher at Royal Holloway's Holocaust Research Centre and collaborates with the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz on research projects. He has supervised multiple students and secured significant research funding, including the German Lost Art Foundation-funded project "Rekonstruktion und Lokalisierung der privaten Kunstsammlung des Teppichhändlers Felix Ganz" investigating his ancestor's looted art collection. His work intersects with UN Sustainable Development Goals related to quality education, reduced inequalities, and peace, justice and strong institutions through his Holocaust memory studies and collaborative narrative projects.
