Jennifer English celebrates queer joy in Golden Joysticks Award speech
Proud lesbian actor Jennifer English dedicated her Best Lead Performer win at the Golden Joysticks to “queer joy” in an emotional acceptance speech at the event in London last night (Thurs, Nov 20).
Nominated and winning for her role as Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, English is also well known for her work as Latenna the Albinauric in Elden Ring and, of course, the Gayming Award-winning Shadowheart in Baldur’s Gate 3. You can read about English’s experiences growing up queer and her work on Baldur’s Gate 3 in our exclusive interview here.
The character of Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, played by English, is the game’s lead protagonist. The youngest member of the Expedition team sent to stop the catastrophic annual “Gommage” in which an entity, known as the Paintress, kidnaps humans of a certain age, who are never seen again.
Shocked at her win, she said “Oh my God!”, after accepting her award. “I didn’t think of a speech because I didn’t think I was going to win, because I’m nominated alongside some industry titans. And oh, thank you so much everyone, every single one of you for voting.”
Her speech was incredibly emotional in which she referenced her girlfriend, Aliona Baranova, who was crying tears of joy at English’s win. Aliona and Jennifer met while the former was working for PitStop Productions with performance directing on Baldur’s Gate 3 in which English was acting. The duo went on to stream together under the name JenandAliona on Twitch and YouTube, often playing Baldur’s Gate 3 and other games.
“I fell in love with a beautiful woman,” English spoke of Aliona, “who’s crying her eyes out right now – it’s really funny. And I chose queer joy. As a result of that queer joy, I felt safe enough to pour my grief, and pain, and all that nonsense – and joy, and love – into this incredibly beautifully written character. And I am so proud of that, and I just want to thank queer joy for that.”
Watch the Golden Joysticks Award category presentation in full here:
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