Jeremy Ray is an Australian television presenter, video game reviewer and DJ. He is best known by his nickname "Junglist", and for co-creating and presenting ''
Good Game''.
Early life
Ray was born in
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, Australia. At a very young age, he moved to
Dallas
Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
,
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, with his parents where he lived for most of his youth. He attended an alternative boarding school in
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
before later returning to Australia.
Career
Early career
Early in his career, he worked for an online games network called
Wireplay where he provided technical support for their gaming connectivity client.
''Good Game''
Jeremy, together with series producer Janet Carr, submitted ''Good Game''
's proposal and made its pilot, having had a mutual friendship in the past playing against each other in online games starting off with ''
Age of Mythology
''Age of Mythology'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on October 31, 2002 in North America and on November 14, 2002 in Europe.
A spin-off from the ''A ...
''. On 19 September 2006 the show first aired on
ABC TV with both Jeremy Ray and
Michael Makowski hosting the episode.
In 2009 he co-wrote as part of the show the book ''The Good Game Gamer's Guide to Good Gaming'' along with Maurice Branscombe, Janet Carr, and
Steven O'Donnell.
Departure from ''Good Game''
In 2009, the ABC decided to run auditions for new hosts on
ABC3
ABC Entertains is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was launched on 4 December 2009 as a children's channel called ABC3. It was rebranded on 19 September 2016 to ABC ME. It rebra ...
.
Stephanie "Hex" Bendixsen was announced with other hosts for ABC3, and was thought to be hosting ''Good Game: Spawn Point''.
However it was revealed on the show's official forum that Bendixsen would in fact be replacing existing host Jeremy Ray entirely on both the original and new program.
Ray claimed the dismissal was because "they wanted a girl on the show", and stated that "mass appeal" was a direct quote from that meeting.
[ The network first claimed Jeremy would stay behind the scenes in a writing capacity, then stated he would not be working on the show due to holiday travel plans that conflicted with the show's schedule. It then made the statement: "The reason for replacing Jeremy Ray was ongoing behind the scenes performance-based issues".] For his work in 2009, Ray was highly commended in the Best Gaming Journalist category at the Red Rock Consulting IT Journalism Awards, or "Lizzies", and nominated in the Best Reviewer category.
After ''Good Game''
Since leaving ''Good Game'', Ray has written a competitive gaming section for Australian video game magazine '' PC PowerPlay'' as well as acted as editor for ''Kotaku
''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.
History ...
Australia'' and appeared on video game and technology review site ''Byteside''. He was a frequent guest on '' The GameArena Podcast'' which led him to a project for Telstra
Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...
BigPond
Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecom ...
's GameArena website with his own webshow '5-inch Floppy', still using his gamer tag "Junglist" while referencing himself as the host.
On 9 December 2010, Ray complained about the Australian Christian Lobby
The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) is a Christian-conservative advocacy organisation based in Canberra.
Structure
The ACL is registered as a public company limited by guarantee and files political expenditure returns with the Australian Ele ...
relating to the R18+ for video games debate on his blog. Being a practising Christian himself, he stated "Gamers are not just kids, they're also voting Australians. Some of them Christian. And games themselves are not all ''Halo'' – the medium is growing in artistic integrity every year. By not realising this when you speak for us, you not only make yourself look backward, you vicariously make US look backward, and it pisses us off."
Ray hosted some of the early episodes of game review show ''Save Point'' on '' One HD''.
Since early 2017 he has been working with Snackable TV on a series called "Under control".
In September 2017, Ray was appointed managing editor for Fandom Australia. Ray told website Mumbrella
''Mumbrella'' is an Australian marketing and media industry news website. It was started in December 2008 by Tim Burrowes, and has since gone on to become a popular source for news, analysis and commentary on the advertising, PR, and media ind ...
in regards to being given the role, "I look forward to bringing my creativity and deep passion for entertainment, and games in particular, to further develop Fandom as a daily destination for fans in Australia as well as around the world."
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
Articles by Jeremy Ray "Junglist" at Kotaku Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ray, Jeremy
Year of birth missing (living people)
Australian television presenters
Living people
Television personalities from Sydney
Video game critics