Conversations with Seori

Today we’d like to introduce you to Seori.

Hi Seori, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Istanbul, Turkey and was very into games and anime in high school. I moved to LA by myself at the age of 18 to attend LMU for my BFA in animation and interactive technologies. I learned that I really enjoy producing and decided to start my career in video game production. As I was working for my first job at a small mobile game studio after college, Arcane the tv show came out. Back in high school I had played league and was obsessed with Jinx after discovering the Get Jinxed music video. I had even bought a wig to cosplay her but I didn’t know where to begin, there was no cosplay community that I knew of near me and it was really hard to buy things online at the time, so I gave up. And throughout college I kind of hid just how much I loved anime and games despite animation being my major in an effort to fit in better. Anyways, I started cosplaying with Jinx being reintroduced to my life and it has been a crazy almost 3 year ride ever since. I have learned how to sew, how to cut hair, how to do proper make, 3D modeling, 3D printing, foam crafting, even some light mechanical and electrical engineering. I still have my day job as a game producer and at nights I work on cosplay. I’ve met so many amazing people both in and out of the industry thanks to this and made awesome friends that share the same interests as me. I’ve even attended to Arcane season 2 premiere recently which really feels like everything has come full circle, and I am very grateful.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Living by myself in a foreign country from a somewhat young age has been one of the biggest struggles. It was my choice and I managed it well, however, it comes with its own set of uncertainties and to this day I am struggling with them. Also like mentioned anime and games were not always as popular, especially back when I was in high school. I’m glad that I never truly let go of that side of my life. On a more day to day basis time and money, as with everything, is the biggest struggles. The scale in which I do cosplay at now is similar to full time cosplayers but I still have my day job and am getting my master’s degree in engineering management.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a video game producer what sets me apart is that I myself am a passionate gamer and have some experience in most parts of the production pipeline like 3D animation or coding. I started at my job as a production assistant and within 2 weeks of me joining the team our producer left. I essentially had a crash course into being a producer reporting directly under the CEO and kind of just figured things out on the go. Despite the rollercoaster of a journey, I am always grateful to be a part of the games industry which means a lot to me personally. Within the cosplay community and on social media I guess I am most known for my cosplays of Jinx from Arcane and Shadowheart from Baldur’s Gate 3. I actually won second place in LACC’s National Cosplay Championship in Novice Category this fall. It was my first competition ever and I am looking forward to joining more in the future.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Everything works out the way it supposed to and you just got to keep pushing forward, doing the things you like.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seori.cos/
• Twitter: https://x.com/seori_cos/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@seori.cos/

Image Credits
Personal photo: @androthekim0131

Arcane photoshoot pictures
Vi cosplayer – @tokii.mon
Lighting/DP: @zakariproductions
Photographer: @joshuajirahmejia
Event co-host and Editor: @foxfrd

Shadowheart photo: @squirtlesquadphotography