About Me

Background

My name is Liam Dempsey (he/him), otherwise known as Shymander, and I live in Melbourne, Australia with my beloved partner and cat. I completed the International Baccalaureate program in high school, graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Japanese Studies and Global Asia, and now primarily work as Sr. EN Editorial Producer at Crunchyroll.

My primary interests include anime, gaming, and film, keeping me on the pulse of popular culture as a viewer, player, reader, and creator around the clock. I'm also a Eurovision fanboy and a die-hard supporter of the Collingwood Football Club.

My Professional Journey

In my 26 years of life, I've been an award-nominated environmental activist, fast-food worker, wiki creator, fan fiction writer, poet, cricketer, game developer, stage play actor and director, yearbook committee head, dorm RA, table tennis player, and so forth. In short, I have a knack for throwing myself into any opportunity that presents itself — and that's precisely what got me deep into the anime industry.

It all started in January 2017 when, on a trademark whim, I signed up for MyAnimeList.net's synopsis writing program. I then put my hand up in April to lead a new community-driven initiative for the site's Featured Article page alongside user Congress, who I'm still close friends with today. The snowball grew even larger when I successfully applied to the social media moderator team in August, where I assumed a head role after only a few months. These were all volunteer positions, but I took the latter two more seriously than anything else at the time because they allowed me to express my creativity in a self-governing environment while developing experience in writing, marketing, graphic design, data science (somehow) and team leadership beyond my years.

My success in growing MAL's broader online community presence through distinct statistics content and other initiatives caught the eyes of industry figures at Crunchyroll and Funimation, with the latter offering me a freelance contract shortly after I decided to spread my wings. I joined the Crunchyroll News team when the two services merged in early 2022, where I've continued to evolve as a creator and person since. I view my latest venture, Crunchyroll News Puzzles, as the ultimate culmination of my life and work experiences.

On the side, I work as a project manager, editor, and typesetter for a localization group subcontracted by bilibili for anime simulcast subtitles, where I've overseen quick turnaround times on translations for popular titles such as Classroom of the Elite, WIND BREAKER, The Devil is a Part-Timer!, and My Dress-Up Darling, and I've submitted Australia-themed crossword puzzles to Saturday Quiz Time.