Phrasemaker is a Perth-based news outlet run by Branden Zavaleta, Grace Black, Tarun Sayal, & Branden Lizardi. Started in 2024, the site is listed on Google News, has DA of 40 (via MOZ), and counted 390k views this month (if you’re PR, there’s more analytics here).

Owner, Managing & Creative Director
Branden’s joint role sees him guide the development, logistics, and sometimes creative direction for the site. His background is in psychology and marketing, but you may know his writing or photography from places like The AU Review, The Curb, X-Press Magazine, and Linux Magazine.

Editor-in-Chief & Games Industry Journalist
Grace is an experienced games journalist, and her insight into the reading audience keeps the site ahead of trends. On the management side of things, she’s praised by her team for being welcoming and helpful.
Her personal favourites tend to be narrative-heavy titles like The Last of Us, Life is Strange, and Baldur’s Gate 3.

Head of Music & Music Journalist
Originally, Celine was a journalist with a background in content and script writing, but her passion has always been music. Aside from managing the music section’s output, she also designs the social media campaigns.

Head of Books & Literary Critic
Vincent’s tight-knit team of book lovers balance in-depth analysis of classics with the fun popular stuff (and are proud of it). His background is in law, but his passion is genre-bending sci-fi. His favourites are Gene Wolfe, Ada Palmer, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Head of Film & TV & Screen Journalist
Shantelle Santos is a film and television journalist and our Head of Screen Culture at Phrasemaker. Her work spans movies, TV, and streaming, with a focus on both mainstream releases and industry trends.
She’s been published in outlets including The AU Review, Pedestrian.TV, Lifehacker, Kotaku, SBS, and Novastream, bringing a broad, experienced voice to screen coverage.

Senior Games Journalist & Managing Editor
Branden Lizardi is part of the old guard of gaming journalism, and our best source of editorial wisdom. Previously a lead editor at TheGamer, his prowess is often felt but not seen by our readers.
His interests lean toward management sims, farming RPGs, and the stranger side of gaming.

Head of Tech
Oluwaseun “Seun” Bamisile leads our growing team of tech writers, and beneath his pleasant demeanour lies a powerful analytic mind.
Before joining the site, he wrote for publications like Techloy and Itechguides, alongside experience in SEO and outreach.

Head of World News (On Sabbatical)
Diwas Budhathoki leads our investigative team, but is currently away on sabbatical. In journalism circles he’s known for writing at places like Game Rant and Sportskeeda, but in Nepal? He’s beloved rapper Ease is Easy.

SEO Strategist & Audience Growth Specialist
Tarun Sayal is our silent partner. A man working in the background to keep us on top of the algorithms. His expertise is in digital marketing and SEO, but you may have also read his work in outlets like GINX, GGRecon, and DualShockers, where he’s covered gaming and online trends.

Head of Comics
Emma leads our new comics section, which she’s developed herself after starting at the site as a freshly minted writer. Despite being new to leading a team, her background in publishing and near-encyclopedic knowledge of comics give her an edge.

Head of PR & Communications
Lucas “Luke” Simons is a man who has worn many hats. Here he interfaces with PR, but he’s also a university lecturer on game design, the founder of Be Wild Games, and a six-time published author.

Investigative Journalist
A new addition to our core team, Mudassir has proven to be invaluable to our reputation. Consistently breaking stories on new releases before they’re announced, we rely on Mudassir to keep Phrasemaker the first place to find big stories.

Shodi Madian, Jayden Van Tonder, Renee Aguila, Emily Serwadczak, Serhii Patskan, Viraaj Bhatnagar, Hanzala Iftikhar, Cameron Waldrop, Gonçalo Santos, Anthony Fichtner, Anyka Pettigrew, and John Hansen.