Deborah Mannis-Gardner was interviewed for this Game Developer article.

Having worked in music clearances for the past three decades, Mannis-Gardner has both witnessed the rise of the field through the explosion of the rap scene of the early ’90s and its renewed relevancy amid the complexity of music rights in the streaming era. Her career has covered multiple corners of the entertainment industry, from those early days securing samples for rap songs to clearing tracks for projects like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the 2003 Jack Black vehicle School of Rock. Most recently, she was the person who made sure that the blood-pumping jukebox level Bar Room Blitz in Back 4 Blood was accompanied by tunes to match, channeling the glorious, genre-classic pub scene from Shaun of the Dead.

-Holly Green, Game Developer