About Callum Janes.
Media strategist, community builder, and voice actor based in Belfast. Fifteen years in creator ecosystems. Founder of NerdyNI. Formerly Lead Editorial Coordinator at WatchMojo. BBC television voice actor. Someone who genuinely cares about the humans behind the numbers.
Where it started.
It started with writing. Not in a romantic, sitting-at-a-typewriter way. More like figuring out that the internet had created a machine for turning curiosity into content, and that machine needed people who understood both the creative and the mechanical sides. From early freelance work through to editorial roles at ScreenRant and Knowledgia, the pattern was always the same: build the system, then make the content better.
The WatchMojo years (2021–2024) were the sharpest edge of that. Lead Editorial Coordinator meant owning the pipeline: 561+ credited videos, trend strategy, thumbnail testing, format development, writer coordination. At the scale of 25M+ subscribers and billions of impressions, every decision mattered and every assumption got tested fast. That kind of feedback loop changes how you think about content forever.
The NerdyNI chapter.
NerdyNI started from a simple observation: Northern Ireland had a huge, passionate fandom community with nowhere to consistently gather. The conventions existed elsewhere. The people were here. So in 2024, after years of volunteering and operations roles at QCon, MiniCon, Eirtakon, and others, the decision was made to build something from scratch.
24+ events later, with 2,800+ attendees, a 1.6x return rate, and a 15.7% sponsorship conversion. NerdyNI has become something genuinely different. Not just a series of events, but a community with a culture, a values set, and a reason to keep coming back. The MiniCon years taught that operations discipline is everything. The volunteer years taught that belonging is the product, not the event.
The other job.
The voice work grew out of the content work. Narrating for Knowledgia meant being the primary voice on roughly 90% of a channel with millions of subscribers. That led to WatchMojo voice credits, which led to commercial work for Gillette and Coca-Cola, which led to the thing that still surprises people: BBC Pablo. Captain Sunscreen, Volcano, Race Cars, Pablo. CBeebies television, proper broadcast, millions of young viewers.
Then Fallout London. Character work for Dennis Blanford in the major Fallout 4 total conversion mod. And Fortnite, in that same category of things that are hard to believe until you see the credits. The studio is a treated space in Belfast: Sennheiser MKH 416, Zoom F8n, Adobe Audition. The combination of broadcast range and gaming/animation range is rare, and it's useful.
Fifteen years, compressed.
First steps in media
Researcher, production assistant, and runner roles across BBC and ITV productions. Sound recordist on documentary work including Ballymurphy Precedent and Unquiet Graves.
Digital content & writing
Freelance writing and editorial work for ScreenRant and Knowledgia. Lead narrator on Knowledgia, approximately 90% of channel output. Early commercial voice work.
Convention circuit
Operations Director at MiniCon (attendance doubled during tenure). Volunteer and ops roles at QCon, Eirtakon, Nom-Con, Alcon, Anime Tattcon, Fibbercon.
BBC Pablo & broadcast
Voice actor on BBC CBeebies television series Pablo: Captain Sunscreen, Volcano, Race Cars, and the Pablo character. Broadcast credits alongside ITV and BBC production work.
WatchMojo · Lead Editorial Coordinator
Owned the editorial pipeline for a 25M+ subscriber channel. 561+ credited videos. Trend strategy, format development, writer coordination, thumbnail strategy at scale.
Founder of NerdyNI
Built NI's most consistent fandom community from scratch. 24+ events, 2,800+ attendees. Fallout London and Fortnite voice credits. Business Development at Galvia Digital.
How I think about the work.
Community is infrastructure, not content.
Most organisations treat community as a distribution channel, a place to push content. The ones that last treat it as load-bearing architecture. It holds everything else up. You don't build it fast. You build it right.
Attention is not the same as belonging.
You can have millions of views and no community. You can have a hundred people and something genuinely irreplaceable. The metrics that matter are the ones that measure whether people came back, and why.
Sustainable audiences are built from emotional truth.
The content that lasts is the content that's honest about something real. Systems can optimise for reach and retention, but the underlying reason people stay is always human. Build for that first.
Common questions.
Who is Callum Janes?
Belfast-based media strategist, community builder, and voice actor. Founder of NerdyNI. Formerly Lead Editorial Coordinator at WatchMojo. Fifteen years across content, broadcast, community, and voice work.
What is NerdyNI?
NerdyNI is Northern Ireland's fandom community: a series of events and gatherings for anime, gaming, and nerd culture enthusiasts. Founded in 2024, it has hosted 24+ events with over 2,800 attendees. Read the full story →
What does Callum Janes do?
Depending on the project: content strategy and editorial systems, community building and event production, voice acting across broadcast and games, and consulting on creator economy and digital media. See the work →
Is Callum Janes available for work?
Yes, for the right projects. Consultancy, speaking, voice work, and community/strategy engagements. Get in touch →
Where is Callum Janes based?
Belfast, Northern Ireland. Available for remote work globally and in-person across the UK and Ireland.
Want to work together?
Whether it's content strategy, community projects, voice work, or something you haven't seen before: I'm interested in projects that are trying to do something real.