Meet Danny Berger | Digital Content Producer For SteelSeries & Content Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Danny Berger and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Danny, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I pursued this career for a number of different reasons. Ultimately, I chose it because it’s an emerging industry where someone as young as myself can make a name in the space and have an impact on how content is created and distributed. In all of the other industries I was interested in (primarily entertainment) you had to be a middle aged person with 20+ years experience with a master’s degree in some are that doesn’t pertain whatsoever to the job you would want to apply to. In gaming, the most important thing is being qualified for the job. Because I put in years of practice editing, working for different organizations, and learning as much as I possibly could in my freetime, I was rewarded with a job that I not only love, but am respected in, regardless of my age.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am currently the Digital Content Producer for SteelSeries, a job where I get to make all of the organic social content for the organization. Before that I was the Director of Content for the Atlanta Reign Overwatch team. If you asked me five years ago what I would be doing for work, I never would have guessed it would be in gaming and content creation.

What sets me apart from others in this space is the fact that I never stop grinding towards the next step. I came from a small town in New Jersey, where when you graduated high school you either joined the military, went to the local community college, or took over your parent’s farm. I wanted to prove to myself and those around me that you can do whatever you want, as long as you work hard and take risks. I am most proud of the fact that any time an opportunity has presented itself to me, I hopped right on it. Most of the time it required me to move away from my hometown and my loved ones, but I knew it was how I was going to achieve the life I wanted to live.

I got to where I am today through a strange series of events. It was not easy at all. I ran a YouTube channel while I was in college, started my own editing company, quit both to work for Amazon Retail, quit that with no plan in mind and got lucky when a college professor saw my “How To Grow on Twitch” YouTube video that I made in my free time. That opened the door the the gaming industry for me.

After about a year at the collegiate level, I was let go (the program was new, and didn’t know how to gauge ‘success’) which was a blessing in disguise because I quickly got a job for the Atlanta Reign Overwatch team. I had been promoted from a small collegiate program to the professional gaming scene! I did a year and some months with the Reign before I was picked up by SteelSeries. I wanted to continue growing my skills and Overwatch had it’s limits in what kind of content I could create. With this new job, I was throw into an even bigger company with more viewers, more projects, and a lot more pressure to make amazing content.

I learn lessons every single day in my career. I feel like the most important thing in this space is to be humble and be a student of life. Thinking you know everything in this space is death, and stops you from reaching your true potential. There is always something you can learn. So never stop learning new skills. Also, take risk and don’t be afraid to take risks. I found that the times I was uncomfortable or unsure, were the exact times that I grew and changed the most. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. As an actor in college, I got used to never being 100% prepared for a show, a test, or a life situation. Being flexible and agile is a priceless skill in my industry and it’s allowed me to make moves I never would have even considered out of fear of failing.

I want the world to know that you can achieve the life you want. It won’t be easy at all, if it were everyone would be doing it. I’m proud to be in a role that not many people hold because I worked tirelessly to get where I am today. There is a mindset shift happening in my industry where everyone is saying to take breaks and be healthy which I agree with. But I would also warn that I am where I am because I was willing to work the long hours others wouldn’t, I sacrificed time with friends and family to travel for work, and I moved around a lot to take opportunities. If you want something bad enough, you need to be willing to risk and sacrifice to get it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Interesting question for both a Covid world AND to ask a person who works in gaming.

Gonna skip this one because I moved to Atlanta for work which required me to travel, so I only spent a few nights in the city before Covid locked us all down.

My ideal night would be:

-Eat dinner
-Have a drink with a friend
-Talk content/gaming
-Hop online and play some Valorant or CS:GO

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d love to shout out my high school video production teachers Mr.Pona and Mr.Dowd. They started up the video production program in my middle school/high school from scratch and I had the opportunity to be one of their first students in that program. It was an elective course that allowed me to build my foundation of skills, even though at the time I had no goals of working in film or television. At first, I messed around in the class and didn’t try very hard. But they always encouraged me to take on director roles in the after school program, and the live broadcasting/editing that they taught me is the only reason I am where I am today. High school was an incredibly tough time for me, and these two teachers created a space where me and others like me could feel safe and have a place to go and create content, all before becoming a content creator was even a thing.

These two deserve all of the recognition in the world, and I can’t thank them enough for all that they have done for me. I wish I still lived in my hometown so I could come to their class and tell their students how luck they are to be in the class at all and to absorb everything that they say.

2012 to infinity- Krispy Kreme, The Baddest (Inside Joke)

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