Last month, I had the chance to interview G4’s Games Editorial Lead, Danny Peña. Danny has a new children’s book that came out yesterday, Danny Loves Video Games, written by his cousin Mr. Luna.

For years, I had come across Danny on Twitter and social media. However, it wasn’t until 2020 when I saw him host a Kinda Funny Podcast during Hispanic Heritage Month that I finally took the time to check out Gamertag Radio and some of his work. From that point on he became a big influence on me for a couple of reasons. Watching someone with a similar background (Hispanic), coming from the same city (Miami) is inspiring. Especially when you think most of the people in games media are all in a handful of places.

Even now, while Danny works at G4 (one of the larger gaming outlets), he still continues to create and release new content for Gamertag Radio each week. He even attends events as a “dual citizen” sometimes, representing both G4 and GTR.

Other than the release of Danny Loves Video Games, we had the chance to talk about the inception of Gamertag Radio, and how it almost didn’t happen. We also went over a bit of the process of collaborating with his cousin for the book.

I’ve heard Danny mention how important it is to build a community and engage with your audience, which I think is a big reason why Gamertag Radio is one of the top video game podcasts around. He really is generous with his time, because before interviewing him I had asked him countless questions through DMs on Twitter, about everything from specific games to mic and audio questions for podcasting, and he always answers quickly and precisely.

During the interview Danny mentioned some of his daily duties as the Games Editorial Lead at G4. I noticed that many of these tasks are things that he learned on his own, managing Gamertag Radio. Things like booking interviews and requesting game codes. Over the past two years I have learned and re-taught myself many skills working on this site (photo and video editing, sound recording, WordPress).

Danny Loves Video Games • Release Event

The book release took place in a local Miami-Dade Public Library Branch in Kendall, FL. It began with author Mr. Luna introducing and reading some of the book.

Before Mr. Luna and his wife, Mrs. Ani, created 2Quality People (book publishing), he worked with artists like Fat Joe, Pitbull, DJ Khalid and many others in the music industry. He touched on his early days, trying to break into the music industry and how he recruited a street team of friends and family working different positions. Danny was responsible for the website.

After hearing that story it’s only right that after publishing a few children’s books, Mr. Luna would once again look within his family to tell Danny’s story in a new book.

myVGBC Podcast • S2E4 • Danny Peña

You can watch the full interview right here:

Danny Loves Video Games is available now on Amazon.