"Witches can be right, Giants can be good—you decide what's right, you decide what's good." - Stephen Sondheim
From making up games in the schoolyard to now, I build stories to live inside: dialogue systems, branching narrative, lore architecture, and characters that defy or fulfill expectations when you need them to.
Joris de Graaf is a multidisciplinary Dutch storyteller. As a young boy, he taught himself English by playing through the entirety of Breath of Fire III with a dictionary next to him. The endeavor took years, but never asked for patience: imagination stimulates the sort of intrinsic motivation that moves mountains. Or—in this case—dragons.
The experience inspired him to translate the story of Orpheus and Eurydice into a videogame as part of his final art project in high school. It also set him on the path from the Netherlands to New York, where he became an actor and writer, finding a sense of belonging through storytelling.
During his time in the States, Joris studied Musical Theatre at AMDA before completing his BFA at The New School and the Riggio Honors Program: Writing and Democracy. He went on to earn an MFA in Writing for Stage and Film at the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University. There, his study of Method Acting deepened his understanding of character and his ability to write from perspectives beyond his own.
Narrative design is where all these life experiences converge: the playfulness of games, the craft of writing, and the actor’s instinct for character. The next story is already waiting, and Joris would rather not write it alone.
Let's build something together.