Elz to host BAFTA Games
Elz the Witch has been announced as the host of the BAFTA Games Awards (the ceremony sits inside London Games Festival week), and she’s using the lead‑up to emphasize women’s visibility in games and nostalgic memories of playing — a get that frames the show’s tone as inclusive and celebratory. London Games Festival runs April 13–19, with the BAFTA Games Awards positioned as a centerpiece for the week (radiotimes.com) (uvejuegos.com).
A video creator who grew up reading Final Fantasy VII dialogue aloud to her sister is now fronting one of games’ most formal award nights. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts said Elz will host the 2026 BAFTA Games Awards on Friday, April 17, at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London’s Southbank Centre. (bafta.org) That is a switch from the last two ceremonies, which were hosted by comedian Phil Wang. Radio Times reported the change as BAFTA moving to “a new face” after Wang’s two-year run. (radiotimes.com) Elz is not arriving as a random celebrity booking. BAFTA described her as a “digital powerhouse” with a global audience built through YouTube and social platforms, where she has spent years making gaming videos and live content. (bafta.org) In interviews around the announcement, she kept pulling the conversation back to women in games. She told BBC Newsbeat she felt “tremendously proud” to represent women in the space, and told indy100 she wanted to show what women and digital creators can do in the industry. (aol.com) (indy100.com) She also framed gaming as a personal memory before it was a job. In her Radio Times interview, she said some of her earliest experiences were watching her sister play Final Fantasy VII and reading the on-screen text aloud, which gives the whole booking a fan-first tone instead of a red-carpet one. (radiotimes.com) The timing matters because the ceremony sits inside a much bigger week for the industry. London Games Festival runs from April 13 to April 19, 2026, and the official festival site lists citywide programming backed by Games London and supported by the Mayor of London. (festival.games.london) The awards night lands near the center of that schedule, not at the edge of it. BAFTA’s April 17 ceremony shares the week with business meetings, public exhibitions, and side events, which turns the host announcement into part of London’s broader pitch as a games capital, not just a one-night show. (bafta.org) (festival.games.london) London Games Festival is also expanding its public footprint this year. Festival materials say New Game Plus, its consumer expo, runs April 16 and 17 at Exhibition White City, while London City Hall lists a free Trafalgar Square takeover tied to the festival on April 13. (festival.games.london) (london.gov.uk) So the choice of Elz tells you what kind of room BAFTA wants on April 17. Instead of putting a traditional television comic in front of an industry crowd, it picked a creator whose career came out of gaming internet culture and whose public message in the run-up has been visibility, fandom, and who gets seen on stage. (bafta.org) (indy100.com)
