These Emerson Alumni Made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List

Three Emerson alumni, Hao Zheng ’15, Lydia Liebman ’14, and Maddy Wojdak ’13, landed on the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Hollywood & Entertainment, Music, and Games categories, respectively.

Hao Zheng, a film short director who got his start in the industry acting in Chinese films and TV, graduated from Emerson with a BFA in film production. Earlier this year, he was one of 10 directors selected to participate in the 2020 HBOAccess Directing Fellowship. In August, Emerson Today interviewed Zheng about his career and recent successes.

Read: Alumni Win Directing Fellowship, Screenwriting Competition  

With an MFA in directing from the American Film Institute, Zheng’s films have screened at more than 50 international film festivals, according to Forbes, including Short Shorts Tokyo, Interfilm Berlin, and Show Me Shorts in New Zealand, where he was awarded Best International Film. In addition to his HBOAccess fellowship, Zheng recently was one of six directors selected by Disney Launchpad for its inaugural shorts program, Forbes writes.

Lydia Liebman started her jazz-focused music promotion career while still a Visual and Media Arts student at Emerson. In the six years since graduating, she has represented more than 200 artists, launched Grammy campaigns, and booked concerts at venerable venues such as Carnegie Hall, according to Forbes. In 2019, she launched two new international divisions of Lydia Liebman Promotions for U.K.-based and Spanish-speaking artists, Forbes writes.

Maddy Wojdak, growth strategist for Riot Games, graduated from Emerson with a BS in Marketing Communication and earned an MBA from University of Los Angeles’ Anderson School of Management, where she helped build the video game curriculum, Forbes writes. At Riot Games, she was an early member of the pre-production team behind League of Legends: Wild Rift, the upcoming mobile version of the company’s hit title, and is on-boarding features and tutorials for the new platform, according to Forbes. Before joining Riot Games, Wojdak was marketing manager at DeviantArt.