Esports host and interviewer Keltoum “Giniro” Baddaje has been named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 for Europe alongside a huge host of big-name celebrities, including Chelsea and England football superstar Cole Palmer and British actress Ella Purnell who voiced Jinx in Arcane.
Giniro has worked across the esports scene, covering League of Legends, VALORANT, Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege and other games across her already impressive career. The 26-year-old has also been a big presence in the UK Esports scene, most recently covering the Rocket League British Esports Cup hosted by the British Esports Federation.
The Moroccan has become a regular part of the LEC broadcast, hosting and interviewing players. She has also worked on the VALORANT Game Changers Championships, the Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia, and Red Bull’s League of Its Own event where Marc “Caedrel” Lamont’s Los Ratones competed with World Champions T1.
On the Forbes website, it mentions Giniro’s recent LEC appearances and describes her as “one of the fastest growing talents in the industry” before praising her as the first Arabic woman and one of the 16 women working in esports broadcasting internationally.
A jubilant Giniro left an emotional message on social media, saying: “I don’t even have the words to describe how honoured I am to be on Forbes 30 under 30. This was a dream before I even learned how to speak English, little me would be so proud, I have done everything I promised her I would.”
She then went on to joke: “Forbes 30 under 30 but can’t hit 30 cs under 4 minutes.” Luckily, Forbes doesn’t list League of Legends rank as one of the qualities the judges were looking for.
Other esports links to the new Forbes 30 Under 30 list include Nicole Constantine, Riot Games’ On Air Talent Manager who has worked across LoL, VALORANT, and TFT and is part of the two-time Emmy-winning broadcast team. Also listed is Fortnite Twitch streamer David ‘TheGrefg’ Cánovas Martínez who has one of the biggest Spanish-speaking channels on YouTube and is one of the most-followed on Twitch with over 13 million followers.
In my seven years of esports writing, I’ve introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I’m most proud of the latter.
