Alex Coulombe

Architect turned XR-chitect crafting virtual worlds and the spectacles within.

Designer, developer, and educator, Alex Coulombe is the CEO of the NYC award-winning XR creative studio Agile Lens: Immersive Design.

Alex has always had a passion for purposing emerging technology for creative visions. In 2010 he graduated from Syracuse University with a B. Arch (and Drama minor!) and after working for several architecture firms, when the Oculus DK1 hit the market, immersive tech became his focus. In 2013 while at the theatre planning consultancy Fisher Dachs Associates, he pioneered the world's first use of VR for accurately testing sightlines and adjusting room design based on the results. Other early immersive creations include an equipment clearance checker for Hudson Yards' The Shed, a projection mapping tool for Bravo Media and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and design mockups for the Park Avenue Armory's production of Kenneth Branagh's Macbeth. His work in highly-custom solutions grew and culminated in the formation of Agile Lens.

Recent architecture projects include David Geffen Hall, Brockman Hall for Opera, the Statue of Liberty Museum, and the Yale Schwarzman Center.

Recent theater productions have included "Alive in Plasticland" (2018), "Loveseat" (2019), "Ghosted" for Magic Leap (2019), "OnBoardXR" (2020-22), "Song of the Ambassadors" at Lincoln Center (2022), La Pasion XR (2023-Present), A Christmas Carol VR (2021-Present), and converting the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser immersive theater experience into an open-source community VR project (2023-Present).

Alex’s thought leadership is recognized through invitation to speak at industry events including the Game Developers Conference (GDC), Augmented World Expo (AWE), Unreal Fest, Autodesk University, Theater Communications Group (TCG), and the Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF). His research has been published with SIGGRAPH and IEEE GEM, contributing to academic and professional discourse on XR.

Alex is a dedicated educator and advocate for XR. He has collaborated closely with Epic Games, developing online learning courses, serving as an Unreal Engine Authorized Instructor, operating the only Unreal Engine Authorized Training Center in Manhattan, teaching for the Unreal Games Fellowship, runs Unreal NYC, and hosting The Unofficial Unreal Engine Podcast. He's lectured in-person at NYU, Columbia, Princeton, Syracuse, Cornell, Ringling, Pratt, and the Korean National University of the Arts.

His online talks and tutorials have garnered millions of views.

Twitter & YouTube @iBrews.