South African Creativity Goes Virtual and All the Way to the Emmys

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Created by South African artist Rick Treweek, Uncanny Alley: A New Day has gone from a lockdown passion project to one of three nominees at this year’s Primetime Emmys.

South Africa (01 September 2026) – A South African virtual reality creation that began as an escape from lockdown is now heading for one of the biggest stages in entertainment.

Uncanny Alley: A New Day, a collaboration between Cape Town immersive studio Virtual Worlds Company and Los Angeles-based Ferryman Collective, has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy in the Outstanding Emerging Media Program category.

It is one of just three productions shortlisted in the category, alongside Blumhouse Enhanced Cinema and The World of Fallout.

For South African artist and worldbuilder Rick Treweek, the nomination is the latest chapter in a journey that began with a simple idea: if people could no longer gather in the real world, why not create somewhere they could meet virtually?

Treweek, who is known in the virtual world as MetaRick, created the Uncanny Alley universe in 2020 during South Africa’s strict initial COVID-19 lockdown. Unable to meet people in person, he began building what he describes as a cyberpunk back alley of the internet.

It wasn’t necessarily designed to become an Emmy contender. And then something unexpected happened.

Treweek’s first narrative experience in the universe, The Search for Gh0st, was selected for Venice VR Expanded in 2021 and later won the Spirit of Raindance Award in 2022.

The virtual world had officially taken on a life of its own. Now, Uncanny Alley: A New Day takes that world a step further.

The production is a live virtual reality theatre experience performed inside VRChat, a social VR platform where audiences don’t simply sit back and watch the action.

When Treweek and Ferryman Collective began discussing a live theatrical production in 2024, they decided not to simply stage the show inside the existing Uncanny Alley.

Instead, Virtual Worlds Company built an entirely new virtual environment for the production.

The result is a sprawling world made up of more than 30 environments, designed to run on standalone Meta Quest headsets.

For Treweek, though, the most rewarding part has been seeing his creations become something he could never have achieved alone.

“The most extraordinary part of this for me has been watching actors step inside characters I had drawn and lived with for years, and give them a voice and a body in real time.”

For years, he says, one of his biggest challenges was believing his ideas were simply too unusual for other people to appreciate.

“My biggest struggle’s always been my conditioning that my stuff is too weird and no one will like it, so it’s only for me.”

At the heart of the production, however, is a story about imagination. Treweek says the Uncanny Alley world has always been about giving people a place to explore, connect and experience something different.

Treweek’s curiosity has been shaped by an unconventional journey.

He grew up in Kokstad and says getting his first computer relatively late in life may actually have helped fuel his fascination with technology.

“Because it was so alien, I still have so much curiosity,” he says. “And it’s definitely an industry for the curious right now.”

He points aspiring immersive creators towards Electric South’s labs, saying the organisation has done more for immersive content on the continent than anyone else.

Then comes the advice that perhaps best sums up his own journey: