Since joining UCL in 2023, Tasha Msanide has transformed the university’s social engagement, helping to build more inclusive online spaces and place the student voice at the heart of storytelling.
Tasha is a Senior Marketing Communications Officer at UCL, overseeing content for its seven social media channels, and supporting aspiring student digital creators to skill up and build their portfolio.
Joining UCL just as its new LinkedIn strategy was being implemented, she has helped grow the channel to more than 650k followers in a short time, as well as catapulting outputs and engagement with UCL’s TikTok channel, which has hit 10k followers. For Tasha, social media is a community-building tool.
Social media can be the first interaction that a lot of people will have with UCL, so we try to show people that this is a community they want to be part of.
Tasha has always been passionate about the arts, and she bring this lens to her work, bringing people-led, creative storytelling to UCL’s million plus followers. Determined from a young age to be a West End performer, she studied for a degree in musical theatre but felt disappointed with the lack of diversity in the industry: “There wasn’t really people in big roles who looked like me.”
She then shifted her focus to what was going on behind the scenes, “the side of theatre nobody really sees.” Social media was an entry point. When Hamilton blew up and she couldn’t get tickets, it was their backstage Snapchat takeovers that gave her access.
I really loved getting all this additional insight and seeing the creatives behind the scenes. It was a new world.
Even while at 6th form, Tasha would be distracted, always on “Twitter underneath the table, I used to dream of getting paid to tweet!”
Following her degree, she had internships with Hoxton Hall and Tiata Fahodzi, a small touring theatre company, until finally securing a role as a digital marketing officer for Bush Theatre: “I applied 3 times and on my third attempt, I got my dream job!”
Now, Tasha is particularly proud of her work leading the UCL’s Student Content Creator scheme, which has grown from 16 members to 46 at its peak. The annual scheme gives students the opportunity to develop media skills and create short-form video content, that centres their experiences.
UCL students are incredible, smart and passionate and I feel so optimistic about the fact that they are our future leaders, storytellers and teachers.
Tasha also took part in UCL’s Women in Leadership programme, which she says was a great opportunity for her to grow “as a person, manager and colleague.”
If people take one thing away from her story, she hopes it’s this:
Hard work pays off, no journey is linear and, as a black woman who never saw people who looked like her growing up in high profile places, there is a path for you. Also, Higher Education is where it’s at!
