Guest List by Announcement Date

Adam Becker

Adam Becker, PhD, is an astrophysicist, science communicator, and public speaker. He has written for the New York Times, the BBC, NPR, Scientific American, and elsewhere. He is the author of What is Real?, about the sordid untold history of quantum physics. 

Zane Exactly

Shadow Girls Cult is a trio of queer theatre, puppetry and visual artists incorporating human silhouettes and cinematic shadow puppetry techniques, they weave surreal tales of trauma, identity and loss.

Robert Viktor Hill

Founder of the Flying Nuggets LLC, a non profit in Atlanta with the Mission to inspire excellence in STEAM programming through competition and instruction for k-12.

Lisa M Thomas

Lisa M Thomas is the president of Thin Edge Films and has been collaborating with the band Dust Bowl Faeries as producer on a series of music inspired videos.

Peter J. Wacks

Wacks has produced popular and award-nominated games and novels, generated well-received scripts, short fiction, graphic novels, comics, and music, a publisher and editor, a producer, an actor and magician.

Hunter Cressall

Hunter is a writer and director working in Birmingham Alabama. He, with his partners Brian Pace, David Woods and Phil Sutton run Obvious Notion a multimedia production company.

Diane Guerrero

Diane Guerrero is known for her roles on Orange Is the New Black and Jane the Virgin. She voiced the character Isabela Madrigal in Encanto and currently stars as Crazy Jane in Doom Patrol.

Riley Shanahan

Riley Shanahan developed a love for acting through theater and pursued a college degree in theater. He made his way to LA and acted with Alicia Vikander in a music video for The National. Shanahan currently plays Robotman in DC's Doom Patrol.

Joivan Wade

Joivan Wade is an English actor known for playing Manyou in the BBC comedy television series Big School, Jordan Johnson on the BBC soap opera EastEnders, and Victor Stone/Cyborg in the HBO Max series Doom Patrol.

Matthew Zuk

Matthew Zuk is an actor, known for Doom Patrol (2019), Fear Street: Part Three - 1666 (2021) and Fear Street: Part One - 1994 (2021).

Atlanta Swing Orchestra

The Atlanta Swing Orchestra is a group of musicians that really love to play the big band music that gets you tearing up the dance floor!  They are musicians who are dedicated to keeping the Great American Songbook alive by playing tunes from the 30s and 40s to modern classics.

R. S. Belcher

R.S. (Rod) Belcher is an award winning newspaper and magazine editor and journalist. The Grand Prize winner of the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds contest, in addition to his multiple novels.

Crüxshadows

One of the most notable dark-wave bands internationally, The Crüxshadows\' motto is \"live, love, be, believe,\" and it serves as a reminder that while The Crüxshadows may write catchy songs, the band has depth that extends beyond the dance floor.

Dan Jolley

Dan Jolley is a multi-media writer. He co-created the Jason Rusch incarnation of DC Comics' Firestorm, wrote the main story for the video game Dying Light, and has had more than a dozen original novels published, including the Gray Widow Trilogy, The Storm, and The Runemaster Homicide.

Nancy Knight

Nancy Knight has been an award-winning, bestselling author since 1986 with 12 novels and numerous short stories published. She has also edited anthologies. A produced playwright and screenwriter, with Co-writer Yasmin Bakhtiari, she wrote a screenplay filmed in 2018 and now in distribution. She's taught creative writing since 1987.

The Gekkos

Hailing from Orlando, Florida, The Gekkos are the greatest nerd rock polka band in the multiverse. Comprised of brothers Jared on accordion and Zack on keytar, The Gekkos are sure to get you pumped and ready to get weird!

The Tomb Tones

50s rock\'n\'roll collides with punk rock mania in The Tomb Tones\' spook show bizarro! Dance the night away to hilarious hair-raising tunes about serial killer romance, monster beach parties, and taxidermy gone wrong!

Conor Leslie

Conor Leslie has worked frequently in television, including as a series regular on Western Klondike, Other Space, and Shots Fired. Leslie appeared in the first three seasons of The Man in the High Castle. She is currently starring as Donna Troy / Wonder Girl on the superhero series Titans.

Adeena Mignogna

Adeena Mignogna is an author, speaker, and a physicist and astronomer. She is the author of The Robot Galaxy Series and co-host of the podcast: The BIG Sci-Fi Podcast.

Lan Pitts

An Atlanta native now residing in Baltimore, Lan Pitts likes watching, talking, and writing comics about professional wrestling. His writing resume includes BOOM!'s WWE title and also co-created Beast Heart! Strikers with Joe Hunter. Ask him about wrestling and The Simpsons. He loves that.

Noel Plaugher

Having studied Chinese and Japanese martial arts, and Qigong, Noel Plaugher draws on those experiences to write hard-hitting martial arts fiction and non-fiction.

Jordan T. Duncan

Jordan is a paranormal investigator and historian. He’s been a part of the Atlanta paranormal community since 2008.

Oriana Shani Leckert

Oriana Leckert is the Director of Publishing & Comics Outreach at Kickstarter. Leckert  has written and edited for Vice, MTV News, Slate, Hyperallergic, Gothamist, Atlas Obscura, and many more. 

Curran Walters

Savannah Welch

Actor/Musician Savannah Welch is known for her acting roles in the HBO Max series Titans , Oscar nominated film Boyhood,  film Tree Of Life, and a recurring guest starring role as ex-Marine Dawn on the History Channel’s Six. She is also a member of the Alt-Country group The Trishas.

Rachael Allen

Rachael Allen is a scientist by day and kidlit author by night. She is the winner of the 2019 Georgia Young Adult Author of the Year award.

Yarn Goddess

Yarn Goddess Cosplay is an queer African-Caribbean cosplayer who’s taken crochet to a new level. ALL of their cosplays are crocheted by them.

Matt Green

For over three decades, Matt Green has been one of the Southeast's most active filmmakers. Having directed 10 feature films in the last twenty four years and creating creature, makeup, and physical effects for the past 35 years, Matt has helped other filmmakers produce and coordinate their own films.

Chris LeDoux

Chris LeDoux is a Crafty Apes co-founder and Senior VFX Supervisor. Being a leader in high-level producing and VFX supervision, LeDoux’s career in VFX began as a compositor.

Ben B Templesmith

Ben Templesmith is a multi award nominated artist & writer known for horror comics like 30 Days of Night that became movies and creator owned works such as Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse & Fell.

Azure Arther

Azure Arther is obsessed with literature. Azure's work has appeared in over a dozen publications, including a winning story in Writers of the Future, Volume 38.

Scott Edgington

Dr. Scott Edgington is a Planetary Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He specializes in atmospheric physics and chemistry of the Outer Planets and spacecraft operations. He currently works as a Science Planner on the InSight mission and is training for a similar role on the Perseverance mission.

Rich Gatz

Rich Gatz is a dedicated cybersecurity and data privacy attorney with experience working with the world's largest - and smallest - companies to help solve cyber and data privacy risk.

Eric Gregory Null

Eric Null is the Director of the Privacy & Data Project at CDT. Prior to that, he was the US Policy Manager at Access Now, an international human rights organization.

Phoenicia

Phoenicia has been a belly dancer since 1983. In addition to cabaret, ethnic, tribal, and fusion belly dance styles, she is also a nationally certified ballroom dance instructor.

Meredith Rose

Meredith Rose is Senior Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge, where she focuses on Copyright, users’ rights, licensing, fan and transformative cultures, and music copyright.

Christopher Ruocchio

Christopher Ruocchio is the internationally award winning author of The Sun Eater, Empire of Silence and more than twenty short stories. His work as also appeared in Marvel Comics.

Shadow Girls Cult

Shadow Girls Cult is a trio of queer theatre, puppetry and visual artists. Incorporating human silhouettes and cinematic shadow puppetry techniques, they weave tales of trauma, identity and loss .

Fr. Bryan Small

Fr. Bryan Small is theology and Sci-Fi geek and pastor of a local parish in Atlanta. He enjoys discussing how faith and belief inform fandoms, and vice versa.

Michael Tucker

Michael Tucker has been part of the National Security Decision Making Game staff since the nineties, contributing content to the game design and new modes for the game.

J A Andrews

JA Andrews’ degree in aerospace engineering is useless as a fantasy author. In The Keeper Chronicles, she has too much fun writing the fantasy to worry about science.

Samantha Harte

Samantha is an anime producer for Emmy Award winning Japanese anime studio GONZO (Hellsing, Afro Samurai, Last Exile) where she handles story development for upcoming anime. She is also an animator and voice actor best known for being the Japanese voice of the Chocobo for Square Enix.

Bob Novella

Bob Novella is a co-founder and Vice-President of the New England Skeptical Society. He co-hosts the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast and is co-author of its two books.

Merle S Robinson

Former DoD Analyst Merle Robertson is the designer for National Security Decision Making Game. He has spent 40 years examining human decision-making processes and leading events on geopolitical challenges.

Wilson Cruz

Wilson Cruz can be seen recurring in the CBS series Star Trek: Discovery playing the role of Dr. Hugh Culber and recurring on the Netflix’s series, Thirteen Reasons Why, playing the role of Dennis Vasquez. Cruz won the hearts of audiences playing Rickie Vasquez on My So Called Life.

Michelle Hurd

Michelle Hurd is known for her television work as Raffi Musiker in Star Trek series Picard, Shepherd in Blindspot, and recurring appearances on Hawaii Five-O, Ash Vs. Evil Dead, Daredevil, and Jessica Jones.

Walter Koenig

Walter Koenig had a recurring role of the quintessential scoundrel Bester on the television series Babylon 5 (1994). He has also appeared on dozens of other television series, including his role as Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek (1966) series and subsequent movies. 

Janine K. Spendlove

Janine K. Spendlove is the award winning author of the War of the Seasons series and Star Wars: Inbrief. A KC-130J pilot in the Marine Corps, she is an avid runner and enjoys spending time with her family.

Eric R. Asher

Eric Asher is the author of the Vesik urban fantasy series and Steamborn steampunk series.

Leigh Bennett-Conner

Leigh is the co-host of 50 Days of Dragon Con podcast. She's the one with questions, makes double - or triple - entendres without meaning to, and then gets embarrassed.

Ian Boley

Ian Boley is a historian who uses sci-fi to teach about national security,diplomatic, and nuclear issues on The Joint Geeks of Staff podcast.

Ron Daniels

Ron Daniels is an attorney who regularly handles consumer protection matters including privacy issues, credit report errors, and abusive debt collection practices.

Nicoli Gonnella

Nicoli Gonnella writes Unbound on the website RoyalRoad, has 8 million page-views and 8 thousand followers. Six books are soon to be published through Mountaindale Press.

Brian Holder

Brian Holder is the co-owner and casting director of LazuArts Entertainment, a black-owned, full-service dubbing studio. Brian is currently casting for Frost Giant Studios' upcoming RTS videogame Stormgate.

Catherine Lee Jones

Catherine Jones is the owner of GSTQ Fashions, a costuming studio in Atlanta, GA. Her shop works primarily with the television and film industry. You may have seen her shop's work on The Gifted, Black Lightning, Rampage, Doom Patrol, Lodge 49, and Wrestlemania.

Alexis Noriega

Alexis Noriega is a costume maker who has been featured in an episode of Adam Savage’s Tested VR series and Outrageous Acts of Science on the Discovery Science Channel.

Ebony Warrior Studios

Charles Conley is a professional cosplayer best known for his appearance and win on Syfy's inaugural episode of Cosplay Melee with his original Star Wars character, Syresh Vös.

Jer Alford

Jer Alford is the Owner/Editor/Writer of Mini-Komix publishing company specializing in independent comics, fanzines, and prose books. Webmaster for Stupid Comics comic book retrospective, and Anime Anyway genre review blog.

Daryl Andrews

Daryl Andrews is a professional freelance game designer, with 30+ board games already released through 20+ different publishers. Andrews’s top selling board game, Sagrada has sold over 300,000 copies.

Jon Armstrong

Jon stars in the NetFlix's Magicians: Life in the Impossible. You have seen him amaze on The Today Show, cause Penn on CW’s Penn and Teller’s Fool Us to exclaim his act as “the most original I’ve ever seen!”, and wow Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.

Leo Leibelman

Leo Leibelman began his professional career for Marvel Comics in the pages of Savage Sword of Conan, where he provided painted covers and interior artwork. From there Leibelman went on to work for Acclaim Comics, working on such titles as Turok Dinosaur Hunter and Magic the Gathering.

Curt Anderson

Curt Anderson is a professional magician who has performed across the United States, 8 countries, and has been featured numerous times on Television, radio, and a variety of internet programs. In addition to performing, Curt is working on a master's degree in Human Communication with a specialization in human deception.

Jon Boutelle

Jon Boutelle co-hosts and produces 50 Days of Dragon Con. He can also be found on Need Coffee's Weekend Justice and The Unique Geek.

Robert Chapin

Robert Chapin is a visual effects artist, fight choreographer, actor, writer, and producer. He has worked on The Haunted, Cowboy Bebop, Picard, Legion, and DC comic’s upcoming movie Black Adam.

Jeff Ello

Jeff Ello (aka jello) is a filmmaker/technologist with an encyclopedic knowledge of the latest technology and techniques for independent filmmakers and CG artists. He develops solutions that power high-volume video production facilities, real-time visual effects and live streaming.

Alethea Kontis

New York Times bestselling author Alethea Kontis is a princess, a voice actress, a storm chaser, and a geek. She is the host of Princess Alethea’s Traveling Sideshow every year at Dragon Con. Alethea narrates stories for multiple award-winning online magazines, and she contributes regular book reviews to NPR.

CAPT Mark McDonagh

Mark McDonagh is a physicist and retired Navy submarine force Captain who has been running the National Security Decision Making Game since 1990. He lectures extensively on emerging technology, modern weapons,geopolitical topics and military history with particular expertise in WWII, the early Cold War and history of submarine warfare.

James Minz

James Minz has worked in genre publishing for nearly 30 years, first at Tor for more than a decade, then briefly at Del Rey, until finally, on the centennial of Robert A. Heinlein’s birth, landing at Baen Books, where he is currently Executive Editor and Director of Subsidiary Rights.

Andy Price

Since issue one, Andy Price has been the lead pencil/ink artist for the incredibly successful and record breaking My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic book from IDW Publishing. MLP broke the 100,000 pre-sale mark, the first independent book to beat out DC or Marvel in 9 years!

Hayley Tsukayama

Hayley Tsukayama is a senior legislative activist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, focusing on state legislation. She also spent nearly eight years as a consumer technology reporter at The Washington Post.

J.M. Dragunas

J.M. Dragunas is a freelance illustrator currently working on his creator owned book L.C. Noir. He is best known for his contributions to the Little Nemo anthology, the 1001 Knights anthology, and for being the illustrator for Harry Potter: A Cinematic Gallery.

Tana Ford

Tana Ford is the artist on Marvel’s Silk, she has done work on Gwenpool, Star Trek, Jem and the Holograms, VenomVerse, and Amazing Spider-Man. She is the creator of the award-winning lesbian comic book series DUCK! She has recently collaborated with writer Nnedi Okorafor in the Black Panther universe.

Russ Adams

Russ Adams is an award-winning special effects artist familiar to audiences for his work on Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge, the highly-rated SyFy Channel reality series. Also known for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, 50 First Dates, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and Juarez 2045 .

Gregory Benford

Gregory Benford has published over forty books, mostly novels, and is a noted scientist, a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine.

Joe Corroney

Joe Corroney has been illustrating Star Wars for Disney and Lucasfilm along with Star Trek art for CBS Studios for more than twenty-five years.

Jason De La Torre

JC De La Torre is an author, composer, animator, filmmaker, audio drama/fiction podcast creator, producer, screenwriter, editor, voice actor, and probably a few other things we forgot to mention.

Rita De La Torre

Rita De La Torre is a producer and actress, known for Seekers of the Lost Worlds, Continuum Force, Vampires of White Chapel, and Star Mage: Guardians of Medeltiden.

Amanda Hamon

Amanda Hamon is a Senior Designer working on Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast. An award-winning tabletop game designer and developer with more than a decade of experience, Amanda is a co-creator of the Starfinder RPG by Paizo. She can be found supporting the hobby at events worldwide.

Matthew Hawkins

Matthew Hawkins is a maker, paper toy artist and illustrator. Matt weaves humor and energy into bold, whimsical art for humorous and often surprising results. He has made work Disney, DC, Nickelodeon, Nintendo, Sega and WWE.

Liana Kangas

Liana Kangas, comic artist and writer, has worked on titles such as Star Wars Adventures, RAZORBLADES, Tyranny Rex & Future Shocks, Joan Jett, Blondie & RZA with many more announcements to come. They have drawn original titles for TRVE KVLT, She Said Destroy, and co-wrote Seeds of Eden.  

Jamie Pearce

Dr. Jamie Pearce PhD is the founder of Historic Haunts Investigations. She has been professionally involved in the paranormal for over 25 years, is a Paranormal Investigator, and has a PhD in Parapsychology, and is a member of the Rhine Research Center, MUFON, and the Society for Psychical Research.

Baldemar Rivas

Baldemar Rivas is an up-and-coming comic book artist winning the first ever DC Round Robin Tournament. Baldemar is currently working on the new series DC Mech. He is the artist and co-creator of Unearth. Baldemar has done covers for DC, Image, IDW, Valiant, and Lion Forge.

Anne Sowards

Anne Sowards is an executive editor at Penguin Random House, where she primarily acquires and edits fantasy, science fiction, and romance for the Ace and Berkley imprints. The talented authors she works with include New York Times bestsellers Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, and Kim Harrison.

T. Alexander Stangroom

T. Alexander Stangroom is the Director of Operations at the multi ENnie award-winning tabletop roleplaying publisher Kobold Press. A professional Dungeon Master, TTRPG designer, and writer whose credits include publications from Wizards of the Coast, Alexander can be found as a Special Guest at various events around the world.

S. M. Stirling

2019 Dragon Award winner, S.M. Stirling was born in France in 1953 and became an American citizen in 2004. He published his first novel, Snowbrother in 1984. His latest books are The Sky-Blue Wolves, Black Chamber, Theater Of Spies, Shadows Of Annihilation, and Daggers In Darkness.

Nolan North

Nolan North actor who has been described as "the nearest thing the games industry has to a bona fide leading man." His voice work includes characters such as Nathan Drake from Uncharted, Desmond Miles from Assassin's Creed, the Penguin in Batman: Arkham, and several Marvel characters, most popularly Deadpool.

Trina Ray

Trina Ray is currently the Investigation Scientist for the radar instrument on NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission. She worked 20 years on Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn (specializing in Titan), and started her career working on the Voyager Spacecraft. She is a public speaker, invited to give many talks around the nation.

Bailey Sanchez

Bailey Sanchez is a Policy Counsel with the Youth & Education team at the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF), focusing on child privacy and legislative trends.

Lazarus Black

Lazarus Black, First Place Winner of Writer's of the Future v38 is an author of fine fiction and non-fiction based in the Seattle area.

Echo Chernik

Echo Chernik’s powerful vision of feminism and unique art nouveau creations have earned collectors around the globe. She is also the coordinating judge in the Illustrators of the Future Contest.

Scott Harris

Scott Harris is the staff planetary geologist at Fernbank Science Center and the Jim Cherry Memorial Planetarium in Atlanta, Georgia.

Robert Atkins

Robert Atkins has worked on Heroes for NBC, Legion of Superheroes, Iron Man, Heroes For Hire, The Amazing Spider-Man, G.I. Joe, Snake Eyes, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Forgotten Realms and Elders of the RuneStone. He is currently the artist of G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes published by IDW.

The Blibbering Humdingers

Goofy acoustic nerd rock for wizards, witches, gamers, jedi, hobbits, time lords, LARPers, browncoats, SCAdians, and all manner of hoopy froods. You\'ll be positively gruntled by our non-sequitur nonsense and musical mayhem.

Brobdingnagian Bards

The Brobdingnagian Bards are back for a Dragon Con reunion! They take traditional Irish and Scottish folk songs, mix it up with Lord of the Rings music to create a unique brand of Celtic Filk.

Amy Chu

Amy Chu writes comics and animation for DC, Marvel, Netflix and more, including DOTA: Dragon's Blood, Green Hornet, Dejah Thoris, Red Sonja. Poison Ivy, Aero, Sword Master, Emma Frost, Ant-Man, and Deadpool. She is also the author of the graphic novels Sea Sirens and Sky Island (Viking Press).

Devon M Chulick

Devon is the creator of Total Party Chill, the award winning D&D actual play channel. He is the Cofounder of StartPlaying, the largest platform for finding Pro Game Masters. He has been featured in Bloomberg, SF Gate, Marketwatch, Yahoo! News, Bleeding Cool, and more.

Anthony Francis

By day, Anthony Francis teaches robots to learn; by night, he writes science fiction and draws comic books. His latest novel is Jeremiah Willstone and the Clockwork Time Machine.

Bryan Scott Fyffe

Bryan Fyffe creates moody and naturalistic art inspired by gothic horror, nature and science and themes. His work is a mix of hand drawn elements fused with a variety of photographic textures.

Georges Jeanty

Georges Jeanty is an Eisner winner and NYTimes best selling artist for the critically acclaimed Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His art can be seen at Marvel on Xtinction, Captain America and Man-Slaughter to name just a few. He is also working on Disney’s Star Wars:The High Republic series. 

Paul Jenkins

Paul Jenkins has been creating, writing, and building franchises for over 30 years in the graphic novel, film, and video game industries. Over the last two decades Paul has been instrumental in the creation and implementation of literally hundreds of world-renowned, recognizable entertainment icons.

Creees Lee

Creees is a variant cover artist, and is the interior artist for Black Mask’s Lab Raider. He has worked for Image, Dynamite and Chapterhouse Comics. 

George Lowe

George Lowe is the ad-libbing madman behind Space Ghost. Cartoon Networks wildly popular Adult Swim block was built on the cult hit Space Ghost Coast to Coast which ran for a decade with legions of fans responsible for its success.

Larry Niven

SFWA Grand Master, Larry Niven is the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces. Other works include The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Neutron Star, The Gripping Hand, Protector, and many more.

Nooligan

HaiNaNu "nooligan" Saulque is an artist, comic creator, and graphic designer based in Sacramento, Ca.  From the cartoons of his youth to films he missed by decades, from golden age comics to classic newspaper strips, you will find a creator who has immersed himself in what he loves.

Zu Orzu

Zu Orzu is an artist and animator who has worked on the DC Comics series Cover. Along with coloring the series, she did the art for the first issue's variant cover and is also the cover artist for Valiant Comics on titles such as X-O Manowar and Punk Mambo.

Chantelle Aimee Osman

Chantelle Aimée Osman is editor of Agora Books. Chantelle is consultant for Zestworld Comic's The Awakened, co-writes Interpop's The Rejects with Alex Segura and hosts the Words of Prey podcast.

Rico Renzi

Rico Renzi is an artist, colorist, and designer from Washington DC. His work has appeared in the Academy Award-winning Spider-Man: Enter The Spider-Verse and Marvel Comics like Spider-Gwen, She-Hulk, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, and many more. He currently resides in North Carolina with his wife and daughter who tolerate his foolishness.

Michael Stackpole

Michael A. Stackpole is a writer and game designer best known for writing the New York Times Bestselling novels I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron.

Kyle Strahm

Kyle Strahm is an independent comic book artist/writer whose creator-owned books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. He is the co-creator of Twig, Spread, Into Radness, Unearth, and Horrorium. 

Twill Distilled

Twill Distilled is a singer, rapper, and musical producer originally from the Baltimore and DC Metro Area. She is know for her high energy performances, and unique dirty pop style.

Chris Uminga

Christopher Uminga is a Connecticut based painter and illustrator. He has spent the last ten years developing a unique style that blends together creepy and cute. You can find the influences of classic movies, Saturday morning cartoons, graffiti and low brow/outsider art in his work. 

Daisy Viktoria

Daisy Viktoria is a costume designer specializing in corsets and fairytale gowns with a historically inspired fantasy touch. Daisy teaches sewing and costuming through online content and tutorials.

Christian Waggoner

Christian Waggoner is known worldwide for his Star Wars Reflection series paintings. He as been working with Lucasfilm over 12 years. His uniquely enhanced, photo-realistic style makes viewers wonder how he achieves such detail with a mere brush and canvas.

David F Walker

David F. Walker is an award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and comic book writer.  He is the co-creator of Naomi and Bitter Root, and the author of The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History, The Life of Frederick Douglass, Power Man & Iron Fist, Nighthawk, Occupy Avengers, Cyborg, Shaft, among others.

Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson IV is a comic artist and illustrator living in Dallas, TX. He is the co-creator and artist of Heartthrob at Oni Press with writer Christopher Sebela and colorist Nick Filardi. He also co-created Knuckleheads at IDW / Monkeybrain with Brian Winkeler and Like A Virus with Ken Lowery. 

Derek Yaniger

Derek Yaniger is a toothless hillbilly that’s got a way long history of scratchin’ out art for lots of king-sized bigwigs like Marvel Comics and Cartoon Network. But nowadays he strictly digs the gigs that let him beat his own bongos.

Chrissie Zullo

Chrissie Zullo has created comic book covers for Star Wars: Forces of Destiny, Hack/Slash vs. Vampirella, Josie and the Pussycats, Vampirella, Life With Archie, and Vertigo’s Fables: The Wolf Among Us series. She has worked for DC Comics, Fandango, Mattel, Dark Horse, Devil’s Due, IDW, Topps, and Harper Collins. 

Karen Ceesay

Karen Ceesay is an actress, writer, and coach. She serves on the boards of Film Impact Georgia, ArtsATL, the organizing committee for SAG-AFTRA, and is a past board member of WIFTA.

Shellie Schmals

Shellie Schmals is Director of Community for Stage32.com, Creative Director of The Springs Cinema & Taphouse, leadership with Women in Film& Television Atlanta, Film Festival Alliance, and Georgia Production Partnership.

Arthur Bowling

Arthur Bowling is a fantasy/sci-fi illustrator who has also created work for tabletop games, book covers, and interior art. His work was featured in Writers of the Future Volume 36.

Alison Sky Richards

Alison Sky Richards received an MFA in Creative Writing from Western Colorado University focusing on screenwriting and genre fiction. Their passion involves teaching students to find their unique voice.

Melissa Simpson

Melissa Simpson is the Executive Director of the nonprofit Film Impact Georgia, and produces independent projects. She is heavily involved in the Atlanta film community and film festivals across Georgia.

Jennifer Bruce

Jennifer Bruce is a creative artist with a passion for storytelling, adventuring, and bringing beauty to the world. She is a winner in the Illustrators of the Future contest.