Guests

• Director and Production Designer for Halo Legends
• Director of Appleseed: Ex Machina and Appleseed
• Conceptual Designer for Soul Eater
• Mechanical Design for Wolf's Rain
• Production Design for Full Metal Alchemist
• Mechanical Design for Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow
• Original Mechanical Design for Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles
• Screenplay, Mecha Design and Production Design for Bubblegum Crisis (OVA)
• Mechanical Design for Genesis Climber Mospeada
• Creator of Transformers Soundwave and Perceptor

Laura Bailey

Laura Bailey got her start voice acting playing Kid Trunks on the hit series Dragonball Z, and went on to play several leads in other popular anime titles. Some of her most recognizable roles are: Maka in Soul Eater, Shin in Shin Chan, Tohru Honda in Fruits Basket, Lust in Fullmetal Alchemist, Keiko in Yu Yu Hakusho, Sana in Kodocha, Marlene in Blue Gender, Oboro in Basilisk, Henrietta in Gunslinger Girl. But her list of credits doesn't end there. Laura has worked on over fifty titles in both Texas and California, providing her directing and producing talents to many of them. To see her full list of credits, visit her website at www.lizardbee.com. And for those gamers out there, Laura recently took over the role of Jaina Proudmoore in the World of Warcraft franchise. You can also hear Laura's voice as Serah in the new Square Enix release, Final Fantasy XIII, as well as Chun Li in Street Fighter 4, Rise in Persona 4, in the BloodRayne games (as the vampire Rayne), Tales of Symphonia: Dawn.

Travis Willingham

TRAVIS WILLINGHAM is probably best known as the voice of Colonel Roy Mustang in the hit anime series’, FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST and FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD.
His other anime credits include Juugo/Black Zetsu in NARUTO, Kanda in D. GRAY MAN, Akon in BLEACH, Mori in OURAN HIGH HOST CLUB, Pierre in AQUARION, Badrick Serihan in BLACK BLOOD BROTHERS, Andreas Darlton in CODE GEASS, Iggy in ERGO PROXY, Kaiji in GUNXSWORD, Cleo in GLASS FLEET, Ginko in MUSHISHI, Portgas D. Ace in ONE PIECE, Takigawa in GHOST HUNT, Eustoma in SHUFFLE, as well as other roles in HELLSING ULTIMATE, CASE CLOSED, YU YU HAKUSHO, BLUE GENDER.
You can catch Travis in such feature films as SECONDHAND LIONS, RAY, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, PRISON A-GO-GO, THE GUARDIAN, and A PERFECT GETAWAY. He has also worked on CBS' COLD CASE, FX's NIP/TUCK, and Fox's PRISON BREAK, and ABC’s PRIVATE PRACTICE.
An avid gamer himself, some of Travis’ video game credits include Ratchet and Hotrod in TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON, Guile in STREET FIGHTER 4, Nathan Hale in RESISTANCE 2, Cell in DRAGONBALL Z, Torgal in THE LAST REMNANT, Clint in TALES OF VESPERIA, Zhang Liao/Zhou Tai in DYNASTY WARRIORS 6, FINAL FANTASY 13, TIME CRISIS 4, VALKYRIE PROFILE 2: SILMERIA, DAWN OF MANA, ONE PIECE: GRAND BATTLE, RED FACTION: GUERILLA WARFARE, ARMORED CORE: FOR ANSWER, LEGENDARY, and GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR.
Currently, Travis is playing The Hulk and The Human Torch, in Marvel's new animated series, THE SUPER HERO SQUAD SHOW on Cartoon Network.
Check out this and more at WWW.TRAVISWILLINGHAM.COM .

Samantha Inoue Harte

Samantha Inoue Harte is a founder of an animation Studio called Saiko Studios. She is also an animation instructor and voice actress for ADV Films and Funimation Entertainment. She is perhaps most recognized for her role as Crux, Chobi & Chocobo in Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Li Kohran in Sakura Wars and as Shinyoh in Soul Hunter. She also does 2D animation and her work is shown in Lilo & Stitch: Stitch has a Glitch, on the Clerks 10th Anniversary DVD for the Clerks: The Lost Episode, and Spike TV's Fresh Baked Video Games. She acts in live action movies and can be seen in Grindhouse, Sin City, Man of the House, Idiocracy and The Return. She is currently doing foley work on the new Predator movie.

Lisa Ortiz

Lisa Ortiz’s career as a voice over artist began under the shroud of an attempted auto larceny gone awry. Luckily for her, and for her sibling the perpetrator in question, the car battery died. (No seriously, my brother tried to steal my car. That’s how I got into anime. Just ask me. I’ll tell you.). What followed was a string of serendipitous events that to led her to a career in voice acting that has spanned over a decade, includes dozens of animated series, films, video games, audiobooks, commercials and other voice work. A veteran voice actress holding a BFA in theatre from Hofstra University, she is perhaps best known in the anime world for her works as Lina Inverse in Slayers (a role she reprises in Slayers Evolution), Amy in Sonic the Hedgehog and Serenity Wheeler in Yu-Gi-Oh. She has appeared in a number of animation including Pokemon, Revolutionary Girl Utena (Shiori), Magic Users Club (Nanaka), Animation Runner Kuromi (Kuromi), One Piece, and Winx Club and a number of others including the role of Yuko in the film Exte. After an extensive time spent in front of the microphone, she has in the past few years stepped behind it to Direct, Produce and Adapt animation as well. She can currently be heard in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, on 4kidstv as Patina in Magical Do Re Mi, and this fall in the series airing this fall, Angel’s Friends (Miki/Cabiria) which she produced the adr on, and co-adapted. A personal triumph is her work in the Game Grand Theft auto, which she believes stands as a symbolic homage to her illicit beginnings as a voice over actress. She currently resides in NYC, and does not own a car.

Michael Sinterniklaas

Mike is the founder of NYAV Post, a dubbing studio in New York City his tallents behind the camera include Leonardo in the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and Dean Venture (and other small parts) in the Adult Swim cartoon The Venture Bros., Leo in Fullmetal Alchemist, Mikey Simon in the Nicktoons Network series Kappa Mikey, and Mahad in Yu-Gi-Oh!. In the past, Sinterniklaas has dubbed such shows as Twin Signal, Night Hunters, Magic User's Club, and Berserk. He is currently the voice director on the Animation Collective Nicktoon Three Delivery.

Amy Howard Wilson and David G. Wilson, III

Detroit native AMY HOWARD WILSON had the honor of being cast as voice talent for the classic 1970s anime series STAR BLAZERS, as the voice of Nova (Mori Yuki) in Season 1 - The Quest For Iscandar and Season 2 - The Comet Empire. In 1997, after many years of thinking about Star Blazers only as a fond memory, she was delighted to learn that there are fans around the world who still honor its memory. Since 2002, she's been recording and producing audio books for an Australian author and good friend, Wendy Laing, and has formed a family friendly, full service audio production company called Studio V.O.I.C..E., and coined a new title CVO (Chief Vocal Officer!), and recently entered a new joint venture with Writers Exchange E-Publishers - http://www.writers-exchange.com

Jennie Breeden

Jennie Breeden is the creator of the webcomic The Devil's Panties. Her autobiographical daily strip covers every facet of life from conventions and clubbing to roller derby and pirates. There really is nothing more strange than reality. She lives in Atlanta with her boyfriend and his cat.

Robert and Emily DeJesus (Studio Capsule)

ROBERT and EMILY DEJESUS are no strangers to the anime and manga community. An Indiana born, self-taught artist, Robert got his first art career break when he sent an 8-page story to comic publisher Antarctic Press in February of 1990. He has drawn manga inspired art for well over 18 years and has been published nearly all over the world for companies like Playstation Magazine, Marvel, Hasbro, and most recently with Harper Collins Publishing, just to name a few. Emily met Robert at an convention and they haven't been apart since that day. Emily helps write the web comic "How to Loathe Drawing in the Manga Style" and has just finished writing her first children's book. Together as Studio Capsule they're involved in creating a line of low print run doujinshis, portfolios, animated shorts, and other projects of every kind. Find out everything that's new with either Studio Capsule or Robert and Emily DeJesus at www.robertdejesus.com or view more current information on live journal under user banzchan.

Misako Rocks!

MISAKO ROCKS! developed a love for comics and manga at an early age and drew her first comic a the age of 13. She moved to New York in 2001 and worked as a puppeteer, face painter, anime balloon maker and art teacher while still developing her own works. Her first break came when The Onion decided to use her illustrations for Dan Savage's famous "Savage Love" column, which runs every week in alternative weekly newspapers across the nation and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Misako scored a two book deal with Hyperion, a three book deal with Henry Holt and a writing gig for Archie Comics. She has been featured in many magazines and newspapers, including Elle Girl and the New York Times. The BBC also featured her in a documentary about comic book creators. On top of that, she has recently received the Venice Beach, LA Playwright award!

Rikki Simons

He is known as the voice of the robot GIR on Invader Zim, the writer and co-artist of the graphic novel series ShutterBox (published by Tokyopop), Super Information Hijinks: Reality Check! and the illustrated novel Ranklechick and His Three-Legged Cat (self-published through Lulu.com). He also co-created and wrote the Robotech: Clone comic series. In addition to his graphic novel and novel work, Rikki also paints backgrounds for animation, including Invader Zim and Jackie Chan Adventures. He painted both issues of Jhonen Vasquez's comic I Feel Sick. He works with his partner and his wife, the illustrator Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons. Rikki is also a frequent guest panelist on the videogame and geek culture podcast, The Weekly Geek.

Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons

Tavisha is an American born artist of German and Japanese descent. Tavisha first started drawing in the anime and manga style when her grandmother sat her down in front of a television showing Kimba the White Lion and said, "This cartoon is Japanese, just like you." One year old Tavisha then began drawing in the only style she knew, first "anime", and later "manga". From the start she felt a deep cultural connection with anime and manga - a feeling that hasn't faded in the least, even after many year of struggling in a very un-Kimba, super hero-centric American comic market; she has always striven to be an independent artist with an original vision. Tavish produces her art and stories under the studio name of Tavicat (and sometimes "WiredPsyche") along with her husband, Rikki. After a decade of publishing manga influenced comics in the American market, Tavisha has had the opportunity to work with a variety of properties, attaching her much loved spin to them. A fan favorite, Tavisha has designed manga versions of established western cartoon characters for Nickelodeon Magazine, she has designed characters and fashions from the ground up for companies such as Tokyopop and Digital Manga and she has co-created original titles such as Ranklechick and his Three-Legged Cat, and Super Information Hijinks: Reality Check! and Shutterbox. Now with the tremendous success of her ShutterBox manga series, Tavisha is looking to an even brighter future.

Tim Eldred divides his time between anime fandom and big time TV cartoons. In addition to drawing storyboards for such blockbusters as Batman: the Brave and the Bold, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, and the forthcoming Avengers 'toons, he spends a startling amount of time researching and writing about the history of Space Battleship Yamato for >starblazers.com . He also draws graphic novels about talking gorillas in space (titled Grease Monkey) and webcomics that continue the Star Blazers phenom online. He's doing panels aplenty this year, so don't be surprised if you accidentally trip over one.

Host of AWA's popular "Totally Lame Anime" event, NEIL NADELMAN's day job is that of production translator for anime titles as diverse as CODE GEASS, KARE KANO, AREA 88, REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA, IRRESPONSIBLE CAPTAIN TYLOR, KIKAIDER, EUREKA SEVEN, GALL FORCE, BLUE SUBMARINE NO.6, BUBBLEGUM CRASH, TIME STRANGER, LUPIN III, DOMINION TANK POLICE, VOTOMS, APPLESEED, FUSHIGI YUGI, MAETEL LEGEND, URUSEI YATSURA, ODIN, NIGHT ON THE GALACTIC RAILROAD, ASSEMBLE INSERT, SILENT SERVICE, THIS IS GREENWOOD, SLAYERS, MACROSS, FIST OF THE NORTH STAR, YOTODEN, GIANT ROBO, MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM, ZENKI, RECORD OF LODOSS WARS, MERMAID FOREST, GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, TENCHI IN TOKYO, just to name a few.

A graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Chicago, JONATHAN TARBOX spent fifteen years in Japan. After working for Coamix Inc. as senior editor of Raijin Comics, he took the position of Group Editor at DC Comics, in charge of starting up and operating the CMX manga line. He produced over 20 volumes of graphic novels, including GALS and TENJHO TENGE. In 2005, Jonathan formed Arashi Productions, a manga and anime production company. His current clients include DC Comics and Viz Media.

David Williams