Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Peter S. Beagle was born in 1939 and raised in the Bronx, where he grew up surrounded
by the arts and education: both his parents were teachers, three of his uncles were
gallery painters, and his immigrant grandfather was a respected writer, in Hebrew, of
Jewish fiction and folktales. As a child Peter used to sit by himself in the stairwell of his
apartment building, making up stories. Today, thanks to classics like The Last Unicorn, A
Fine and Private Place, and “Two Hearts,” he is a living fantasy icon. Peter has written many teleplays and screenplays, including the animated versions of
The Lord of the Rings and The Last Unicorn, plus the fan-favorite “Sarek” episode of
Star Trek: The Next Generation. His nonfiction book I See By My Outfit is considered
a classic of American travel writing, and he is also a gifted poet, lyricist, and singer/
songwriter. He currently makes his home in Oakland, California. Already a famous book and movie, in 2011 The Last Unicorn also became a bestselling graphic novel from IDW Publishing.
Peter S. Beagle
Author
www.twitter.com/johnnyyongbosch Johnny Yong Bosch got his start fighting giant bugs as Adam Park, the Black Ranger
on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It is a role that he would play for three and a half
seasons on TV, two motion pictures and two special guest appearances in future Power
Rangers seasons.
After Power Rangers, Johnny became very involved in voice acting work for various
anime titles; usually landing the lead role. His first major voice acting role was Vash
the Stampede in Trigun. He will later go on and play the voices of Kaneda in Akira,
Renton in Eureka Seven, Claus in Last Exile, Clair in Heat Guy J, Sakaki in Witch Hunter
Robin, Mike in Please Twins, Albert in The Count of Monte Cristo, Kiba in Wolf's Rain,
Itsuki in The Melancholy of Haurhi Suzumiya, Ichigo Kurosaki in Bleach and Lelouch
Lamperouge in Code Geass.
Johnny’s voice can also be heard in numerous video games. He voices the main character
Nero in Devil May Cry 4 and performed voiceover work in Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria,
.hack//G.U., Persona 4, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Xenosaga, Wild Arms
4, Disgaea 3, Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, Eternal Sonata and Bumblebee in
Transformers: War for Cybertron.
When Johnny is not voice acting, he is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of his band Eyeshine.
Johnny Yong Bosch
Voice Actor, Lead Singer - Eyeshine
www.facebook.com/johnnyyongbosch
Chemistry
Yoshikuni Dochin
Kaname Kawabata
Friday Afternoon Concert
CHEMISTRY, with an amazing six #1 albums on the Oricon National Charts, along with 4 person dance group Synergy are making their U.S. debut this summer at Otakon 2011 July 29-31 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore MD. Recent anime songs by CHEMISTRY include "Period" for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and “Merry-Go-Round” in the recent OVA of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn.
CHEMISTRY is a Japanese R&B duo, composed of, Yoshikuni Dochin and Kaname Kawabata. After winning the Asayan audition in 2000 which was organized by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, they debuted in 2001 with three #1 singles (“Pieces of Dreams,” “Point of No Return,” and “You Go Your Way”) and a #1 album (The Way We Are).
In June 2002, CHEMISTRY participated in “Voices of KOREA/JAPAN,” a Korean/ Japanese collaboration vocal unit that sang the official theme song of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. They co-recorded the first Korean/Japanese collaboration song entitled “Let’s Get Together Now.” The song, performed at the pre-opening festival of the World Cup held in Korea, was hailed as the first national broadcast of a Japanese language song in Korea since WWII. Their performance at the World Cup opening ceremony was broadcast in 160 countries worldwide.
Not ones to rest on their laurels, CHEMISTRY went on to produce #1 album after #1 album. Hits include songs “Your Name Never Gone” and “Tokage feat. John Legend.”
In August 2010, CHEMISTRY recorded “A Better Tomorrow,” the world wide theme song for a Korean remake of the Hong Kong film "A Better Tomorrow" starring Song Seung- Heon.
The year saw the duo building on their successful career within Japan as well as highlights of increasing their presence in the rest of Asia including their endeavor to sing in Korean for the first time and in November, performing at the M-net Asian Music Awards held in Macao, receiving the Best Asian Male Artist award.
Also in 2010, CHEMISTRY worked together with the 4-person dance group Synergy to release "Shawty." Another joint work of the two groups was released November 3, 2010, titled "Keep Your Love."
This March, CHEMISTRY released their best of album, "CHEMISTRY 2001-2011," which commemorates their first decade together as a duo.
Here's a little music teaser of what songs CHEMISTRY might have at their concert at Otakon 2011!
DJ Saolilith
DJ, Cosplayer
Saolilith is a cosplay DJ playing the favorite anime tunes. In 2008, Saolilith appeared at the anime & fashion party “DENPA Vol.8” in Shibuya, where she became the regular line up for its party series. In the same year, she became the image girl model for GAINAX & Studio Khara’s official brand & site, “RADIO EVA (Evangelion)”. Saolilith’s DJ style of playing anime songs, while dancing and singing, has not only captured the hearts of the anime fans, but have caught media attentions, which lead her in expanding her works as a singer, model and writer for magazines.
After participating on the “Hatsune Miku –Project DIVA- 2nd NONSTOP MIX COLLECTION” album in 2010, Saolilith released “Saolilith Utattemita Hatsune Miku (She sang Hatsune Miku)” in April 2011. A mini album which she sang & mixed the sounds of popular Hatsune Miku tunes.
Be prepared for Saolilith’s first ever overseas party. She’ll surely greet you with her usual greetings “Lilith, I’m your pocket monster, Saolilith”:!!
www.eyeshine.net Eyeshine is a four piece, "edge rock" band originating in West Hills, California. We should probably add something cool in this bio about "how promising we sound" but we'd be lying. Maybe you should just come check us out and let us know what you think. If we suck, please don't throw tomatoes - we prefer a bag of Peanut M&M's, Skittles, Pork Grinds or Money (unmarked). Hopefully you'll like us and want to be our BFF. Members include Johnny, Maurice, Ji Ho Lee, and Crystal.
Eyeshine
Thursday Afternoon Concert
www.myspace.com/eyeshine
www.twitter.com/theeyeshineband
Scott Freeman
Voice Actor
Scott has been working at Funimation roughly six years as a voice actor on over 50 shows. While playing bit parts and background characters for the first few years, he began a plot to rise into stardom. This soon led to playing characters with actual names. Only in the last year or so he has begun playing larger parts, and his success in voice acting has grown. It will grow, and grow, until his FULL PLAN IS UNFURLED! HE WILL BE FEARED AND REVERED THROUGHOUT THE LAND! HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!! NOTHING CAN STOP HIM NOW! A few of the titles he can be heard in are Hetalia (as Britain), Baka and Test (as Yuuji Sakamoto), Ga-Rei: Zero (as Kazuki Sakuraba), Pirates: One Piece (as Yasopp and Kamakiri), Soul Eater (as Harvar D. Éclair), Chrome Shelled Regios (as Dominio Rixerio), Shin Chan, Initial D, KenIchi, Linebarrels, Desert Punk, Romeo X Juliet, and The Tower of Druaga.
Scott was always an artist first, a nerd second, and a musician third. He saw his first anime early in High School on a VHS tape recorded from the home of a Japanese classmate and was an instant fan. Although there were no subtitles, it was still amazing. Needless to say, having the opportunity to work with Funimation today is a dream come true. Scott is always excited to work on new shows with such amazing actors, and appreciates fans like himself who have helped to raise awareness of this culture and allow it to be taken so far along.
Toshihiro Fukuoka is the Chief Executive Editor of "ASCII Weekly Magazine" and an Editor at "Tokyo Kawaii Magazine," both from the ASCII Media Works publishing company. Mr. Fukuoka has played an active role in introducing Japanese anime and pop trends through these magazines including publishing a major feature on Hatsune Miku in "Tokyo Kawaii Magazine." He is the producer of MIKUNOPOLIS 2011. In addition, he is now writing "World Otaku Report" with Danny Choo.
Toshihiro Fukuoka
Chief Executive Editor, Producer
ASCII Media Works
Orine Fukushima is not only an accomplished voice actress, artist, and producer; she’s
also the CEO of Water Orion, Inc, the voice talent firm she founded. As a voice actress
Fukushima has starred in Yanbo, Ninbo, Tonbo as Yanbo, Let’s Go Anpan-man! as
Monaka, Ponta, and Kumata; Initial D as Saori; and Berserk as Young Guts. On the
video game side, she’s been Yayoi Dojima in the Ryu Ga Gotoko/Yakuza series; young
Ryo Hazuki in Shenmue; and President Elizabeth Winters in Vanquish. Fukushima will
also be a voice actress in the upcoming anime project, Angel ScandyS!
Orine Fukushima
Voice Actress
Otakon is proud to welcome director Noboru Ishiguro back to our convention. Ishiguro
is best known as a director, with some of his notable titles including Space Battleship
Yamato, Macross, Megazone 23, Astro Boy (1980), Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and Tytania. Ishiguro drafted the story for Megazone 23 based on his personal views of
government, having seen his own mislead with lies and obfuscation to lead the people
to war. Ishiguro also founded his own studio, Artland, in 1978. He currently remains a
part of the studio as Chairman, while also pursuing his love of directing. Fans meeting
Ishiguro at Otakon will also have the chance to his new directorial project: Angel
ScandyS!
Noboru Ishiguro
Director
Iwakami travels from Japan to present his latest work “Puella Magi Madoka Magica” at Otakon 2011. In addition to “Madoka Magica,” Iwakami has worked on many hit Aniplex titles including “the Garden
of Sinners”, “Bakemonogatari”, “Oreimo”, “Kannagi” just to name a few. He is currently working on
the new series “Fate/Zero” which will be premiered in October in Japan. After the “Madoka Magica”
premiere screening on Friday, he will speak in person about the show and behind the scenes.
Atsuhiro Iwakami
Producer
Aniplex
Masumi Kano graduated from Bunka Women's University. After graduation, she started working for BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT, working as a designer. "BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT" is a Japanese clothing boutique chain that specializes in Lolita fashion, with their main focus in the subcategory Sweet Lolita. BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT opened their first international retail store outside of Japan in Paris, France, and opened their first North American retail store in San Francisco, California, USA on August 15, 2009. Masumi, along with her fellow designer, Mitsuba will be hosting a special BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT, and ALICE and the PIRATES Fashion Show at Otakon 2011!
Masumi Kano
BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT
Fashion Designer
Roland Kelts
Photo by: Matthias Ley
Writer, Editor, Lecturer
Roland Kelts is a half-Japanese American writer, editor and lecturer who divides his time between New York and Tokyo. He is the author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US and the forthcoming novel, Access. He has presented on contemporary Japanese culture worldwide and has taught at numerous universities in Japan and the US, including New York University and the University of Tokyo. His fiction and nonfiction appear in such publications as Zoetrope: All Story, Psychology Today, Playboy, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Japan, Adbusters magazine, The Millions, The Japan Times, Animation Magazine, Bookforum, and The Village Voice. He is the Editor in Chief of the Anime Masterpieces screening and discussion program, the commentator for National Public Radio's series, "Pacific Rim Diary", and the author of a weekly column for The Daily Yomiuri newspaper. His latest project is the English edition of the Japanese literary culture magazine, Monkey Business, and his blog is: http://japanamerica.blogspot.com/
KYLEE
Sunday Musical Act
Kylee is a singer and currently lives in Arizona. Born to an American Father, and a Japanese mother, Kylee is the product of music without borders.
Kylee sang the National Anthem at an NBA game when she was only 11 years old, and at 15, she became the youngest artist to perform at SUMMER SONIC. She's the new generation Pop Icon, full of extraordinary and unprecedented experiences, But by day, she's your average high school honor student.
In March 2010, Kylee made her major label debut with "Kimi ga Irukara", the theme for her big screen debut in Dareka ga Watashi ni Kiss wo Shita.
In July 2010, she released her 2nd single “missing / IT’S YOU” that spread through the blogosphere like wildfire and became a smash hit.
The success was followed by the release of her 3rd single “Everlasting” - the main theme of the movie Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn episode 2 and has achieved #2 on the USEN request chart.
Finally coming home to perform in America, Kylee made her network debut on NBC's Today show May 12th and 13, 2011, with NBC's TODAY show calling Kylee a "Real Hannah Montana".
On July 13th, she will release her new single “NEVER GIVE UP!”
She will be performing on Sunday afternoon at Otakon 2011.
Cassandra Lee
Voice Actress
Cassandra Lee grew up playing in the concrete jungle of New York City. One of her first anime roles was also her scariest: Yubel in Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Luckily, her next two roles as twins Leo and Luna for Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s were much tamer. Her current role as Ritsu on K-ON! is by far her favorite. Other roles include Mayu in Kurokami, Uppi in Slayers Revolution, and Saki in DuRaRaRa! She now lives in Los Angeles, where she gets lots of sun but not enough beach.
Shelby Lindley
Voice Actress
Official Site
Shelby Lindley is relatively new to the world of anime, though not a stranger to voice over work. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she started acting professionally in theater at the age of 9. Then began picking up voice over work in her teens. Her list of voice work ranges from several character voices to commercial, for Nissan, SpinMaster, Casio, Mattel, etc. as well as several video games for Nintendo, AlmerBlank and more.
Also being a singer-songwriter, she makes up one third of LA’s growing in popularity folk trio, “Shelby, Tieg & Tara”. Her work in anime can be heard on the shows Tweeny Witches, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and K-ON.
Shelby is currently working as the English voice of “Tsumugi” on the anime series K-ON! as well as the webseries for LIV Doll’s “LIV Friends” as “Sophie”. She wishes everyone a wonderful time here at Otakon!
The founder of Madhouse Studios, Masao Maruyama has had a hand in the Japanese
animation industry for almost forty years. Maruyama was born in 1941 in the Miyagi
Prefecture. After graduation from Hosei University, he went to work for Mushi
Production. He later went on to help produce Unico, based on a story by Osamu Tezuka,
of Astro Boy fame. In 1972, Maruyama had a direct hand in the establishment of the
burgeoning new animation studio Madhouse and led the team as a creative producer for
many years. No matter the wide range of mediums in which Madhouse Studios dealt including
television, OAV, and theatrical release, Maruyama brought the same level of quality to
every production. Regardless of the subject matter, Murayama always brings something
new to the table, and he is internationally known for exceptional animation. Maruyama is
also acknowledged for his eye in finding young talent to bring into Madhouse; under his
creative guidance, talents like Satoshi Kon and Atsuko Ishizuka flourished. Since Madhouse’s inception, Maruyama has produced an amazing library of animation
including Barefoot Gen, Dagger of Kamui, Record of Lodoss War, Vampire Hunter D,
Ninja Scroll, Cardcaptor Sakura, Trigun, Perfect Blue, X, Boogiepop Phantom, Chobits,
PitaTen, Abenobashi Maho Shotengai, Gungrave, Gunslinger Girl, Black Lagoon, Kiba,
Nana, Tokyo Tribe 2, Beck, Monster, Highlander: Search for Vengeance, Devil May Cry,
Death Note, RAINBOW and the newly released Red Line. Maruyama has also overseen production of critically acclaimed films such as Paprika and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
Masao Maruyama
Producer
After graduating from a shop-staff of ALICE and the PIRATES, Mitsuba worked/experienced in Sales. Later, Mitsuba turned to the position of designer. She currently works as the Chief Designer of ALICE and the PIRATES. "ALICE and the PIRATES" is a line of the BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT clothing boutique chain. The ALICE and the PIRATES line has a strong pirate and pirate-punk theme. A store devoted to this line opened in Harajuku on the 25th of August 2006. Mitsuba, along with her fellow designer, Masumi Kano will be hosting a special BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT, and ALICE and the PIRATES Fashion Show at Otakon 2011!
Mitsuba
ALICE and the PIRATES
Chief Designer
Kazuya Murata
Director
Fullmetal Alchemist - The Sacred Star of Milos
From the Director who brought you the anime hits Eureka Seven, Pokeman, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Dennou Coil, Gunsmith Cats and Steel Angel Kurumi, comes Kazuya Murata’s latest movie: Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos.
Otakon is honored to be hosting the US Premiere of the subtitled Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos movie followed by a special Q&A panel with Mr. Murata afterwards.
Momoko Ohara
Voice Actress
Momoko Ohara is relatively new to the voice acting world, with his first role being Yu in the 2007 series Minami-ke. She reprised the character in the follow-ups to that series, Minami-ke: Okawari and Minami-ke: Okaeri. Ohara’s characters tend to be on the young side and since Minami-ke, she’s been Nao in Kanamemo; Miyashita in Mitsudomoe; young Shizou in Durarara!; Nicola in Jewelpet Tinkle; and Osamu Momochi in Level E. In her upcoming project, Angel ScandyS, Ohara will be playing Grill, a tomboy devil with the heart of a shounen manga hero.
Tony Oliver
Voice Actor, Producer, Director, and Writer
Tony Oliver began his career over 25 years ago as an actor on stage and on camera, performing in several feature films and dozens of plays. His first foray into television was as the lead voice in the popular animated series Robotech.
In 1992 Tony was tapped to help create a new kind of children's television show. The result was the mega children's hit, The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Tony not only served as the development producer but also wrote the pilot episode, produced the network presentation and story edited the first season. As Supervising Producer, Tony took on the additional responsibilities of writing, producing and directing the Power Rangers live appearances including the February 1994 appearance at Universal Studios, Hollywood, which drew an estimated 50,000 people on a single day. Later in the year he co-developed and wrote the script for the international sensation Mighty Morphin Power Ranger - Live Tour and spent several months in Sydney, Australia consulting on the 20th Century Fox summer release Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - The Movie. Before leaving Saban Entertainment, Tony wrote, produced and directed a Power Rangers retrospective special, which earned significant Saturday morning ratings among kids and was the top rated program on FOX Kids the day it aired.
In 1999 Tony left Saban Entertainment but has continued to develop, produce, voice and direct numerous projects for TV, Film, Video Games, and New Media. More recent projects include .hack//GU a multi-player online video game; Daigunder, an anime series for ABC Family/Disney, Gurren Lagann a breakthrough anime series airing on the Sci Fi Channel, and Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers which premiered on screens nationwide.
Tony’s many voice acting credits include Lupin in Lupin the 3rd, Hibiki in Vandread, Gojyo in Sayuki Reload, Harry in Gun Grave, Ranmaru in Tokko, Shinbo in Chobits, Ulquiorra in Bleach, Lancer in Fate/Stay Night and Saba in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as well as voices in video games such as Dynasty Warriors, World of Warcraft,Everquest, Neverwinter Nights, Xenosaga, Magna Carta II, Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight, Basara 3 and BlazBlue. He is currently directing the English dub of K-ON
Lisa Ortiz
Voice Actress, Producer, Director
Lisa Ortiz is a veteran voice actress holding a BFA in theatre from Hofstra University. She began her career as the high elf Deedlit in Record of Lodoss War and since then she has gone on to record dozens of anime, series, audio books, video games, and films as well as eventually moving behind the microphone as a Producer, Director and Adapter.
She is 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 also appeared in a number of other anime including Pokemon, Revolutionary Girl Utena (Shiori), Magic Users Club (Nanaka), Animation Runner Kuromi (Kuromi), and One Piece (Tony Tony Chopper).
Her work has appeared in Film festivals as well as on television, and she can currently be heard as Oshawott in Pokemon Black and White and as Patina in Magical DoReMi.
Until 2003, Masayuki Ozaki worked for GAGA COMMUNICATIONS, INC where he was involved
in acquisitions of Hollywood titles and distribution & promotion of domestic titles. In 2004, he
began his career at Sunrise Inc. where he was a planning manager for Mobile Suit Z GUNDAM
series. 2005 saw Ozaki launching anime projects such as Sergent Keroro, Zorori the Naughty
Hero and other titles that are based on popular manga or novels as a producer and a planning
manager. His credits include Dinosaur King, Inuyasha-The Final Act, and Gintama the Movie. He
also served as a board member for the founding of a music and live entertainment company in
2010. He takes his producer role beyond the realm of anime and is involved in producing music
events, musicals, and other areas of show business.
Masayuki Ozaki
Producer
Scott Sager
ADR Director
Scott started in the Anime industry as an ADR engineer at FUNimation recording Dragonball Z, then moving on to other shows including Yu Yu Hakusho, Speed Grapher, Samurai 7 and Mongolian Chop Squad. He left the company for a couple of years to design two expansions of the Yu Yu Hakusho trading card game and serve as Score Entertainment’s Organized Play Manager before returning to FUNimation. Coming back as an ADR engineer, he quickly transitioned into a directing position working on such fan-favorite shows as One Piece, Strike Witches and Hetalia Axis Powers.
Takamasa Sakurai
Content Media Producer, Author and Journalist
Born in 1965, Mr. Sakurai is a content media producer, an author and a journalist. He is currently involved as cultural exchange spokesman, giving talks in 72 cities in 20 countries and produced fashion shows. He is one of the first persons to use animation and Harajuku fashion in cultural exchange programs and is often invited as a guest in events about Japan.
Mr. Sakurai is most famous as the author of books such as the Anime Bunka Gaiko (Anime Culture Diplomacy) and Sekai Kawaii Kakumei (World Kawaii Revolution), and for taking part in the establishment of "Kawaii Ambassadors" - three Japanese girls who offer lectures on Japanese fashion at such events as Paris's Japan Expo.
Akira Sasanuma
Voice Actor
Mr. Sasanuma has lent his voice to many wonderful anime and game titles over the years, Some of his most well known roles include Link from the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess and Super Smash Bros., Dearka Elsman in the Mobile Suit Gundam SeeD Series, and as Austria in the internationally beloved Hetalia Axis Powers, Hetalia World Series and Hetalia the Movie- Paint it, White!. Mr. Sasanuma is excited to meet with his North American fans attending Otakon 2011 at the Hetalia premiere and Q&A Panel as well as at his focus panel and autograph sessions throughout the weekend.
Patrick Seitz
Voice Actor
Patrick Seitz is a Los Angeles voiceover actor, script adapter and ADR director who has lent his efforts to over 100 anime and video game titles over the last decade.
Patrick is definitely what you’d call a character actor, having voiced roles like Germany in Hetalia, Simon in Durarara!; Agni in Black Butler, Sloth in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Chosokabe Motochika in Sengoku Basara, Grimmer in Monster, Nekozawa in Ouran, Isshin Kurosaki in Bleach, George in Paradise Kiss, Dhaos in Tales of Phantasia, Koshiro in Koi Kaze, Lee Linho in ROD the TV, and Luke Valentine in Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate.
On the video game side of the ledger, you can hear him as Scorpion in Mortal Kombat 9; Ragna the Bloodedge in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift and Calamity Trigger, Artanis in Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, Kaptin Bluddflagg in Dawn of War II: Retribution; Silverbolt in Transformers: War for Cybertron, Arthas Menethil and Garrosh Hellscream in World of Warcraft, Dracula in various recent Castlevania iterations, Chopin in Eternal Sonata, and Radi Jaeger in Valkyria Chronicles.
In addition to the voiceover work, Patrick has done script-adapting and/or ADR direction for Summer Wars, Monster, Romeo X Juliet, Naruto, Blue Dragon, Honey & Clover, Hell Girl, Girls Bravo, Kamichu!, Tales of Phantasia, The Melody of Oblivion, Zegapain, Guardian of the Spirit and Rumiko Takahashi Anthology.
Patrick has a BA in Creative Writing and an MFA in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts, both of which he received at the University of California, Riverside. Before falling down the voiceover rabbit hole, he spent two very Welcome Back, Kotter-esque years teaching English at his old high school.
Stephanie Sheh
Voice Actress, Director, Producer
Best known for her voice-acting work in "Naruto" as Hinata, "Bleach" as Orihime, and "Eureka 7" as Eureka, Stephanie is a voice actor, voice director, ADR writer, and producer. Her credits include Mamimi in "FLCL" which she also produced, Mikuru in "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya," Akira in "Lucky Star," Guu in "Hare and Guu," Kirie in "Girls Bravo," to name a few. Some recent credits include Michon in "Eden of the East," Kaguya in "Sengoku Basara," Sylphiel in "Slayers," and Audrey in "Gundam Unicorn," Sunrise's billingual simultaneous release, on which she also works as production coordinator. Stephanie's most recent role is Yui in Bandai-distributed K-ON!. It is a dream come true, since when Stephanie was in college she spent countless hours learning opening and ending theme songs to her favorite anime shows, writing out the romanji phonetically and hitting the karaoke clubs.
Stephanie can also be heard in numerous videogames including "Bioshock 2," "Devil May Cry 4" "Tales of the Abyss," "We Cheer," and the upcoming "The Secret World." She is the current voice of Rebecca Chambers in the "Resident Evil" franchise, as well as one of the game's voice directors. Stephanie also mocapped the role of Cereza in Sega's "Bayonetta." In addition to her roles in anime and videogames, Stephanie can also be heard as Sassy in Mattel's Barbie webseries "Fashionistas," Sue in Capri Sun's online webseries "Disrespectoids," Sarah Lynn in Fisher Price's "Little People: Wheelies," and as Hearty in the soon to be released web show "The Qpiz." Stephanie also voiced Mai Li in an upcoming episode of Warner Bros' new "Scooby Doo." She also recently had the joy of dancing in a Flashmob on ABC's hit show "Modern Family." To keep up with the latest news from Stephanie follow her on twitter and like her Facebook fanpage.
Stephanie has also started a volunteer organization called We Heart Japan that throws fundraising events to raise money for victims of Japan's earthquake and tsunami. For more information about the group please visit www.weheartjapan.com.
Otakon is also proud to welcome Chiaki Shimogawa to this year’s convention.
Shimogawa is a relative newcomer with her first starring role being Edward Thomas
in 2009’s Before Green Gables, an anime adaptation of the prequel to Lucy Maud
Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. Later that year, she voiced Hiro-kun in Yumeiro
Patissiere for a few episodes. Shimogawa will be voicing schoolgirl Tsuzumi Usui in
Angel ScandyS, bringing her vibrant voice to a character with a cheerful outlook on life.
Chiaki Shimogama
Voice Actress
Makoto Shinkai
Director, Animator, Voice Actor
Makoto Shinkai, a director, animator, and voice actor, will appear this year at Otakon 2011.
Makoto Shinkai is a native of the Nagano prefecture in Japan. While in middle school, exposure to manga, anime, and novels birthed his desire for creation. One of these anime was Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki which he describes as his favorite. This desire led to his studies in Japanese literature at university.
His works include the award winning She and Her Cat, Voices of a Distant Star which was written, directed, and produced entirely by himself and in which he voiced in the original, the critically acclaimed The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and the multiple award winning series of short stories in the film 5 Centimeters Per Second.
This year, Makoto Shinkai has released his latest work, Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below, which was released in Japan on May 7, 2011.
Bob Shirohata
Director
Mr. Shirohata is very excited to be visiting his North American fans coming all the way from Japan for Otakon 2011. He has directed various well loved series such as Gravitation, Diamond Daydreams, Let's Dance With Papa and the smash hit series, Hetalia Axis Powers, Hetalia World Series and Hetalia the Movie- Paint it, White!. Mr. Shirohata will be appearing at FUNimation Hetalia World Series premiere/ Q & A panel, his focus panel and at autograph sessions throughout the weekend.
Otakon is proud to announce that Sixh. will appear at Otakon 2011 and will host their own Sixh. Fashion Show. In 2007, “Sixh.” was born through the collaboration of young fashion design duo IBI and
MINT through the success of h.ism, h. NAOTO’s project started in the mid 2000s based
on the theme of fashion and music co-existing in one entity. Started by IBI, the fashion line Sixh. unites visual-kei artistry with the imagery of
popular host and hostess clubs. A new theme, ghost-kei, is created by combining the
words “gothic” and “host” into “ghost”. MINT launches the line with the New Japan
Mode Collection featuring its relaxed character, “MINT Neko”, and Sixh. flourishes from
there. Without a doubt, Sixh.’s cool, carefree ideas are not restricted by ordinary rules of
fashion or society. Also in 2007, Sixh. expanded from a fashion brand into a band with the same name. IBI
sings vocals with MINT on the bass, joined by guitarist NARI. Sixh.’s unique musical
presentation crosses the Western standard of “rock” with the fashions of ghost-kei. In 2010, Sixh.’s ladies’ collection “MelT” joins the line-up with designer MIKA in the
lead. It mixes sexiness with a touch of devilish cuteness by using gorgeous butterflies and
roses as the main motifs. IBI’s Ageha-kei fashion line is also in the works.
h. NAOTO’s fashion line and band Sixh. is constantly adapting and merging with ever-
evolving Japanese counterculture. At heart, Sixh. is the sixth sense beyond the five
senses.
Sixh.
IBI
MINT
Fashion Designers
J. Michael Tatum
Voice Actor
Nurtured on anime classics from the tender age of Star Blazers, et al, reclusive fanboy-turned- voice actor/writer/ADR director/flake extraordinaire J. Micahel Tatum spent more years than he cares to remember in what might charitably be described as freefall before landing, mostly by accident, smack dab on the industry of his dreams. To this day, some believe the small crater made by the impact remains the source of his power.
Discovered by Funimation warhorse and visionary ADR director Christopher Bevins, who cast him as Rikichi in 2005’s Samurai 7, Tatum’s inexplicable luck has held long enough to see his flag hoisted on a slew of dream roles, most notably Kyoya Otori in the hit English language dub of Ouran High School Host Club and suave, demonic Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler. Other characters the man still can’t believe he’s had the crazy good fortune to play include: Doumeki in XXXHolic, Jiro Mochizuki in Black Blood Brothers, Isaac Dian in Baccano!, Both God Eneru and Dalton in the new dub of One Piece, Komui Lee in D-Gray Man, Dororo in Sgt. Frog, the titular loveable savage of Heroic Age, Ryosuke Takahashi in Initial D, Lawrence Kraft in Spice and Wolf, Zarbon in Dragon Ball Z Kai, and Scar in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. His vocal “stylings,” much to the chagrin of drama teachers everywhere, he’s sure, have also been featured in Romeo X Juliet, Speed Grapher, Trinity Blood, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Black Cat, Nabari, Ghost Hunt, School Rumble, The Tower of Druaga, Aquarion, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles, Shuffle!, Shigurui, Glass Fleet, Mushishi, Soul Eater, along with feature- length films such as Vexille and Summer Wars, among many others.
And as if being involved with so many awesome shows wasn’t enough, in late 2007 the fluky so- and-so tempted fate by officially branching out into ADR directing and adaptive scriptwriting for Funimation as well. His ADR directing credits to date include Aquarion, Jyu-oh-Sei, Romeo X Juliet, Big Windup, Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne and Corpse Princess, while his writing credits include substantial work on Ouran High School Host Club, Heroic Age, Initial D, Blassreiter, Ga Rei: Zero and Dragon Ball Z Kai.
In early 2010 he teamed up with Terri Doty and Stephen Hoff to launch That Anime Show, a web-based chat show centered on colorful, often diabolically unhinged interviews with friends and colleagues within the dubbing industry, all episodes of which can be downloaded for free at thatanimeshow.com
Ever the workaholic, Tatum is currently burning the midnight oil on a number of exciting projects due for release later this year. And before you ask, the “J” stands for… Well, it stands for whatever you’d like it to.
Nobuo Uematsu
SPECIAL APPEARANCE
Composer
Mr.Uematsu will appear by special arrangement with Distant Worlds, in a Q&A session on Friday July 29th, followed by a charity autograph session. This special autograph session will require a donation of at least $20 to the Japanese Red Cross for ongoing relief efforts in Japan.
Nobuo Uematsu is one of the most celebrated composers in the video game field. He has achieved global recognition for his work on the FINAL FANTASY series that has been performed by world-class orchestras around the world. Nobuo Uematsu has been recognized as a major contributor in the increasing appreciation and awareness of video game music. A prime example is the FINAL FANTASY VIII theme song, "Eyes on Me,” composed and produced by him. His song featured Hong Kong pop star Faye Wong and sold a record 400,000 copies. It also won "Song of the Year (Western Music)" at the 14th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards in 1999, which was the first time in history that music from a video game had attained this illustrious honor. The music from the game series has grown to such notoriety, Nobuo Uematsu was named as one of the "Innovators" in Time Magazine's Time 100: the Next Wave Music feature.
Mr Uematsu appears by special arrangement with Distant Worlds and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Cristina Vee is an anime and video game voice actress residing near Los Angeles, California. She has starred in anime such as Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha as the titular character, Rozen Maiden as Kanaria, The Familiar of Zero as Louise, Aika in Aika R-16, and Mio Akiyama in K-ON. Other anime roles include parts in Kannazuki no Miko, Hare + Guu, and The Blade of the Immortal. She also has voiced for popular video games such as Luminous Arc 2 (Sylphy), Rune Factory Frontier (Cinnamon), Blazblue and its sequel (Noel, Mu-12, Nu-13, Lambda-11), Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow (Kluke), Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (Anri), Dynasty Warriors 7 (Lian Shi), Hyperdimension Neptunia (Compa) and Ar Tonelico Qoga (Saki, Sakia, Sarapatra, Filament). She also is the announcer for several Purikura photobooth machines. Cristina has also gained popularity through her YouTube channel as MilkyCabbage and ValliereVee with her English dubs and Japanese covers of anime songs. Her accounts combined have accumulated 30,000 subscribers and nearly 10 million views. In front of the camera, she has co-hosted AnimeTV and the Funimation On Demand recaps with Johnny Yong Bosch and Jonathan Meza. She helped promote Haruhi Suzumiya season 2 in the Adventures of the ASOS Brigade (as Haruhi Suzumiya).
Cristina Vee
Voice Actress
Tom Wayland
Voice Actor, Producer, Director
Tom Wayland is proud to have made a long and successful career out of his most favorite things - acting, directing, and making raucous, loud rock and roll music. Tom has produced and/or directed hundreds of anime programs such as Now & Then, Here & There, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Alien Nine, The World of Narue, Ichi the Killer, Mew Mew Power, Magical Do Re Mi, and GI Joe and currently serves as the voice director on the hit series Pokemon.
Tom is also a very busy voice actor having appeared in hundreds of titles currently airing on Cartoon Network, Fox, WB, Nickelodeon or available on DVD including Yugi-oh 5Ds as Crow, Lester, and Nervin, GI Joe as Stormshadow, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as Jammerhead, Pokemon as Flint, Reggie, Arceus, and numerous creatures, Ikki Tousen as Kakuton, Three Delivery, Yugi-oh GX, Chaotic, One Piece, Mew Mew Power, Knight Hunters, Genshiken, Gokusen, and keep an ear out for his latest work as one of the lead characters - Finn in Tai-Chi Chasers.
Most recently Tom is proud to say that he’s cornered the Indian animation market as the go-to slacker/stoner character and is also conquering the world of ESL teaching the masses how to be talking some good English.
Mari Yoshida
Singer
A professional Japanese ninja and also a good singer, Mari will debut with the Last Goodbye project by EDAMAMATION, singing music composed by Japan's leading composers and recorded and mixed by John Kurlander, engineer responsible for the Beatles and the Lord of the Rings. Born in Tokyo, she is forever young as she took the "Perpetual youth and immortality" drug. She hates cucumbers but loves ham and likes to get drunk. She hates the sun and likes to stay indoors but is somehow, very much tanned. She also loves video games so much so that sometimes it seems she has no life. An avid collector of custom entry stamps in her passport but hates travelling. Oh, did we tell you she is a great singer and will take part in a lot of Video Game and Anime music in the near future?
Hiraoki Yura
Violinist
Hiroaki Yura is a Japanese violinist who is the founder and Artistic Director of the Eminence Symphony Orchestra in Sydney, Australia.
The founder of the Eminence Symphony Orchestra, the Eminence Audio Production company, and a violin virtuoso, Hiroaki has extensive solo experience ranging from recitals to solo concerto performances. He has played for heads of state, international delegates and officials such as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Ambassadors and Consulate Generals to many nations.
Hiroaki has performed with exalted and revered musicians such as Prof. Chikashi Tanaka (violin), Maestro John Harding (violin), Alexev Yemstov (piano), Alexander Gavriluk (piano), and has had a wealth of experiences with top composers around the globe. Hiroaki Yura has performed as a soloist with most of the major Chinese Orchestras including the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Symphony Orchestra, and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Nanjing Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Youth Orchestra, Woollahra Symphony Orchestra, and debuted in Japan with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.
Hiroaki has won numerous competition internationally and locally, including the 7th Etoh Toshiya International Violin Competition for Young Violinists, was a prize winner at the Gisbourne International Music Competition in New Zealand, received multiple scholarships to study at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and has received scholarships with a number of other institutions.
Hiroaki has been critically acclaimed by many leading artists such as Pinchas Zukermann, Salvatore Accardo, and Wanda Wilkomirska.
He now directs all orchestral recording for Interactive Entertainment and Films. Amongst his notable credits are The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Diablo III, Soul Calibur IV, and The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk.
