The Royal Dead

Since 2002, THE ROYAL DEAD (ex,Phantasmagoria) have emerged as a leading force in the Japanese goth/darkwave scene, through both their music and their organisation/promotion of live events. Combining commercial dance beats with stunning visual presentation, THE ROYAL DEAD are quite literally the face of Japanese future pop…

Aci began the violin 5 years old. He learned the classic music between 12 years. Also He took an active part as a bass player. He formed the unit of "Phantasmagoria" (THE ROYAL DEAD) at 2002. Also he began to compose tunes same time. Representative tunes are Howling (2004) and HEARTBEATER (2008).

In 2001 HAR. began to photograph. Her picture was published in Gothic Lolita Bible by Japanese famous gothic cloth shop "Miho Matsuda" and more. Also HAR. was appeared a lot of fashion show by model same time. 2002 HAR. was formed Phantasmagoria. She is taking an active part by vocalist. Since 2007, HAR. is joining in dancer of "Blood" by support member.

You can visit their official website at http://www.magoria.net/.

Phil Dixon has hosted his Chill With Phil program for almost six years on KTOV Ch 21. "When I was a kid my greatest joy was staying up late on Friday nights and watching horror films on KTVT ch 11 in Fort Worth". After a five year stint in News radio he got the opportunity to go to work for a low power TV station KTOV ch 7 (which has since grown and is now a flagship station). The station needed to meet FCC requirements for local production so it was decided that Phil would sit and talk about something which could be of "pertinent interest to the community" and to fill out the two hours, he would show a movie.

Inadvertently becoming a horror host Dixon stayed away from the pattern set by most horror host of dressing as a spooky character. " I am just not that creative" said Dixon " Doing something like that requires a lot of talent, from make up and costume to creating and maintaining a character. I just don't have that kind of patience with myself."

Dixon appears in the new film Edges of Darkness, a trilogy set in So. California during a time when vampires and zombies do battle for food an dominance of society.

"The story is really unique" Dixon remarked. "Humans are in now the food supply for two warring factions of the undead. I don't think anything has been done like that before".

Dixon explained that his close friend, film producer James L. Bills (Refuge of Last Resort and Slayer Zed and The City of the Dead)went to Los Angeles to work on Edges but returned minus an entire scene. This scene was probably lost in transit.Under a deadline Bills asked Dixon to portray a prostitute eating zombie. These scenes were shot in Corpus in and around the 600Building downtown.

"I shot about 7 minutes of scene, the prostitute tasted like wet bread soaked in cherry Nyquill. But I understand lots of that footage never made the final cut. Whatever- I am just pleased to be a part of this unique film."

LISA FURUKAWA is a Japanese-American pianist, singer, educator, and songwriter. Utilizing her talents in contemporary and classical music, Lisa's performances and recordings display a fusion of Japanese folk, alternative pop, and electronica.

Since she began touring on the anime convention circuit 2-3 years ago, Lisa has personally arranged over 30 anime and video game theme songs for piano, electronica, and voice. She has performed diverse selections from Yoko Kanno's repetoir in Russian and Japanese to fun upbeat tunes from well known series such as Fruits Basket, Naruto, or Inuyasha.

Her latest original recording, Reaching the Dragon was released in April, 2006. Lisa composed, produced, and performed all of the songs on the new CD. The new work displays a subtle combination of electronic arrangements, piano, and vocals in Japanese and English.

Reaching the Dragon is ambient and lush, and remains hopeful even through the most melancholy moments. Always fascinated by myth and history, Lisa looked to the Eastern myths and folklore of dragons for inspiration. Lisa says, Reaching the dragon is about tapping into the yang spirit, strong basic life force, and accepting change and transformation.

Lisa has three CDs of original songs published through her Yume label. Her first recording, This Moment is the Show, is an intimate CD of solo piano and vocal arrangements. Her second CD, Pearl Diver, is a collaborative piece that originated from Lisas piano and vocal compositions, but was realized and recorded with cellist, Deborah Shields and percussionist, John Metcalf. Her CDs are available for purchase at http://www.lisafurukawa.com.

Lisa has performed at various events and festivals, and has entertained audiences in large and small atmospheres. Currently, she is enjoying her appearances and performances at various anime conventions and cultural events around the US and Canada.

She is exploring the electro/dub sound while composing for the multi-art and multimedia dance troupe -The Wandering Star Project. When she isn't performing or teaching, she contributes her time and efforts to helping several charitable organizations.

She was the director of events such as the annual Tori Amos Tribute Show/RAINN Benefit and the Triangle Asian-American Music Festival/Asia Society benefit. Lisa is currently working on several new projects, one of which is an instructional children's album in Japanese and English.

Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Lisa began studying the piano at the age of three. She has BAs in Music and Asian Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill, and is an educator and translator as well as a performing songwriter. She has translated everything from pop tunes to state songs into Japanese, and hopes to promote cultural understanding and diversity through music.

Samantha Inoue Harte is the quintessential Renaissance woman in the Anime Industry: she is an Anime voice actress, an Animation Instructor, and currently President of her own Animation Studio.

She began her career teaching animation at various locations throughout the Austin, Texas area and continues to do so at the Austin Community College and the Austin School of Film. She later started animating at a studio called Little Wolf Entertainment under the tutelag of Director Sam Fleming, then turned to HorsebackSalad Entertainment, and Powerhouse Animation Studios.

At those three studios, Samantha was able to work on projects for Warner Brothers Classics (Jetsons, Speedy Gonzalez, Roadrunner Online), Disney (lilo&Stitch2: Stitch Has a Glitch), and View Askew Productions (Clerks: the Lost Episode from the Clerks 10th Anniversary DVD), Chuck E. Cheese, Mattel Interactive, a smidge of work on the King of the HIll pilot, and too many others to list.

She recently opened and became President of her own animation studio, Saiko Studios LLC, where she was head animation/art director for SpikeTV's Fresh Baked Video Games. Saiko's various clients include Nick Jr, Johnson&Johnson, H-E-B, AT&T, Playboy etc. It is at Saiko Studios that Samantha also began producing her own projects including a pilot for Adult Swim and a project for Disney.

While her life is mostly consumed with Animation, Samantha also dabbles in Acting. She has acted for ADV's Monster Island Studios since 2000 and has since done voice acting for ADVFilms, Funimation Entertainment, and New Generation Pictures in Birth, Cosplay Complex as Delmo, Dai-Guard,Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, DearS, Devil Lady, Eden's Bowy, Final Fantasy: Unlimited (as Chocobo), Gatchaman, Getbackers, Gun Crazy (Live action), Happy Lesson, Jing: King of Bandits, Lost Universe, Magical Play as Pipin, MazinKaiser, Moeyo Ken, Nadia - Secret of Blue Water tv series and movie, Negima! as Tsukuyomi, New Fist of the North Star, Petite Princess Yucie, Princess Blade (Live action), Sakura Diaries, Sakura Wars, Samurai X: Reflection, Samurai X: The Motion Picture, Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal, Shuten Doji-The Star Hand Kid, Soul Hunter as Shinyoh, Steam Detectives, Trinity Blood, Wedding Peach, Zone of the Enders, and the upcoming ADV title Blade of the Phantom Mask.

Samantha has also been acknowledged as being one of ADV's only voice actors to fluently speak Japanese. She's also acted in live action films such as Mike Judge's Idiocracy, Robert Rodriguez's Sin City, Robert Rodriguez/Quintin Tarantino's Grindhouse, acted with Sarah Michelle Gellar in The Return, acted with Tommy Lee Jones in Man of the House, with Mary Steenburgen in Elvis & Annabelle which premiered at SXSW, with David Carradine in HomoErectus which will be out in theaters this summer. She is also going to be on a new online television show called Gamebot HD where she plays the roles of two 3D animated hosts, this show will air on www.OnNetwork.org. Be sure to check it out when it airs!

Her main hobbies include doing Special FX makeup for horror films such as Shores of Another Sea and the Austin Audition episode of American Idol. She enjoys playing her Nintendo Wii, giving big hugs, Cafe mochas with lots of whipped creme, and collecting pets (1 dog, 1 chinchilla, 1 ferret, 2 cats that have lion cut hairdos)

Matt Herms is the co-creator, always illustrator, and usually writer of the fresh, smash-hit webcomic Sticky Floors, hosted on Snafu-Comics.com. Matt also does comics in the traditional dead-tree format, including penciling for Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) and colorist work. He's also done conceptual, promotional, and interactive artwork for video games, websites, and anime conventions and is a regular on the con circuit - happy to go anywhere he has a couch to sleep on and a 'fridge to raid.

Elektra Knight
(Model & Spokes Model for Convention)

Born in Oahu, Hawaii, Elektra lived her childhood life there and when she became a teenager she moved to California with her parents. Soon her dreams of becoming a pro-surfer were replaced by her growing career in modeling. At a very early age Elektra learned about fitness and combined it with modeling and with the help of her agent, Elektra has become the most famous and downloaded fitness model in the world.

Elektra is a certified personal trainer and aerobics instructor. She has a great love for horses and raises money every year to help save the wild mustang and retired race horses from slaughter. She is also a martial artist. Elektra has been blessed to be one of the lucky "petite" models to actually break into fashion modeling.

George Manley is in his fourth year of voice acting for ADV Films in Houston and has spent the last 12 months writing for projects such as Coyote Ragtime Show, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, Gantz and Super Dimension Fortress Macross.

Due to his tendency to sound like "everyone's dad" or the "the general of a thousand undead armies," George has often been cast as the nameless, faceless minions eagerly destroyed by some of your favorite anime heroes!

Some of George's marquee roles of have been narrating the definitive re-dub of Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman, playing the twisted Hyugi Zeravire in Super Heavyweight God Gravion Zwei, the giant robot Impact in Legend of the Mystical Ninja, the rocked-up Moukaku in Godannar, the tattoed giant Barba in Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick, Viktor in Yugo the Negotiator, the Masked Takenouchi in Cromartie High School, Gustav in the Area 88 TV series, Lord Kozan in Samurai Gun, and he has appeared in ADV Films' titles such as Neon Genesis Evangelion (Director's Cut), NOIR, Aura Battler Dunbine, Chrono Crusade, Gantz, Divergence Eve and Misaki Chronicles, All Purpose Cat Girl Nuku Nuku DASH!, Slayers Great, Kaleido Star/New Wings, Maburaho, Hello Kitty's Animation Theatre, Those Who Hunt Elves II, Ghost Stories, The Original Dirty Pair Movies, Megazone 2-3, Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat, Madlax, Es Otherwise, Saint Seiya, Cyberteam in Akihabara, Parasite Dolls, Puni Puni Poemy, and a large number of ADV's live action titles from Korea and Japan.

Additionally, George is also lending his time and talent to Houston's Taping For The Blind organization, has acted in video games such as Kohan II: Kings of War and Atari's RPG version of Axis and Allies, and he is currently the ring announcer for San Antonio-based Texas Wrestling Entertainment. His voice can also be heard in the upcoming fan film Return of Pink Five and as the title character in Captain Capitalism.

Meredith Placko (aka "Ana Aethestic") was picked up by Concept Galaxy after she blew convention attendees away with her performance for Stephanie Chateau's "Time Warped Wonderland" production. Although it is what is jettisoning Merideth into more guest appearances at conventions, remarkably, acting for stage and film is something Meredith had never thought to try until recently.

Before she was discovered on stage Meredith started out using her strong voice talent in various forms of Broadcasting after she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Broadcast Communications. Back in early 2000 Meredith began gaining noteriety as a host of one of the most ground breaking syndicated pioneer sub-culture radio stations on the scene, "Radio Sci-Fi". After 4 years of paying her dues she moved on to book various gigs doing voice over work for commercial radio and television as well. She's also known for her time working as a co-host for geek culture pod cast "Just Push Play".

Meredith is also a proud cosplay and comic book geek, known amongst the cosplay community as "Ana Aethestic". She has an associates degree in Fashion, Design, and Marketing and has been booked for numerous modeling gigs, but decided she much preferred creating her costumes and modeling them as a hobbey. This motivated "Ana" to try her hand at making various super hero costumes so she could assist as a character in the "Heroe's Alliance", a cosplay organization with a goal to bring help and hope to sick and disabled children. After only 2 months of working with the organization, Ana was elected as Vice President, and now helps run many of the fund raisers and events for charity.

Wendy is so excited to be here with all of you so let's start this CON out with a bang! Wendy has been a professional voice actress for Funimation Entertainment and Okratron 5000 for 5 years and has recently signed a contract with a new company called Illumitoons Productions, in which is playing the character of the Appraiser in Beet the Vandle.  She is probably  most well known for a little villain named Envy on Fullmetal Alchemist. Wendy is also known for smaller parts in which she usually dies a most  painful death.

Some of her credits include: Emi, In Baki the Grappler. Amick, In Blue Gender, The Fever Demon in Shin Chan, Kyoâ's Mother in Fruits Basket, and Kasuga in Negima, Paulâ Lady Deathâ In Trintiy Blood. She has also voiced characters in: Kitty Grade,Case Closed, Yu Yu Hakusho ,Peach Girl, Galaxy Railways, Tsubasa, Gunslinger Girl, Moon Phase, Glass Fleet and many others. Video Game credits include: Spikeout, Fullmetal Alchemist, Curse of the Crimson and Broken Angel.  Wendyâs first love is the Theatre(although Anime is quickly catching up!!!), she works in local theatre in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. You can visit Wendy at her myspace account at http://www.myspace.com/envywendy

Welcome to Border City, the city built on dreams. 20 years ago, a city was established and walled off from the outside world by the remnants of the Zodiac, a superhero league that disbanded around the same time under dubious circumstances. Today, Border City is a fugue state where everything from food to policemen is artificially produced for its inhabitants — even its light. But Robert J. McGee wants to change all that. A former member of the team that founded Border City, now the mayor, he has devised a plan to revolutionize his citizens’ lives: /Sunrise/.

Will enlightenment be accepted or rejected by its people? Will the city’s hidden factions even allow it to occur? Just why did the Zodiac disband, and who is the faceless man that lurks in the self-made shadows of its ex-members’ dreams?

Rocieru

Best known for his richly detailed Trinity Blood cosplays, Rocieru is a cosplayer who contributes most of his time, money, and energy into bringing every single detail of the characters he cosplays into reality. Despite being told he "needs to get a life", he believes it's the best overall resemblance of the character that makes the greatest cosplay, and he will do whatever it takes to craft out even the smallest and least noticeable details of the character -- including the costume, props, wig, and even the tones of makeup -- in order to achieve this.

His childhood experiences make him a specialist in crossplaying, with his goal being to fool everybody about "her" actual gender while still trying his best to resemble the character. The field he works in also permits him a great amount of knowledge about replicating the custom firearms used by fictional characters, with the all-functional (but non-firing of course! ^_^") Tommy gun from Hellsing: The Dawn being the best representation so far of his capability. Rocieru has been cosplaying since 1998 and has earned a total of 8 awards from 2005 to the current day, including two for Best Walk-On and one 2nd Place overall from A-Kon 2007

Honoured to be part of this great anime community, Rocieru is more than happy to share everything he knows and answer any questions ranging from general cosplay construction, to crafting the details on costumes and props, to tips on building a realistic yet fanstastic-looking prop fictional firearm, to even ways to achieve and enhance a convincing crossplay! He is avaliable on cosplay.com (as Rocieru) and can always be contacted using this email: nuriko0079@yahoo.com.tw

As a graphic designer Heather has done corporate logo and and/or convention guide work for Janicon, East meets South, JACON, Anime Festival Orlando, V.I.L.E. Headquarters, and Working Actor Productions. She is also the owner of Dragonmun Studios and is the creator of her hit comic "Sivoa".

As part of the Concept Galaxy Creative Crew Heather specializes as the Lead Graphic Designer for Concept Galaxy's website. She also assists as a website advisor to any convention chairs or directors who hire the Concept Galaxy Creative Crew to "theme" their con.

Heather's profound technological wizadry also expands into being able to electronically DJ as a Rave Director. In a stunning display of carefully coordinated lights, music, and costumed characters, she can help to create "themed" Rave-Up's to match the interactive storyline Stephanie Chateau creates that are unforgettable, while using her extensive knowledge in all things techno, trance, and dance to ensure the focus of the Rave is first and foremost still on the music.

Spike Spencer has been a voice actor since the early nineties. He has voiced hundreds of episodes of Anime including such notable titles as Evangelion, Battle Angel, Suikoden, Orphen, Spriggan, Nadesico, Mar and currently in production on Buso Renkin and Bleach. He has also voiced many radio and television commercials, video games (including "World of Warcraft"), and several other projects.

An accomplished actor, he has worked with such notable stars as Tommy Lee Jones, Sandra Bullock, Frank Langella, Tia Carrere, and Scott Glenn and has been on set with many other stars.

Spike is also an author, including “How to Be A Frickin Genius Voice Actor, Step One,” “What Happens At The Con, Stays At The Con?,” And "Don't Kill Your Date (And Other Cooiking Tips)."

Spike is also a screenwriter with several projects in various stages. Spike is soon to begin production on his first feature film that he scripted, “Dwindle Down.”

Spike also has his official website up and running at http://www.worldospike.com. You can also become a Myspace friend o’ Spike at http://www.myspace.com/spikespencerfrickingenius.