Pop Culture Guests
Erika Ishii
Erika is an actor, creator, and extremely chaotic. Voice of Valkyrie in Apex Legends, Ana Bray & Kridis in Destiny 2, with roles in Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite, Sailor Moon & more. Many of your favorite characters in Critical Role, LA By Night, Dimension 20, and Worlds Beyond Number. Up to shenanigans. She/They.
Aabria Iyengar
Aabria Iyengar is a multifaceted talent in the tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) world. She is known for her work as a wickedly creative Dungeon Master (DM) on Exandria Unlimited, its continuations, and Candela Obscura. Aabria has also guested on Critical Role and appeared in multiple Dimension 20 series, including Burrow’s End, Pirates of Leviathan, and The Seven. Her versatility shines as both a DM and player, engaging audiences with her creative storytelling and immersive gameplay.
Dr. Erin Macdonald
Erin Macdonald has a PhD in Astrophysics and is a writer, speaker, producer, and science advisor; currently the official science advisor for the Star Trek franchise. She has also voiced her fictional counterpart Lt. Cmdr. Erin Macdonald in Star Trek: Prodigy and the video game Star Trek Online. She is also the founder and CEO of Spacetime Productions, a production company dedicated to lifting marginalized voices and providing opportunity in traditionally under-represented genre stories. She has also authored the Audible Original, “The Science of Sci-Fi” in collaboration with The Great Courses, and the baby board book “Star Trek: My First Book of Space”.
Billy Bryan and Kevin Mangold
Billy Bryan was born on September 20, 1954, in Newport News, VA, to a creative and artistic family. He grew up in Bedford, MA, where he developed a passion for art and music. Inspired by Jim Henson, Billy began building and performing puppet shows in high school. He earned a BFA in Metalsmithing from Syracuse University and soon moved to Los Angeles, where he started his career by building a banana costume for Elton John. Billy worked in the NBC Wardrobe Department and later in various movie effects industries, where he became known for his innovative work, including designing and portraying the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in “Ghostbusters.” He collaborated with notable figures like Randy Cook, Steve Johnson, Stan Winston, and Carlo Rambaldi, contributing to iconic characters like Doc Ock, Teddy Ruxpin, and the Ninja Turtles. Beyond his career, Billy is a dedicated father and grandfather.
Kevin Mangold is an actor and retired Thoroughbred jockey. He has appeared in the Broadway tour of Peter Pan, on television sitcoms Saved By The Bell, Silver Spoons, American Horror Story, The Rookie, Everybody Hates Chris, Zeke & Luther, Fresh Off The Boat, and many more. Mangold has been in more than 50 television commercials and music videos, and in many theatrical releases including the critically acclaimed Oscar-winning Seabiscuit, as well as The Primevals, and most notably as Slimer in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
Mangold attended the USC Film School in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program before amassing a string of stage, television, and film credits. At the age of 35, Mangold put it all behind him and set his mind on becoming a professional Thoroughbred jockey and soon found himself racing against the best jockeys in the world at prestigious Santa Anita Park.
After nine years of racing Thoroughbreds, Seabiscuit brought Mangold back to the entertainment industry as a stunt double, actor, and creature performer. In addition to Slimer in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, he can be seen as the robot Cool Blue in the upcoming A24 film Y2k, directed by Kyle Mooney.
Mangold has 70 professional IMDb credits including Actor, Stunt Double, Editor, Director, Writer, Producer, Stunt Coordinator, and Visual Effects Supervisor.
Rachel Rener
I’m an animal-loving, language-learning, picture-taking, mineral-collecting, videogame-playing, modern rock-listening, celery-hating, acrylic-painting kind of gal. I love contemporary fantasy books and am a sucker for powerful women with magical abilities. When I’m not hunched over my computer writing (while my cockatoo sits on my shoulder begging for head scratches), you can find me hiking, playing DnD on the thrilling new podcast, Of Dice and Friends, or hanging out at Indie Fantasy Addicts, the greatest group on the internet, where I chill with readers and generally stir up trouble.
- Website: https://www.rachelrener.com/
- Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRachelRener/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelRener
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorrachelrener/
R. Alan Brooks
R. Alan Brooks teaches graphic novel writing at Regis University, and is the writer/creator of “The Burning Metronome” graphic novel, a supernatural murder mystery with social commentary. He also hosts the popular “MotherF**ker In A Cape” comics podcast, which focuses on marginalized members of the geek world. He writes The Colorado Sun’s weekly comic, “What’d I Miss?”, as well as comic books for Pop Culture Classroom, Zenescope Entertainment, and more. In addition, Alan is a musician and noted stage host, regularly emceeing celebrated events, like the DINK Awards Show, Arise Music Festival and more.
Science Guests
CC Petersen – Ask A Scientist Booth
Carolyn is a science writer and science documentary producer for Loch Ness Productions. She has written 7 books and is working on a new one about planets. She has traveled the world as a science lecturer for various cruise lines on behalf of Smithsonian Journeys. Pre-pandemic, she was involved in creating materials for exhibit projects in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and has worked on several other major astronomy exhibits in the United States, including the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Carolyn is a Colorado resident (a rare Boulder native), and studied at the University of Colorado for both her degrees, focusing on astronomy, astrophysics, and science communication. She’s been reading science fiction since she was old enough to pick up a book, and, of course, loves most of the movies! During the pandemic, Carolyn took a deep dive into learning about Disney approaches to entertainment and immersive experiences.
Dr. Alan Stern – Ask A Scientist Booth
Dr. Alan Stern is an aerospace executive, flown suborbital astronaut, and planetary scientist with experience on 30 space mission teams, some 15 of which he played a principal investigator role. Among those, he is the leader of NASA’s $1B New Horizons, the first mission to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt—making the farthest exploration of worlds in history. In 2007 and 2008 Dr. Stern directed NASA’s entire $6B science program from Washington, DC. He currently serves as an executive in both the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), a large US R&D house, and in World View, a near-space ballooning company. He is a former two-term board chair of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a current board member of Voyager Space, and has been named a Fellow in the AGU, AIAA, AAAS, RAS, and the Explorers Club. Dr. Stern is a member of the US National Science Board, has twice been named to the Time-100, and has published over 500 peer-reviewed scientific papers. He is an experienced commercial pilot and has conducted numerous research missions from NASA F-18s and other high-performance USAF, NASA, and commercial jet aircraft. He has also conducted research at the South Pole and in 2022 on a dive to explore the wreck of the RMS Titanic. As the principal investigator of a SwRI commercial suborbital research program, he flew his first space mission in 2023 aboard a Virgin Galactic suborbital research flight. In 2020, NASA named him to fly as the first NASA selected researcher aboard a suborbital space mission, now set to fly as his second space mission on Virgin Galactic.
Michael L. Wong – Ask A Scientist Booth
Dr. Michael L. Wong is a NASA Sagan Fellow at Carnegie Scienceʼs Earth & Planets Laboratory studying planetary atmospheres, habitability, biosignatures, and the emergence of life. In his spare time, he hosts a podcast called Strange New Worlds, which examines science, technology, and culture through the lens of Star Trek.
Dr. Fran Bagenal – Ask A Scientist Booth
Dr. Fran Bagenal is a research scientist and professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder and is co-investigator and team leader of the plasma investigations on NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Juno mission to Jupiter. Her main area of expertise is the study of charged particles trapped in planetary magnetic fields and the interaction of plasmas with the atmospheres of planetary objects, particularly in the outer solar system. She edited the monograph Jupiter: Planet, Satellites and Magnetosphere (Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Born and raised in the UK, Dr. Bagenal received her bachelor degree in Physics and Geophysics from the University of Lancaster, England, and her doctorate degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences from MIT (Cambridge, Mass) in 1981. She spent five years as a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College, London, before returning to the United States for research and faculty positions in Boulder, Colorado. She has participated in several of NASA’s planetary exploration missions, including Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo, Deep Space 1, New Horizons and Juno.
Michael Carroll – Ask A Scientist Booth
Journalist, lecturer and artist Michael Carroll has over thirty books in print. His forth science fiction novel, Plato’s Labyrinth: Dinosaurs, Ancient Greeks and Time Travelers, takes place partly in Fort Collins, and features ancient Minoan Priestesses, Iguanodons and buried dinosaur sculptures, and a Fort Collins Reptile rescue center. His most recent nonfiction book is Envisioning Exoplanets (Smithsonian). Carroll is a Fellow and founding member of the International Association for the Astronomical Arts. Among other adventures, Mike explored Antarctica’s active volcano, Mt Erebus, to study analogs of ice moons there. One of his original paintings is on the surface of Mars—in digital form—aboard the Phoenix spacecraft. He is the recipient of the Lucien Rudaux award for lifetime achievement in the astronomical arts, and he likes orange marshmallow circus peanuts (but not to excess).
Cosplay Guests
You can find most of our Cosplay Guests in the CosPlayground – their panels are also marked with stars on the schedule.
Stitched in Starlight Cosplay
Please welcome back Stitched in Starlight Cosplay to Fort Collins Comic Con as our Cosplay Emcees! Sarah and Cynthia started cosplay (together!) in 2016. Sarah learned to crochet in 2015, and in 2017 she decided to meld the two passions together. Since then, crochet cosplay has become their signature, and every cosplay has at least one crocheted piece incorporated within it. They are now a Masters-level cosplayer and compete with yarn as a primary medium. Sarah is a plus-size, neurodivergent, queer cosplayer who advocates strongly for cosplay as a form of self-expression. Cynthia is the backbone of Stitched in Starlight Cosplay, acting as Sarah’s full-time convention helper and a (willing) participant in Sarah’s duo cosplay ideas. Cynthia is known for being the Con Mom™ who cares for anybody and everybody, and her sense of humor never goes unnoticed. Sarah and Cynthia love bringing character duos to life and showcasing their love and friendship for one another through those iconic relationships.
Photo Credits: Cubster Cosplay Photography
Oops! All Emi is the collaborative brainchild of master’s level cosplayers SpaceyCosplay and PrinLycoris. With the eventual goal of competing at an international level, the two set out to create beautifully crafted costumes, lively stage performances, and accessible cosplay education! While friends for many years prior, their journey as a team began in 2022, and since then they have accumulated a number of awards, participated as craftsmanship judges together, and shared their knowledge and passion with lots of communities both local and around the country. They both hope to share their love of cosplay and craftsmanship with any and all audiences they can! Catch this duo at their table, during their panels, and judging the cosplay contest!
Photo Credits: latent.silver.photo & Kiseaph
Please welcome back PrinLycoris to Fort Collins Comic Con! Prin is a video game cosplayer, sewist, and all around passionate artist who has been cosplaying since 2009! They have a heavy focus on emulating character designs through drafting, structure, and technical sewing. They draw their biggest inspiration from narrative and character-driven video games, which always spark a new fire to create! This drive has elevated their work through stunning photoshoots and craftsmanship competitions all the way to the Master’s level, and they won’t stop until they reach the stars! Catch Prin at the Oops! All Emi table, during their panels, and judging the cosplay contest!
Photo Credits: dashmakesart & Double Take Photography & Cosplay
Spacey Cosplay of Oops! All Emi
Spacey is a master-level Trans, Bi-gender cosplay creator who focuses on needlework with a specialty in Machine Embroidery. He has been cosplaying for over 15 years, competing in cosplay contests for over 8, and has over half a dozen awards. He strives to be a positive influence in the competition scene, promoting self-improvement both in crafting and in mental fortitude. He finds inspiration in Neurodiverse, Queer, and Outlandish characters and loves bringing them to life through both craftsmanship and stage performance. Catch Spacey at the Oops! All Emi table, during his panels, and judging the cosplay contest!
Photo Credits: latent.silver.photo & Double Take Photography & Cosplay
Winged Em is an award-winning LGBTQ+ cosplayer with over 5 years of experience. They focus primarily on the crafting aspect of cosplay, not limiting themselves to medium, size, or the laws of physics. Em aims to bring even the most ridiculous and unrealistic designs to life, from any type of media they can get their hands on. Winged Em strives to spread the joy and wonder of cosplay wherever they go. Catch Em at their table, during their panels, and judging the cosplay contest!
Photo Credits: Lost Stars Imaging & Yuki Cat Captures
MaeLoveCosplay
Mae is a Colorado-based YouTuber, and Content Creator who loves video games, anime, and teaching people about social media and cosplay! Mae has been cosplaying since 2021 and has grown their account by spreading positivity in the cosplay community and inspiring others to learn new skills. Catch Mae at their table, during their panels, and being a guest judge for the cosplay contest!
Photo Credits: DGTL_photography & MaeLoveCosplay