Guests of Honour

Vic has been acting for stage and screen since he was eight years old. But he started his career in anime about ten years ago as Vega in Street Fighter II. Since then Vic has been in more than a hundred and fifty shows and video games, known for such roles as Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist, Tamaki Suou in Ouran High School Host Club, Fai in Tsubasa Chronicle, Dark in DN Angel, Kurz in Full Metal Panic, Broly in Dragonball Z, Kougaijji in Saiyuki, Ikkaku in Bleach, Yukito in Air, Takanaga in Wallflower, Tatsu in Peacemaker, Luciano in Code Geass, Virgil Walsh in Trinity Blood, Hikaru in Macross and many more.

Vic is excited to be playing Zero in Vampire Knight, and is currently back in the role of Edward in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. He's also playing Death Scythe in Soul Eater, as well as characters in Bleach, Naruto and several others. Vic has also voiced roles in a large number of video games including Soul Calibur, Disgaea, Persona III, Project Sylpheed, DBZ, Bleach, FMA and more. But even longer than his voice acting, Vic has been a professional music composer / singer / producer who has written and produced hundreds of songs for TV, radio and CD.  He sings the themes for shows like One Piece & Dragonball GT, and has produced several CDs of his own original music.

And finally, in addition to anime and music, Vic has a degree in film and works regularly writing, producing and directing video and film productions. Vic is also now realizing a childhood dream, acting and directing in an amazing web series called Star Trek Phase II. TOS forever!

Texas-born Aaron Dismuke started with a few small parts (in FRUITS BASKET and KIDDY GRADE), courtesy of his cousin, Funimation ADR director Justin Cook. But it wasn't long before the budding voice actor showed real talent, and quickly catapulted to a critical leading role in FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST as the original Alphonse Elric. It's a feat all the more impressive when you do the math and realize that he was only 11 years old when he started voicing Alphonse, and that he did most of that difficult work while speaking into a big metal bowl. Aaron resumed the role for the movie FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: CONQUEROR OF SHAMBALLA, as well as several video games based on the series. Aaron (now 17 years old) can also be heard as Ion Fortuna in Trinity Blood, young Ginko in Mushi-shi, Yasuchika in Ouran High School Host Club and Izuna in Linebarrels of Iron.

Jo Ellen Elam, a.k.a Lillyxandra, is a costume designer and make-up artist living in Los Angeles, California.

Lillyxandra's passion in costume design and creation began in 2002, and since then she has created over 100 costumes for various clients and personal projects. She has been trained in many techniques, from interning with fashion designer Vannessa Riley to working in the costume department at the University of North Texas.

Her work has been showcased in many magazines around the world, including Japanese Magazine "CosMode", Mexican Magazine "Cosplay Mix", United Kingdom Magazine "Cube", French Magazine "Kogaru", as well as numerous websites. She's been a guest at conventions across the U.S., Mexico, Chile, Russia, Germany, and Italy to share her knowledge and love for the craft.

Throughout her career, she has worked on many projects making costumes for videogame companies like "Meteor Games", as well as night clubs, such as "The Edison". She has also worked as a make-up artist for photographers & designers, such as Kucoon, Danial Jung, Jamis Vu, and Katie Kay. In 2009 she worked as the key make-up artist and wardrobe for the Escapist webseries "There Will Be Brawl", as well as "Fear News" on FearNet.  Her work also branches out to a number of theatrical productions, with "Profiles in Courage", a play at the Montaban theater in Hollywood, being her most recent.

A voice actress and ADR director, Caitlin has been working in the anime industry since 2004. When she was still a college student, Caitlin was hired by FUNimation while on a tour of the studio. After her first small parts on Case Closed, she went on to play Winry in Fullmetal Alchemist, Triela in Gunslinger Girl, Hiyono in Spiral and Takane in Burst Angel. Other roles include: Vivi in One Piece, Dhianeila in Heroic Age, Miria in Baccano, Sara in StrAIn, Yakumo in School Rumble, Nerine in Shuffle!, Sumomo in Sergeant Frog, Miss Anderson in Shin-chan,  Machina in Dragonaut, Katherine McDonald in Kaze no Stigma, Kazuho in Nabari no Ō, LaLa in D.Gray Man, Kaori in Kanon, Chachamaru & Chisame/Chiu in Negima and Saya in Black Cat. Caitlin can also be heard in Darker Than Black, Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, Witchblade, BECK, Solty Rei, Hell Girl, Mushi-shi, Kenichi, Ragnarok, and Welcome to the NHK, among others.

In 2008, Caitlin directed the widely popular fan-favorite, Ouran High School Host Club, as well as playing Haruhi Fujioka. Other directing credits include Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Linebarrels of Iron, Murder Princess, Gunslinger Girl- Il Teatrino, Suzuka and FUNimation's One Piece.

Along with directing, Caitlin enjoys adapting theme songs for FUNimation dubs, and can often be heard singing one of them! She has also voiced characters in such video games as Street Fighter IV as Cammy, Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers as Amitadatelion, and Infinite Undiscovery as Aya.

Applegeeks is a webcomic about four college students, a Mac-obsessed robot, an imaginary squirrel, and the often crazy, always strange lives that they lead. The creative team is comprised of Ananth Panagariya (writer) and Mohammad "Hawk" Haque (artist). Applegeeks has been on the web since 2003 - in 2009 the Applegeeks archives were published in 2 volumes by Dark Horse Comics.

The Quebec, Canada native anime singer HIMEKA became familiar with Japanese animation as a small child by watching the French version of the programs.  When she was 12 years old, she began to learn English as she wanted to understand Disney cartoons broadcast in English, but at the age of 15, she was deeply impressed by the Japanese animation series Sailor Moon.  

Although she did not understand the words from the series, she was fascinated by the characters and the imagery, which inspired her to learn more about the Japanese culture.  Taking an interest in Japan, she began to watch other anime videos with the original Japanese language and studied the pronunciation, as well as learning the characters and reading by looking up the lyrics from Sailor Moon in the dictionary.

It was therefore natural for HIMEKA to have dreamed of becoming an “anison” (animation song) singer in Japan, and in March 2009, she came to Japan on a working-holiday visa.  HIMEKA had entered “The Second All Japan Anison Grand Prix”, an annual competition that gathers aspiring singers from all over Japan, after stumbling upon it on the internet, and ended up first out of 3,186 competitors. It was said that the judges were overwhelmed by her singing and way of expressing the Japanese lyrics.  

HIMEKA made her debut from Sony Music Japan International with her single Asueno no Kizuna, the opening theme for the TV anime series Valkyria Chronicles.  This sensational debut was widely covered not just in the anime world, but in various major media including national newspapers, as well as key commercial TV stations across Japan.  HIMEKA’s “Japanese Dream” story also spread out to her home country in Canada (National Post, Montreal Gazette). 

Following the success of the debut single, she released a single called Hatenaki Michi, her second single which is also the end theme for the TV anime series Letter Bee.  She has also released a cover album Love Anison, which includes 8 anime related titles which are selected by her from a repertoire of over 300 titles.  Her latest single, Mirai-e… is the ending theme for the TV anime series NIGHTRAID -1931- and was just released on May 26, 2010.

Website: www.himeka.info

Stu Levy is an international entrepreneur, producer, director and writer across mediums including graphic novels, film, television and new media. Founder of the pioneering media company TOKYOPOP, Levy is known for establishing the manga market in North America.

Having completed his first feature film Van Von Hunter, Levy currently has two more features in development as writer/director: Love Like Blood, based on the graphic novel series by Kei Toume; and Kimono Clash, an original screenplay from Levy. His first major studio feature film as Executive Producer is Priest, currently in post-production with an expected release date in Winter 2011 through Sony Pictures.

As producer, Levy has a number of live-action and animated feature films and television shows in various stages of development, including adaptations of his graphic novels Princess Ai and Juror 13. Fluent in Japanese, Levy also serves as chair of the Producers Guild of America's International Committee and was previously a Board Member of its New Media Council.