Convention Guests

Meet some fantastic guests every year at the convention.

Greg Ayres

Greg Ayres

Greg Ayres has been screaming into microphones for close to 25 years now! With over 376 credits to his name, he has managed to play a variety of characters that are almost as colorful as his hair. He was honored to recently return to his role of Son Goku in Saiyuki Reload Zeroin, having worked on the Saiyuki franchise for over 20 years. He can currently be heard as Po in Eminence and Shadow, As Kenta Kanzaki in The Dangers in My Heart, Yu Nishinoya in Haikyu, Chai in Shenmue The Animation on Adult swim, and a super bad demon known only as “God” in Dark Gathering. Some other recent roles include Chota Segawa in Alice in Borderland (OAV), Sho Utsumi in SSSSGridman, Frost in DragonBall Super, Geo in Sony Picture’s Starship Troopers : Traitor of Mars, Jiro in Concrete Revolutio, Ryuuou Edogawa in Doreiku, Koji Koda in My Hero Academia, and he even makes an appearance as Popuko in Pop Team Epic.

He is proud to be a part of the new “Pink Harvest” productions from Sentai Filmworks, in the roles of Izumi Sena in Lovestage, and Yabase in Hitorijime My Hero. Some other recent favorites include Nagisa Haruki in Free, and Free Eternal Summer, MonoKuma in Danganronpa, Clear in Dramatical Murder, Doug in Gangsta, Zenji Marui in Food Wars, Ganta Igarashi in Deadman Wonderland, Heihachi Hayashida in Samurai 7, and Kouichi Sakakibara in Another. Some of his all-time favorite roles include Chrono in Chrono Crusade, Kaoru Hitachiin in Ouran High School Host Club, Hideki in Nerima Daikon Brothers, Youhei Sunohara in Clannad, Yuki in The Wallflower, Leo in Ghost Stories, Satoshi Hiwatari in DNAngel, Kaworu Nagisa in the Director’s Cut of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Tomoki Sakurai in Heaven’s Lost Property, and Negi Springfield in Negima.

Of all of his many roles, his favorite will always be the real life role of “Little Brother” to voice actor Christopher Ayres. The little guy with a big Sippy Cup, and even bigger heart – who touched the world with his “Love and Laughter”.

Jay Hickman

Jay Hickman

Jay began his career in anime in the 1990s, when he landed his first role at ADV Films in Master of Mosquiton. Since then, he has appeared in more than 100 titles with studios including ADV Films, Funimation, Sentai Filmworks, Switchblade Pictures, Okratron 5000, and others. As a character actor, Jay has been able to voice a broad variety of colorful roles, with the occasional romantic lead thrown in for good measure. His notable credits over the past two decades are Mechazawa in Cromartie High School, Spitfire in Air Gear, Sho Zama in Aura Battler Dunbine, Shiryu in Saint Seiya, Chuu and Hammond in One Piece, Kagetane Hiruko in Black Bullet, Chief Kurama in Elfen Lied, Koji in Generator Gawl, Toru Watanabe in Excel Saga, The Fool in Kaleido Star, Crusty in Log Horizon, SSS in Madlax, Dera Mochimazzi in Tamako Market, Sanetoshi Watase in Penguindrum, Prince Mytho in Princess Tutu, and Giraffe in Revue Starlight, among many others.

Jay’s voice has also been featured in live action series and films such as Dark Water, Synesthesia, Conduct Zero, The Fuccons, Touching Wild Horses, Gamera – Attack of Legion, as well as in the video game Unlimited Saga. Jay had his Toonami debut playing Dr. Stylish in Akame ga KILL!, followed by Shiro Kuramori in Parasyte – the maxim, and now Joichiro Yukihira in Food Wars!

Gareth West

Gareth West

Gareth is an actor, model, and voice actor based out of Texas. He is known for such Anime roles as; Ittetsu Takeda in Haikyu, Seiya Takehaya in Tsurune, Kanichi Konishi in Food Wars, Haruka Shinozaki in My Girlfriend Is Shobitch, Lizard Misty in Saint Seiya, 2D in Golden Time, Akihiro Tsukaba in Chihayafuru, Tomoaki Yamagishi in O Maidens In Your Savage Season, and Dinkuron in Log Horizon. He is also currently playing the role of Jason Lee Scott the Red Power Ranger in the upcoming release Red Rising: A Power Rangers Fan Film. When not making anime voices or acting, Gareth enjoys basically anything nerdy under the sun. So whatever it is you are into, chances are you can come up and geek out. Because there is nothing he likes more than getting enthusiastic, and making new friends!

Samurai Dan and Jillian

Samurai Dan and Jillian

The husband and wife team of Daniel and Jillian Coglan are full-time martial art instructors, specializing in 16th century Samurai Arts. When not teaching at their dojo, the Kojokan, they travel the United States performing and teaching the ancient ways of the most famous warriors in history.

With a combined 35 years of experience, their show is a unique blend of history, combative skill, and humor, designed to educate and entertain audiences both large and small.

Beyond their martial skills, the dynamic duo collaborated to write, direct, host, and star in a 12 episode TV series entitled, “The Way of The Samurai.”

Daniel is also an author, with several martial art articles published, and is currently working on his second full-length novel.



Past Years: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, More