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Andi Serpenti is an Ohio-based professional pet groomer and has been cosplaying since 2015, however, her love for nerd culture and animals has been in her heart since she was a little girl. A great lover of books and true crime, in her downtime she can usually be found reading or listening to a podcast or audiobook. This combined with her favorite childhood tv shows such as Pokemon, Inuyasha, Batman the Animated Series, and Xena Warrior Princess would later become inspirations for many of her future cosplays.

Andi aims for extreme detail with all of her cosplays and often adds her own little touches to the characters she chooses to portray. It is this attention to detail and natural charm she uses while portraying a character that has not only earned her the praise of many but led her to winning costume contests as well as being featured in several mediums in various cosplay-related articles online and syndicated television. A self-professed perfectionist, Andi pours everything she has into her art- from fabrication and styling to learning about working with new mediums and techniques. She credits her attention to detail, especially when styling wigs to her day job as a professional pet groomer.

A firm believer that everyone is beautiful inside and out and that there is no wrong way to cosplay, Andi hopes to help inspire people from all walks of life to cosplay, just as she was inspired by others in the cosplay community. Taking a cue from one of her favorite musicals, ‘ The Rocky Horror Picture Show’, Andi’s message to those who want to cosplay but may be hesitant to do so is, “Don’t dream it, Be it.”

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Helen McCarthy was first introduced to anime and manga in 1981. With no reference books in the English language on Japanese animation, she started to research an introductory guide using French, Italian, Spanish, and Asian sources. Since there was no awareness of Japanese pop culture in Britain, it took her over a decade to find a publisher for Anime! A Beginners Guide To Japanese Animation.

In 1991, still seeking a publisher, Helen co-founded the UK’s first professional anime magazine, Anime UK. The magazine won an international reputation – it was even on sale in Japan – and helped to create the market for her first book. She later edited Manga Mania magazine and has written over 100 articles for European, American, Japanese, and online publications, from Super Play magazine and Kyoto Journal to the Daily Telegraph Online. She’s delighted that other writers, designers, and artists started their professional careers on her magazines.

Since then, Helen has written a dozen more books, including works on anime and manga superstars Hayao Miyazaki, Osamu Tezuka, and Leiji Matsumoto. She is co-author of The Anime Encyclopedia, considered the pre-eminent research guide to the medium. She has also contributed to numerous academic works, and written more playful material – a manga cross-stitch guide, two how-to books on drawing, and the shortest, most picture-packed, and most colorful history of manga on the market. Her work has been published in eight languages including Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, and has won several international awards. 

After more than a decade of researching the history of cosplay from its earliest times to its explosion as a Japanese-inspired global contemporary art, Helen’s newest research interest is the history of British anime and manga fanzines. She loves their punk energy and diversity. 

She’s also been talking to audiences all over the UK about the art history of Studio Ghibli. What were the influences, were the influences, artistic, literary, industrial, political, and personal, out of which the studio’s unique style arose? Ohayocon will be the first US convention to experience this presentation.

Before the pandemic, Helen curated and presented a number of film seasons, and spoke at venues all over the world, ranging from public libraries and universities to exhibitions including the British Museum’s 2009/10 and 2015 manga exhibits and their 2019 blockbuster exhibition Manga! She loves introducing anime and manga to audiences of all ages, and during the pandemic, she presented to audiences online. She intends to continue working virtually, because it enables those who can’t be at an event to share in the excitement of anime and manga, but is delighted to be back to presenting in person.

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Samantha Inoue Harte is a US Representative and Producer for Japanese anime studio GONZO K.K., which is best known for their work on Hellsing, Afro Samurai, Basilisk, Samurai7, Witchblade, Last Exile, and 80 other titles. GONZO also provides animation production support on shows including: Invincible, Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, One Piece, and One Punch Man and support to feature films including: Your Name, Redline, Evangelion 2.0, Batman: Gotham Knight, and to Studio Ghibli on films such as: Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo on the Cliff By the Sea, Tales from Earthsea, The Secret World of Arrietty and From Up On Poppy Hill. As a creator and producer, Samantha oversees the production of new anime, her work often includes: character design, budgeting, production scheduling, story development, scriptwriting, pitch deck development, animation production oversight, etc. She started her film career as a director’s assistant in 1997 at an animation studio in Texas where she did: cleanup, rough, keyframe, storyboards, and layouts on the King of the Hill pitch animation, Fox Animation’s Anastasia and Titan AE, for Dreamworks on projects including Prince Of Egypt, Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch 2, Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights, and on Clerks Concurrent to being an animator, Samantha works as an actress and casting director in over 40 various Japanese anime dubbed into English and acted in various anime including: Gatchaman, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Trinity Blood, Negina, FairyTail, and Sakura Wars. She also became well known for her videogame voice work in games such as Wasteland 3, World of Warcraft, Pirate101, DC Comics’ DC Universe Online. Acting in videogames and anime, as well as being an animator, lead Samantha to be a “regular” for Mike Judges and for Robert Rodriguez in many of Troublemaker Studios features as both an actress and VFX artist. Her work can be seen in Alita Battle Angel, Predators, Sin City, Grindhouse: Planet Terror, Grind House: Death Proof, Idiocracy, Office Space, and Spy Kids Armageddon. Samantha’s reputation in the anime industry has lead companies such as Titmouse (on The Boys: Diabolical), Nickelodeon, and Disney to have Samantha act as consultant and writer on their Japanese anime productions

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