July 6, 2009
News for Otakuthon 2009:
Otakuthon 2009 announces complete guest list
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA (July 2, 2009) - Otakuthon, Montreal's fan-run anime convention, is pleased to announce that its guest of honour roster for 2009 will include voice actor Johnny Yong Bosch, voice actress Stephanie Sheh, Quebec voice actress Aurélie Morgane, Quebec voice actor and dubbing director Sebastien Reding, industry representative Kevin McKeever (Robotech), and cosplay celebrity Pikmin Link (consplayers.com).
Other special guests include: the improv comedy team The 404s; founder and editor-in-chief of Protoculture Addicts Claude J. Pelletier; manga artist Maité "MiniKim" Lajic; manga artist groups MUSEbasement and Kyowa Quebec; webcomic artists David Coacci, Sébastien "Sirkowski" Fréchette and Félix Lavallée; author Tim Hornyak; cosplay guests Dawn "Kaijugal" McKechnie and Maral "Sarcasm-Hime" Agnerian; and performing guests Arashi Daiko, Yume Mirai and athenaWaltz. In addition, the new Yaoithon programming track will also be presenting guest webcomic artist Dina Situ.
About Johnny Yong Bosch:
Johnny Yong Bosch is probably most well known as Adam Park, the Black Ranger on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Johnny is also a very well-known English anime voice actor who has voiced the roles of characters such as Vash the Stampede in "Trigun", Kaneda in "Akira", Renton in "Eureka Seven", Claus in "Last Exile", Clair in "Heat Guy J", Sakaki in "Witch Hunter Robin", Mike in "Please Twins", Albert in "The Count of Monte Cristo", Kiba in "Wolf's Rain", and Itsuki in "The Melancholy of Haurhi Suzumiya", Ichigo Kurosaki in "Bleach" and Lelouch Lamperouge in "Code Geass". Johnny's voice can also be heard in numerous video games. He voices the main character Nero in "Devil May Cry 4" and performed voiceover work in "Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria", ".hack//G.U." , "Persona 4", "Star Ocean: Till the End of Time", "Xenosaga", "Wild Arms 4", "Disgaea 3", "Tales of Symphonia", "Tales of the Abyss", and "Eternal Sonata". When Johnny is not voice acting, he is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of his band "Eyeshine" and the host of the hit podcast "Anime TV". He is also an accomplished martial artist.
About Stephanie Sheh:
Stephanie Sheh has made a name for herself by providing the voices for many anime shows and video games. Stephanie's current voice acting roles include Orihime in "Bleach", Hinata in "Naruto", Kinon in "Gurren Lagann", Eureka in "Eureka Seven", Akira in "Lucky Star", Anya & Kaguya in "Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2". Other credits include Mikuru in "The Melancholy of Haurhi Suzumiya", Megumi in "Digimon Data Squad" and Mamimi in "FLCL". She also has done voiceover work in various video games including "Devil May Cry 4", "Star Ocean: First Departure", "Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories", "Odin Sphere", "Tales of the Abyss", "Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm", "Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis", "Valkyrie Profile 2 Silmeria" and "Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles". In addition to voiceover work, Stephanie has been pursuing an on-camera acting career and has appeared in several film and theatre productions.
About Aurélie Morgane:
Since her graduation from the École de théâtre de St-Hyacinthe (Prix Laurier d'argent 2006), Aurélie has played numerous roles on-stage, including "Le simple soldat" (m.e.s. Jacques Rossi), "La tempête" (Shakespeare in the Parks), "Éva", "Gloria", "Anna", "Léa" (m.e.e. Luce Pelletier) and "Odyssées de l'espace" (Troupe du Vaisseau D'or); in cinemas : in "Martyrs", "La capture" and "Nitro"; as well as television : "CA", "La galère", "Musée Éden", etc. Aurélie voices several movie and anime characters, including voices in "Friday the 13th", "Fred's Head", "Hellboy II" and "Winnie the Pooh". She is also the official French voice of the actresses Elena Anaya and Anna Walton. Most notably for anime fans, Aurélie's voicework can also be heard in the 2007 Japanese animated feature film – "Appleseed: Ex Machina", where she plays the lead role of Deunan Knute.
About Sébastien Reding:
Sebastien Reding is a French voice actor and dubbing director. As voice actor, he has held several roles in both movies and television such as Rip in "Sacré Andy (What's With Andy?)", Hugo in "Planète Crue (Daft Planet)", Alan Tracy in "Les sentinelles de l'air (Thunderbirds)", Kumar in "Harold et Kumar (Harold and Kumar)", Peter Pan in "Retour au pays imaginaire (Peter Pan II: Return to Neverland)", Ash Ketchum in the Pokémon movies as well as the infamous Drago Malefoy in "Harry Potter". In the past, he has taught dubbing as a theatre elective at Cégep de St-Hyacinthe and was also a marionette operator for the Théâtre de la Dame de Cœur. In addition to being a voice actor and trainer, Sebastien has taken the role of dubbing director in movies and television shows since 2005. Among others, he has directed projects such as "La route des Campus (College Road Trip)" for Disney, "Fool's Gold" and "Feast of Love" for Warner as well as television series such as "Whistler", "Spider Rider", "Bakugan", et "Blaise le Blasé (Fred's Head)".
About Kevin McKeever:
A graduate of the lighting design program from Emerson College, Kevin has been working in the entertainment industry for nearly 15 years. He has worked in theater production at world class venues such as the Goodspeed Opera House, the Emerson Majestic Theater, Foxwoods Casino, and the Mohegan Sun Resort which he helped open in 1996. His television production credits include "Jackass", "Kids Say the Darnedest Things", "Guinness Book of World Records", "Krypton Factor", "Farmclub.com", "The 60's" as well as various television commercials. His film credits include "Mystery Men", "For Love of the Game", and "Billy Frankenstein". Kevin's first official assignment in the Robotech universe was as an audit of Robotech's television ratings and viewer demographics during its original run in the 1980s. Kevin's analysis of the ratings in a cost effective manner along with his years of production experience made him a natural candidate for the Robotech team.
About Pikmin Link:
Pikmin Link attended her first costume event in 2003 when she was hired by G4 TV to be "Link" for their costume fashion show during the "G-phoria Video Games Award Show". By 2006, she began doing costume character modeling for many gaming related events and professional character modeling for gaming related companies. She also has been featured and interviewed in multiple gaming and cosplay magazines all around the world and played two costume character parts in the TV show of "Entourage". During her cosplay career she has been invited to three different countries as a cosplay guest. Pursuing her passion for animation and voice acting, she has also attended acting school for two years alongside her normal schooling, and is currently attending the Academy of Art University to earn her bachelor's in 3D animation/video games.
About Otakuthon:
Otakuthon is a fan-run, bilingual anime convention run yearly by the Quebec Anime Committee. The first of its kind in Montréal, Otakuthon was first run the Otaku Anime club of Concordia University in 2006. It regularly features a number of special guests as well as many activities and events related to anime, manga, video games, artwork, and Japanese culture as well as promoting and encouraging local artists, actors and fan communities related to those subjects. The next edition will be held on July 31 – August 2, 2009 at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal. For more information about Otakuthon, visit their website at http://www.otakuthon.com/. More information about the Palais des congrès de Montréal can be found at http://www.congresmtl.com/
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