SPECIAL GUESTS

Greg Ayers

Greg Ayers Portrate
We're pleased to welcome our best pal Greg Ayres back to OMG!Con!

Greg Ayres has been screaming into microphones for close to 22 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 is honored to return to his role of Son Goku this year in Saiyuki Reload Zeroin, having worked on the Saiyuki franchise for over 20 years. He can currently be heard as Yu Nishinoya in Haikyu, and as Chai in Shenmue The Animation on Adult Swim. Some other recent roles include Chota Segawa in Alice in Borderland (AV), Sho Utsumi in SSSS.Gridman, Frost in DragonBall Super, Geo in Sony Pictures' Starship Troopers Traitor of Mars, Jiro in Concrete Revolution, 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 Love Stage, 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 Mari 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 Always".

Beeg Jon

Portrait of Beeg Jon hugging

Jonathan Cochren (aka Beeg Jon) is an entertainer and producer on the web. (People still call it that, right?) Raised in Indiana, he began his journey on Twitch back in 2011 and shortly after started his YouTube career with his best buddy Jacob. (Indiejacob, formerly The Nintendo Project.) Graduating from USI, Jonathan was hired at 44News as creative producer where he spent a better part of two years producing commercials and graphics which are still on air today! All the while, maintaining his grind on YouTube with another dear friend, Nathaniel Bandy. For the past seven years, Beeg Jon has been editing videos for Nathaniel Bandy and Bathaniel Nandy. As a member of Minus World, Beeg Jon has found where he belongs. Amongst a group of fabulously talented gamers, including Nintendrew. (Jon's long lost brother.) Together they are here to share their stories in hopes of inspiring other local creators to follow their passions and to keep the dream alive for us all, playing games and doing goofs for a living with all your homies!

Bilal Dardai

Bilal Dardai with an Ace on his Face

Bilal Dardai is an award-winning dramatist and performer based within the Chicago area. He is a writer for HartLife NFP's acclaimed audio production Unwell (2020 winner of the BBC Audio Award for "Best Podcast/Online Drama") and is also the creator of Spellcast and Spellcast 2: The Deviled Ham, audio productions within Six to Start's Zombies! Run fitness app. Bilal is an alumnus ensemble member and former artistic director of internationally known performance art collective The Neo-Futurists and a current ensemble member at Lifeline Theatre, where his adaptations of The Man Who Was Thursday and several pieces by Edgar Allan Poe have been produced. Other works include Book-It Repertory's serialized audio adaptation of The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes, New Leaf Theatre's acerbic holiday show Redeemers, and The Neo-Futurists' Jeff-nominated production of The Sovereign Statement. His next project is a set of original stories for the Marvel Move platform, a collaboration between Marvel Comics and Six to Start.

Jennifer Cihi

Jennifer Cihi Headshot

Jennifer Cihi has been performing since she was a young girl in San Francisco, California. Before reaching her teen years, she landed the role of Pepper in the Broadway National Tour of Annie. After establishing herself as a Broadway performer, she moved to Los Angeles, where she honed her skills as a professional singer. Without skipping a beat, Jennifer made the transition from stage to screen playing the lead singer on Nickelodeon’s hit TV show Roundhouse.  Her most notable job was landing the role as the singing voice of the iconic anime character, Sailor Moon.  She also sang for City Hunter and Princess Mononoke.  If none of that rings a bell, she is also the voice behind the Hot Pockets commercials.  Jennifer is currently living in Nashville, where she continues to sing professionally.

Colossal

Promo Photo for Colossal Sempai

From the far away lands of the Lone Star State by way of Denver, Colorado...
It's Colossal Senpai! Colossal is a nationally recognized competitive cosplayer and an internationally recognized performer, having countless awards to his name. Primarily known for his choreography and stage work, Senpai has made a name for himself for his intricate performances, dance routines, and leaving it all on the contest stage.  He has even made a judge cry on two separate occasions!
But he's not all just stage work! Having started cosplaying in 2014, he has grown to focus on bringing realism and ingenuity to his costumes, having done leather working, woodcraft, metal work, 3D printing and more! He's here to make sure our contest is as top notch as our cosplayers.  Make sure to catch his informative Cosplay Contest panels so you can get an inside look to the competitive scene and get a leg up on the competition!

Flork

Flork of Cows Sock Puppet

Flork does a great webcomic and is excited to meet and chat with fans at OMG!con this summer! You can check out their comic at https://www.thatsockcomic.com/ If you haven't already, don't forget to preregister to get your tickets at the discounted price while you can so you can meet this awesome webcomic author!

Caleb Hyles

Caleb Hyles Promo Shot

Caleb Hyles first made waves when he released his cover of "Let It Go" on YouTube in 2014. Millions of homes around the world were enchanted by his riveting and theatrical covers of Disney, Broadway, anime, and pop-rock hits. YouTube allowed for Caleb's vast talents and warm, infectious personality to shine through with every cover, and fans quickly fell in love. Over the years of pouring himself into his work and creating exciting, diverse content for his fans, Caleb has amassed a close-knit fanbase consisting of 1.5 million YouTube subscribers and over 1 million monthly Spotify listeners. Fans eagerly seek out Caleb's larger-than-life voice taking on their favorite songs and breathing new life in them. And fans aren't the only ones to take notice of Caleb's massive talents. Television shows and video series like RWBY and Nintendo Minute have called on Caleb to sing for them. With momentum at an all-time high, Caleb is looking to embark on the next step of his journey. Sharing more of himself than ever before, January 2022 saw the release of his first original works with his album, "In One Breath". Don't miss your chance to embark on this new adventure with him.

Nintendrew

Nintendrew Portrait

Andrew Kenady, better known as Nintendrew on YouTube, is a retro game collector and enthusiast. His videos cover all kinds of strange corners within the history of video games as well as commentaries on modern releases and the occasional DIY tutorial. Most recently, he tried his hand at game development and released C.A.R.L., a quirky, charming platformer that also serves as a love letter to his childhood nostalgia.

Persepanycos

Persepanycos headshot
Persepanycos began cosplaying in 2020 and has done cosplays from My Hero Academia, Blue Exorcist, CreepyPastas, Soul Eater, Mystic Messenger. She is now branching out into the world of Critical Role. She has experience in prop building, photography, filmography and story/alternate universe writing. She's currently working on cosplays for Genshin, FNAF, Fruits Basket and SAO. Check out her Instagram to see more of her work!https://www.instagram.com/persepanycos/

Raychiie

Raychiie in Winter.
OMG!Con is happy to welcome Raychiie as a featured Cosplay guest!Ray dipped their toes into the cosplay community back in 2016 when they attended their very first convention and has since cosplayed on and off for several years. When Covid first hit they joined Tiktok, like many people, and that’s when they really started taking cosplay seriously and doing it much more frequently. They are most well known on Tiktok for their take on villain Deku from My Hero Academia. Ray enjoys being crafty and making props, is a cat enthusiast, and loves The Legend of Zelda series (don't we all though?)Please give them a warm welcome!If you haven't bought them already, pre-registration tickets are still available!  Pre-registering gets you a cool bonus as well as the ability to pick up your badge the Thursday evening before con so you can skip the registration lines in the morning!

Rikki Simons

Ricki Simons Portrait
Rikki Simons (AKA Rosearik Rikki Simons) is a voice actor, writer, and artist. He is the voice GIR and Bloaty on Invader ZIM and Raz Archetype in Psychonauts 2. Novels he has written include Hitherto a Lion and Ranklechick and His Three Legged Cat. Working with with his wife and partner, Tavisha-Wolfgarth-Simons, Rikki co-created the comics Super Information Hijinks: Reality Check!, ShutterBox, The Trinkkits and At Tavicat. He was also a background painter on Invader ZIM and the Jackie Chan Adventures. The comics and books he creates with Tavisha can be read and purchased at  www.tavicat.com and gocomics.com/tavicat. His personal site can be found at www.rikkisimons.com.

Tavi Wolfgarth-Simons

Tavi Wolfgarth-Simons Portrait

Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons is a Japanese and German American artist who has spent nearly three decades drawing and publishing manga-influenced comics. Tavisha's comics and illustrations have been published by Nickelodeon, Tokyopop, Digital Manga,  Andrews McMeel Universal, and SLG Publishing, among many others. Original illustrated books and comics that she created with Rikki Simons include Ranklechick and his Three-Legged Cat, Super Information Hijinks: Reality Check!, ShutterBox, and The Trinkkits. @Tavicat, a comic strip about her cats, can be read at gocomics.com/tavicat.Rikki and Tavi live near Pasadena, California with their cat, Pippi. They met at Disneyland in 1990 and were married on Halloween 1994.

Yoshi Vu

Yoshi Vu Headshot

"Generalist” is defined as an artist that possesses a high degree of proficiency across multiple disciplines including modeling, lighting, texturing, shading/look development, FX, matte painting, animation, shot composition, and rendering.” In short, an artist who has the knowledge of the complete VFX pipeline.  
Due to his background in multiple 2d and 3d, Yoshi has served in various roles throughout his career, from Concept Artist, to Designer, to Senior Generalist on various film and television projects including Star Wars (The Mandalorian, Rise of Skywalker, Obi-Wan), Marvel (Agents of Shield, Hawkeye, Runaways), Love+Death+Robots, and a number of videogame projects as well, including League of Legends Odyssey, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, and Destiny 2.  Yoshi is currently working as a Designer on the Amazon Prime series "Invincible", his first tenure in the 2d animation industry.  When not working on mainstream projects, he assists with various Indie/YouTube creators including AVGN, Game Sack, Game Chasers, John Riggs, and the CU Podcast/Pat the NES Punk.  In short, Yoshi likes to refer to himself as an "Artist of all Arts!" always looking for the next adventure.

Jess Wright Buha

Jess Wright Buha Portrait

Jess Wright Buha is an internationally-produced playwright and award-winning audio dramatist. As a playwright, she has written over 40 plays including Wake: A Folk Opera, Circle House, and an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, which have been produced at theaters like Goodman Theatre, The Gift Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, Filament Theatre, South Africa's National Children's Theatre, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. As an audio dramatist, she has experience writing in many genres, including kids/family (The Imagine Neighborhood), horror (Alabama Mermaid), romantic comedy (Hotel Hijinks), historical adventure (Nellie Bly), and drama/mystery (Unwell: A Midwestern Gothic Mystery). She also co-created and wrote the Soundlab series, four informational videos produced by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra that have been used by elementary music educators around the world. She grew up in St. Louis, cut her teeth in the storefront scene in Chicago, and recently moved to Oak Park with her spouse, her two wild and whirling kids, and her two rescue huskies.