Ellen McLain
Ellen McLain is an opera singer and voice actress from Nashville, Tennessee, USA. She provides voices for many characters in several video games from Valve. Among them are GLaDOS, the artificial intelligence antagonist in Portal (for which she won an AIAS Interactive Achievement Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance) and Portal 2, the announcer in Team Fortress 2, and the voice of the Combine overwatch for the Half-Life 2 series. Ellen McLain is the only person to have her voice in all the games in the Orange Box. McLain sang the ending credits song to Portal, “Still Alive” and Portal 2, “Want You Gone”, both written by Jonathan Coulton. She also sang the opera-style turret song featured at the end of Portal 2, referred to by fans as the Turret Opera.
Jennifer Hale
Dark and determined Commander Shepard from Mass Effect 1 and 2, ever hopeful and shining Cinderella, psychotic Princess Morebucks and sunny Ms Keane from The Powerpuff Girls, sleek and sexy Naomi Hunter from the Metal Gear Series, superspy Sam and superspoiled Mandy from ‘Totally Spies’, and super fighter Aayla Secura from Star Wars Clone Wars all have one thing in common.
Their spirits and their voices spring from the heart of Jennifer Hale.
Jennifer has brought to life a wild range of characters from a disgruntled 12 year old boy, to a timeless heroic princess, a quirky ancient alien, a ridiculously perky tour guide, a rock star, a shy four year old and a sizzling super-bad girl. At the top of her field in animation, commercials, and promos, Jennifer is responsible for these and many more memorable characters as well as lending her signature voice to many products and programs familiar to all of us.
John Patrick Lowrie
John Patrick Lowrie, winner of the Best Radio Drama Actor award and Best Radio Drama Adaptation Award at the 2014 Moondance International Film Festival, is the voice of the Sniper in TF2; Pudge, Storm Spirit, Doom, Earthshaker, Shadow Fiend, Ancient Apparition and Dark Seer in DOTA2, Balaram in Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Sword Control in Halo:Reach, Commissioner Kinsler in Halo:ODST, Warden in Infamous, Harold Keegan in F.E.A.R.2: Project Origin, Odessa Cubbage and Citizens in Half-Life2, Agent Gray in The Matrix Online, Hermes Haight and Sergei in The Suffering, Bruno Lawrie in NOLF and NOLF2, Tammany in Police Quest: SWAT2, the narrator in Total Annihilation as well as characters in many other video games. He lives in Seattle with his wife of 28 years, Ellen McLain, the voice of GLaDOS in the Portal games. He has worked as a professional performer all his life, from guitarist and composer to actor, director, conductor and author. His first novel, Dancing With Eternity, won the Foreword Firsts Award for best debut fiction in 2011. Dancing With Eternity was released as an audiobook in June of 2014
Zach Weinersmith
Zach Weinersmith is the creator of the comic strip Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. He has a degree in literature and 3/8ths of a degree in physics. He published science fiction gamebooks entitled “Trial of the Clone (1 and 2)” and as well as a collection of SMBC comics revolving around the theme of Science called “Science: Ruining Everything Since 1543.” A friend of gaymers and geeks worldwide, he runs one of the largest webcomics with over half a million hits a day and featuring non traditional couples (including gay nerds!). He also co-hosts “The Weekly Weinersmith” with Kelly.
Dr. Rob Jagnow
Founder and CEO of Lazy 8 Studios. He’s best known for his award-winning indie games, including Cogs and Extrasolar. In this latter title, which launched in 2014, Rob served as the lead designer and also acted as one of the characters within a fictional space exploration company.
In his spare time, Rob dabbles with small games that address social issues like bullying, privilege, sexuality, and race.
2mello
2Mello began producing music at the age of 13, using tiny bits of samples to create original compositions. Today, that simple style has evolved to incorporate massive, high-profile remix projects like the videogame and hip-hop mashing Chrono Jigga, which brought fans of hip-hop and videogames together.
2 Mello also makes original hip-hop in which he champions being true to yourself and thinking differently about rap music.
The DoubleClicks
The Doubleclicks are two sisters who sing sincerely about the things geeks love: dinosaurs, super-villains, Dungeons & Dragons, and more. The duo has gained renown for their youtube videos including the geek girl song “Nothing to Prove,” for appearing on Wil Wheaton’s web show Tabletop, and for writing the theme song for Cards Against Humanity. The Doubleclicks have toured nationally, performed at w00tstock and on the Jonathan Coulton cruise and their 2013 album “Lasers and Feelings” hit the top 10 on Billboard’s comedy charts. Their 2014 album “Dimetrodon” features song about burritos, dinosaurs and cats and was funded by an $80,000 Kickstarter project. Doubleclicks concerts are perfect for fans of cellos, of the 1995 BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice, and for people who want to learn more about dinosaurs.
Sammus
Sammus is an upstate NY-based rap artist and producer with Congolese and Ivorian family roots. Since joining NuBlack Music Group in early 2012, she has released two albums, a collaborative EP with nerdcore MC Random aka Mega Ran, a beat tape, and a Kickstarter-funded Metroid EP. Her production is characterized by her use of uniquely chopped samples, and video game-like synths. She has been called the “rap Aisha Tyler” (MTV Iggy) because of her smart lyrics that often draw on her love of gaming. When she’s not rapping, she moonlights as a graduate student at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.