We would like to welcome our guests to the Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival - 2008.

 
    

Media Guest of Honor:  Claudia Christian
     "I guess you could say I'm the ultimate hyphen," laughs Claudia Christian. Very much aware of her "actress - writer - singer - songwriter - director - producer - voice - over - artist - chef - renaissance" woman moniker, she still manages to expand her horizons and tackle new goals every year.
    She's come a long way baby! From Connecticut to Laguna Beach where she won a drama scholarship, she then decided to take the plunge and move to Los Angeles to follow her dream of being in films and television. She landed her first TV series at 18 on NBC's nighttime drama Berringers and then her first feature at 20 playing a male alien trapped in a stripper's body in the cult hit The Hidden. "I still get recognized from that film! It was very popular with frat boys and video fanatics who all feel that the film was way before it's time".
    She went on to star in studio pictures such as Clean and Sober with Morgan Freeman and Michael Keaton and Hexed, a black comedy directed by Alan Spencer (Sledge Hammer) that Christian was convinced would make her a star "hey, I was really funny in that movie..too bad only 30 people saw it.." Over 50 films and hundreds of TV shows later, Claudia can count among her co-stars, George Clooney, Faye Dunaway, Burt Lancaster, Sharon Stone, Kirk Douglas, Peter Falk, Charlie Sheen, Judd Nelson and Nick Cage amongst many others.
    In addition to her acting credits Christian has made 5 albums with acts such as the John Lennon Song Writing Award---winning band Bubble to her Babylon 5 costar Bill Mumy. She has also provided the voice for Helga Sinclair in Disney's Atlantis and was the voice of Jaguar cars for many years and has won the golden head set award for her portrayal of Anne Manx in the award winning series of books. Her latest animated feature Geppetto's Secret will be released some time next year.
    Claudia moved to London in 2005 and immediately was cast in the BBC comedy Broken News. She also starred in the independent Sci Fi comedy series STAR HYKE. In August of 2006, Claudia debuted on stage in her first UK play, “Killing Time” at the world famous Edinburgh festival. She was rewarded for her efforts with a best actress nomination.
    In June 2007 Yard Dog Press published an account of the her life to date titled "My Life With Geeks and Freaks" written by Claudia. On the fiction side of things, in May 2007, she had a short story published by Under The Moon in Forbidden Love Issue Two, "Wicked Women". Due out in July 2007, Forbidden Love Issue Three "Sacred Bands" promises yet another short story written by Claudia.
    She recently finished filming the action-drama feature film Dot Man in Bucharest, Romania, in December of 2006. She is a consulting producer and appears in the action-drama feature film Serbian Scars filming in Europe the summer of 2007.
    Claudia Christian is not only a renaissance woman; she is a force of nature.
Visit her website at :  www.zardproductions.com/

Artist Guest of Honor:  Mike Cole

     I was born in Omaha, NE during the week of the Cuban missile crisis. I did a tour in the Marines sending most of my time in California. When I got out, I moved to Illinois working as a graphic artist for several companies.
     I have been a science fiction fan since the early 70’s. I have attended, volunteered, run, and doomed, (don’t ask) something on the order of 300 conventions. I am a working artist and author of numerous sick and twisted cartoons, as well as creating award winning digital artwork. I just finished my fifth collection of cartoons, and I have done two covers for Yard Dog Press. Some of my other credits include “Dreams of Decadence” which is a vampire magazine. Also the AMERICAN OUTBACK module for Timeline LTD for which I did all of the interior artwork.
     Currently I am working on a web cartoon strip called SMERD. As well as doing layouts for a comic book based on the same character and various others. You can check out SMERD at this website http://www.rushandthegreyfox.com/. Another project I’m working on that I hope to have at the convention is a STAR TREK parody novella.

Toastmaster:  Rusty Hevelin 

     Rusty is a genuine member of science fiction's First Fandom.  He was introduced to fanac activities by the likes of Forrest J. Ackerman and Ray Bradbury in 1941 in Riverside California.  He then trekked his way to Denver for the World Science Fiction Convention.  Finally he went to Philadelphia and began publishing one of fandom's earliest newsletters, NEBULA:  THE FANTASY FAN RECORD.  He co-edited the last FANTASCIENCE DIGEST with Bob Madle.  He joined the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and ended up president.  But he has also written for other fan publications, like FANTASITE.
     In the last few decades Rusty has been influential in shaping the SF/F convention scene all along I-80.  Starting with ICON, through Con*Tretemps and Demicon, and finally back to Omaha at OSFest.  Come and meet a legend, he has many tales worth hearing.
 

Additional Festival Participants