Category Archives: Guests

Guest Announcement: Greg Ayres

We are pleased to announce that Greg Ayres will be returning as a Guest of Honor for AnimeIowa 2019!

Greg Ayres has been blasting his way through 2019! With over 290 credits to his name, he has managed to play a variety of characters that are almost as colorful as his hair. He was thrilled to make his second appearance in the DragonBall universe in DragonBall Super as Frost, and equally excited blasting bugs as Geo in Sony Picture’s Starship Troopers : Traitor of Mars. Some other recent roles include Jiro in Concrete Revolutio, Sho Utsumi in SSSSGridman, Ryuuou Edogawa in Doreiku, Koji Koda in My Hero Academia, and even makes an appearance as Popuko in Pop Team Epic. He is proud to be a part of the new “Pink Harvest” productions for Sentai Filmworks, in the roles of Izumi Sena in Lovestage, and  Yabase in Hitorijime My Hero. This year he was also given the opportunity to reprise one of his all time favorite roles as Son Goku in Saiyuki Reload Blast. Some other recent favorites include Nagisa Haruki in Free, and Free Eternal Summer, MonoKuma in Danganronpa, Clear in Dramatical Murder, and Doug in Gangsta, Yu Nishinoya in Haikyu, Zenji Marui 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 Son Goku in Saiyuki, Chrono in Chrono Crusade, Kaoru Hitachiin in Ouran High School Host Club, 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.

When he’s not in a booth with headphones on, you can usually find him sporting headphones behind “the decks” at many a music event. A veteran nightclub DJ of many years, he has jumped at the opportunity to play music and organize late night dances at many of the conventions he attends. Greg is also a member of Project BECK, who perform music from the anime Beck Mongolian Chop Squad, and has had a blast reliving the music from that show with his friends. Thrilled to be able to share his love of music with anyone willing to listen – from packed rooms at anime conventions, to the legendary stage of The Knitting Factory (NYC), he’s always ready to make a little noise.

Guest Announcement: Michelle Clark

The AnimeIowa 2019 Guests Team is pleased to announced Michelle Clark as the Con-Mom of Honor this year. Our Con Parent Project exists to highlight individuals who serve as role models and inspirations to the fandom and community.

Michelle Clark was born in Humbolt IA.  She currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has been attending conventions for many years.   Michelle has helped anywhere it has been needed and can be spotted a great deal of the time in the green room for the Masquerade and CosPlay. She has helped with Anime Detour (MN) since 2003, being responsible for the staff that make sure the Consuite runs smoothly, and that the volunteers are taken care of in their Volunteer Consuite. Michelle has previously been a Convention Executive for ICON (our sister convention), being their Cosplay/Masquerade director for many years.  Michelle is a Master Class Costumer, having competed and won many awards for her costuming skills. She has worked for many years with Minneapolis Theater groups as the costumer for many shows. Known as a convention mother to quite a few people Michelle does anything from costuming, to belly dancing, to even running a chocolate ceremony at our sister convention ICON.

Guest Announcement: Sarah Wiedenheft

Sarah Wiedenheft is a voice actor who has provided her voice for a multitude of anime. Some of which include:

Zeno from Dragon Ball Super, Tohru from Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Charmy from Black Clover, Saiko from Tokyo Ghoul, Teresa from Tada Never Falls in Love, Non from Keijo!!!!!!!!, Aika from Shomin Sample, Shihoru from Grimgar of Fantasy and Illusions, Azusa from Orange, Takagi from Karakai Jozu No Takagi-san, Mage from Bikini Warriors, Kotoko from Urahara, Kiriha from Tsugumomo, Sana from Alice & Zoroku, Shera L. Greenwood from How NOT To Summon A Demon Lord, Hikari from Castle Town Dandelion, Yuki from Interviews With Monster Girls, Takano from Tsurezure Children, Kikyo from Classroom of The Elite, and Michella from Blood Battle Blockade Battlefront. She has also lent her voice in a few games, such as Celeste Luvendass from Huniepop, and Lailani from HunieCam Studio.

Guest Announcement: Morgan Berry

We are pleased to announce that Morgan Berry will be a Guest of Honor at AnimeIowa 2019.

Morgan Berry is a voice actor best known for her work in various anime shows, movies, video games, and web series. Some of her most notable roles being in “My Hero Academia”, “One Piece“, “KanColle“, “Touken Ranbu“, “Hyperdimension Neptunia“, “Tokyo Ghoul“, “Riddle Story of Devil“, “ēlDLIVE“, “Show By Rock!!“, and the award winning film “The Boy and the Beast.” Her most notable video game titles include “Marvel Avengers Academy”, “Smite“, and “Freedom Planet 2”. In addition, she voices for a variety of web series including Team Four Star’s “Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged“, ScrewAttack’s “DEATH BATTLE”, and the lead role of Eris in “Gods School“. On top of voice acting, Morgan is a singer and YouTube Personality under the name “The Unknown Songbird” with over 5 Million views in total.

Follow her adventures on Twitter! @TheMorganBerry

Guest Announcement: Joan Gordon

The AnimeIowa Guests Team is pleased to announce Joan Gordon as our Artist Guest of Honor for AnimeIowa 2019.

Joan Gordon has been an anime addict since 1999. She tried to kick the habit, but the kawaii otaku force was too strong. To feed her addiction to collect all the animes, she took up the lucrative business of illustration to fuel her addiction. Fighting sleep deprivation by daylight, drawing art waaaay past midnight, never running from a deadline, she is the one named Joan Gordon.

She intensively studied the magic of Drawing, and has a shiny Bachelors of Fine Arts degree to show for it. Joan honed her shoujo powers by mastering watercolors and digital media, to create peaceful imagery ranging from fanart to realistic depictions of animals in space.

Guest Announcement: IA

AnimeIowa is pleased to announce that IA will be a 2019 Guest of Honor, and she will be putting on a film concert at the convention.

IA is a virtual artist who has a voice with the VOCALOID 3 library (IA -ARIA ON THE PLANETES and IA ROCKS) and with the CeVIO library (IA English). Since she was born as a virtual artist in 2012, she has been collaborating with various artists such as TeddyLoid and Jin on projects such as the Kagerou Project.

Her first live concert in North America was in July 2015, at the Los Angeles Anime Expo, in front of a sold-out crowd of two thousand. Considering that this was her first live, it was a spectacular success! In September of the same year, her first solo live, IA – 1st Live Concert in Japan-PARTY A GO-GO, was held at the Akasaka Blitz in Tokyo. This concert was also resounding success and as a result, she ended up holding a successful world tour in cities such as New York; London; Shanghai; Hong Kong; Mexico City; San Jose, Costa Rica; Melbourne; Montreal; Santiago, Chile; and Madrid. In addition, her film concerts were featured in more than one hundred cities around the world, drawing an audience of over thirty thousand.

In March 2018, on her latest album, IA/04, she sang her songs in English for the very first time. In June 2018, at the Digital Art Festival held in Enghien-les-Bains, France, IA’s latest performance, which was a pre-production performance of the MUSICAL & LIVE SHOW – ARIA, was held. She received high critical acclaim for it at each level of the French media outlets, including national TV. In September 2018, she served as an ambassador (a virtual ambassador) to the 30th IOI (International Olympiad in Informatics) in Japan, which hosted participants from 85 countries. In 2019, IA started her ARIA World Tour, which began with her anniversary performance in Japan on January 26th and 27th.
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