Kirk’s major roles include Brandon Heat in Gungrave, Hotohori in Fushigi Yūgi, Jin in Samurai Champloo, Hajime Saito in Rurouni Kenshin, Jet Link in Cyborg 009, Don Patch in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, and numerous Digimon. Additionally, Kirk co-directed for the popular anime series Bleach and also serves as the narrator. In video games, he voices Number VII Organization XIII member Saïx in the Kingdom Hearts series and Shadow the Hedgehog in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

View all the guests we have announced so far on our website at: https://www.otakon.com/guest/

Steve Bennett worked on anime in Tokyo with Noburu Furusei (New Dominion Tank Police, Lupin III, etc.) at Studio Aoehyma in the 1980s. He worked on series like Urusei Yatsura and Yamamoto, before returning to the States.

Steve was with Studio Ironcat, a manga-publication company, from 1997 to 2004. He’s worked on several web comics, including The Angel of St. Thomas and Baba Bhalu. And he’s attended a zillion conventions, teaching cel painting classes and drawing on anything that moves. Steve has also done guest speaker gigs at institutions such as the Iowa Museum of Art, and the Freer Gallery of Art.

Currently, Steve is working on commissioned projects. He and Nikki are starting their new adventure at www.bennettcreativeservices.com. Steve is looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones at Otakon!

View all the guests we have announced so far on our website at: https://www.otakon.com/guest/

A Japanese bilingual singer born in New York. In 2010, nano began sharing English covers of Japanese songs on sites such as YouTube and quickly received positive response from viewers around the world.  In March, 2012, nano made a professional debut with the release of a 1st album “nanoir”. “nanoir” ranked in 10th in the Daily Oricon Charts on the first day of release.  In 2015, the 3rd studio album “Rock on.” Was released, which reached 4th on the Oricon Daily Charts, creating a big movement in the field of J-pop. Following the debut in 2013, nano held a first Live Concert “Remember you color.” at the Shinkiba Studio Coast, which sold out 2,500 tickets within the first day.  A Zepp Live Tour followed quickly after, and nano has been actively holding concerts both in Japan and Internationally. In 2015, nano’s first concert in Germany and Taiwan took place. In 2018, a sold out concert or 2,800 people was held in San Jose, America, nano’s first concert back in home-country.  nano continues to reach out beyond borders, connecting people around the world through music.