2024 Celebrities, Speakers and Special Guests

2024 is our biggest year ever! We're expecting 50+ guests in total with 50+ panels and appearances. Information on autograph and picture opportunities will be posted as we get closer to the show.

This year we have an exciting mix of Video Game Industy Alumni, Content Creators and Video Game Actors and Voice Talent! Stay tuned for frequent updates between now and Sep 27 when PRGE 2024 kicks off!

All our Guests listed here are under contract. If a Guest has an unforeseen emergency or conflict and can not appear at the event, the Portland Retro Gaming Expo will immediately update this page and announce the schedule change on social media. No ticket refunds will be given for a Guest's cancellation.

Video Game Actors and Voice Talent

		Daniel Pesina Mortal Kombat: Johnny Cage, Sub-Zero, Scorpion Master Daniel Pesina has been studying martial arts since he was 10, when his two older brothers introduced him to Judo. He has trained under many masters including Guo Jian Hua (Indoor student of Wen Jingming and Lui Yuhua), Zhu Baozhen (Luo Chengli, He Zhong Xiang, He Zhong Qi), Hu Jianqiang (Shaolin Temple movie fame), Wai Lun Choi (Lui He Ba Fa grandmaster), and Lin Jian Hua (head judge for international Wushu federation), to name a few. Master Pesina stepped into movies as a Foot Soldier in 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze, and this led to other opportunities including the video game industry. He is best known for Mortal Kombat, where he not only portrays multiple characters: Johnny Cage, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile, Smoke and Noob Saibot, but also helped develop the characters and gameplay (including fatalities).
		Ho-Sung Pak Mortal Kombat: Liu Kang, Shang Tsung Ho-Sung Pak, well known for his role in the Mortal Kombat video game series as Liu Kang, is a martial artist, actor, stunt performer, choreographer, writer and producer with a long list of titles under his belt including Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and TMNT III, Drunken Master II and many more. Ho-Sung began acting after he was approached at a martial arts tournament by some people from the Ninja Turtles franchise and asked him to audition in LA. The rest is history, Ho-Sung landed the role as Raphael in TMNT II and went on to do motion caption acting the Mortal Kombat video game series after that. He continues to work in the industry as an actor, writer and choreographer, even working with Madonna on her Drowned World tour.
		Elizabeth Malecki Mortal Kombat: Sonya Blade Elizabeth Malecki is an actress, martial artist and dancer best known for her role as Sonya Blade in the game Mortal Kombat. Sonya was a last-minute addition to the game after the developers were given more time and budget and they decided that Mortal Kombat needed a female character to balance out the game. After Mortal Kombat, Liz worked as an RN at the Mayo Clinic and is an avid animal advocate. Since retirement from the Mayo Clinic, she occasionally tours video game conventions with the rest of the original Mortal Kombat crew.
		Richard Divizio Mortal Kombat: Kano Richard Divizio is a martial artist, actor and graduate of the American Academy of Art in Chicago where he studied computer graphic design. Rich joined Daniel Pesina and Ho-Sung Pak on the set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze as a stuntman and member of Shredder’s foot soldiers. Rich joined the Mortal Kombat team as Kano the mercenary, in the first game, Baraka in MKII, Kabal in Mortal Kombat 3 and Quan Chi in Mortal Kombat Mythologies. In addition, he returned to Midway during Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance as a motion capture actor.
		Carlos Pesina Mortal Kombat: Raiden Carlos Pesina, like his brother Daniel, has been a lifelong practitioner of martial arts and continues to practice and teach to this day. Martial arts also led Carlos into acting with a role in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III as a stunt double and eventually to motion capture acting in video games. Carlos is one of the frontrunning developers of motion capture technology as well. Carlos has been a part of the Mortal Kombat franchise from the very beginning, portraying Lord Raiden, working alongside his brother and friends to help develop one of the most groundbreaking fighting games of all time. Carlos continued working on Mortal Kombat at NetherRealm Studios as an actor, motion capture artist and animator until his retirement in 2022.
		Samantha Kelly Super Mario Bros: Princess Peach, Toad She's been falling into boiling lava and dodging shells for the last decade. Samantha Kelly is a voice actor and radio personality who has played Princess Peach and Toad since 2007. She's been playing characters in video games since 2003, including "Sunny Day" the sports announcer in the Backyard Sports series for kids. Born in Kenya, she's lived all over the world, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Germany. She loves doing games that cross borders and taking down bad guys without messing up her hair.
		Laura Faye Smith Super Mario Bros: Princess Rosalina Laura Faye Smith is an LA-based voice actor, best known for voicing Princess Rosalina for Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers games (starting with Super Mario 3D World in 2013) and Noelle in Genshin Impact. She has also voiced Kana (male) for Nintendo's English cast of Fire Emblem Fates, Tamara "Meds" Malari in the ongoing sci-fi audiodrama The Sojourn, as well as numerous characters for Mad Head Games. She has done an extensive amount of commercials, dubbing, theatre, and audiobooks. She appeared as DeEtta Calvert on NBC's Grimm, and has also appeared in TNT's Leverage, Brat TV's Chicken Girls, and Investigation Discovery's Betrayed and Stranger Among Us.
		Kenny James Super Mario Bros: Bowser Kenny is best known as the voice of Bowser in the Nintendo Super Mario Bros franchise with over 35 title credits. He has been providing the voice and personality of Bowser since Super Mario Strikers in 2005. Other voice work includes Zingo, a story telling dragon for a children’s program, narration and audiobooks. While he currently lives in Dallas working in voice-over, Kenny was also a prolific theater actor performing in musicals, dramas and comedies, in the Puget Sound area.

Video Game Alumni

		Jeff Minter Llamasoft Legendary game designer and programmer Jeff Minter is coming to this year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Starting in 1979 on the Commodore PET with the game 'Deflex' Jeff created many of of early home computer classics like 'Gridrunner' and 'Attack of the Mutant Camels' for the popular machines from Atari, Commodore, Sinclair etc. He also created console classics like 'Tempest 2000' for the Atari Jaguar, 'Tempest 3000' for the Nuon and continues to write console games to this day. He is also passionate about light synthesizers for home computers and consoles such as the Jaguar CD, the Nuon and the Xbox 360. His modern games have a distinctly psychedelic retro-flair and Jeff was recently feature in Digital Eclipse's 'Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story' compilation.
		Scott Adams Adventure International, Clopas Inspired by mainframe computer software trail-blazing game designer and programmer Scott Adams created the first text-adventure game on microcomputers in 1978. These new interactive fiction adventures became so successful that he co-founded the company Adventure International and eventually released 18 games on a wide range of popular computers from Atari, Apple, Commodore, TI, Sinclair, BBC, Acorn, IBM PC and others. Later software included graphic adventure games and action games as well. In 2013 Scott released a bible-based text adventure game 'The Inheritance' and in 2016 he founded a new adventure game company 'Clopas' and released 'Escape The Gloomer' based on the 'Redwall' series of children's fantasy novels.
		Howard Scott Warshaw Atari, Author Howard Scott Warshaw is a video game pioneer and a Portland Retro Gaming Expo fan favorite! He created several of Atari’s most famous and infamous products. Now he is the Silicon Valley Therapist, healing the emotional wounds of hi-tech leaders and their partners. In his latest book, “Once Upon ATARI: How I made history by killing an industry,” Howard shares his unique perspectives on the birth, death and resurrection
		Tim Lapetino Atari, Author Tim Lapetino is an award-winning creative director, writer, and geek culture historian. For nearly 25 years he has helped brands tell compelling stories through design and creativity, while connecting deeply to their passionate fans. He is the author of the best-selling book, Art of Atari, and co-author of Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon. His work has been featured in more than a dozen books and magazines, and has drawn worldwide press coverage, including The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Wired, Forbes, IGN, Polygon, SyFy Wire, MAXIM, Kotaku, and more. His books have been published in five languages. (He also owns a super rare environmental Discs of Tron arcade cabinet!)

Content Creators

		Adam Koralik FigureItOutCast Adam Koralik is a content creator who has been producing videos for 13 years on YouTube. Whether he’s unboxing a PS5, cleaning and restoring a Sega Saturn, or just giving an engaging history lesson on previous console generations; Adam’s videos are a must-watch for any gamer. He features consoles from different generations of gaming and provides many videos detailing how to repair them. He even has whole videos with incredible access to one of a kind prototypes like the Sega Pluto and Nintendo PlayStation! Adam has also contributed to the YouTube channel “GameSocietyPimps” with work on Skyrim for Pimps, Christopher Walkenthrough, and Disneyland Adventures videos; and also contributed to “BlameSocietyFilms” with work on Chad Vader and Beer & Board Games. An avid game collector, Adam owns nearly every video game console ever made (including Japanese and European models).
		Brett Weiss Video Game Historian Gaming historian Brett Weiss has been a professional writer since 1997. He’s the author of 13 books, mostly about the NES, Super NES, Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Sega Genesis, and other retro games and gaming consoles. His latest book is The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1988-1998. He's also got a YouTube show, Tales from a Retro Gamer, and has been in various gaming documentaries. Weiss has written countless articles for numerous publications, including Game Informer, Fangoria, Filmfax, the Comics Buyer's Guide, and Old School Gamer, among many others. Weiss also has a national column in AntiqueWeek called The Pop Culture Collective.
		G Gracin III G To The Next Level “G” Gracin, aka G to the Next Level, is a 25+ year retro gaming enthusiast. In addition to their YouTube Channel, G hosts regular live hangout streams on Twitch, is an official Capcom Creator, works with Sega for various charity efforts, and has been featured in Retro Gamer Magazine. Though G’s channels are about all retro gaming, they are a Sega Genesis fan first and is currently in a project called “Growing Up Genesis,” which involves G weekly livestreaming the entire US Genesis library from A-Z on Twitch, a YouTube compendium reviewing the entire library, and soon a coffee table book.
		Pat Contri Pat the NES Punk Pat Contri is a game historian, collector, and online content producer best known for Pat the NES Punk, Flea Market Madness, the Completely Unnecessary Podcast, and The Video Game Years. He has produced Nintendo guidebooks for the NES, SNES, and N64. Pat Contri celebrates 15 years of being a retro gaming YouTuber! Pat will discuss his history of being a retro gaming "influencer," talk about his projects and the new N64 book, do a Q&A, and maybe have a surprise or two, including the “famous” Play the Punk Challenge!
		SHIRO! MEDIA GROUP SEGA SATURN, SHIRO! Tim Lapetino is an award-winning creative director, writer, and geek culture historian. For nearly 25 years he has helped brands tell compelling stories through design and creativity, while connecting deeply to their passionate fans. He is the author of the best-selling book, Art of Atari, and co-author of Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon. His work has been featured in more than a dozen books and magazines, and has drawn worldwide press coverage, including The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Wired, Forbes, IGN, Polygon, SyFy Wire, MAXIM, Kotaku, and more. His books have been published in five languages. (He also owns a super rare environmental Discs of Tron arcade cabinet!)