• Johnny Yong Bosch

  • Cherami Leigh

  • Clifford Chapin

  • Trina Nishimura

  • Ryan Bartley

  • Kristen McGuire

  • Jessie James Grelle

  • Bryson Baugus

  • Paul St. Peter

  • Jason Douglas

  • Bryce Papenbrook

  • Amber

  • Callicake Cosplay

  • Kaggy

  • Maddy Kate Cosplay

  • Maydayfireball

  • Jessi Gaston (Delightfully Wierd)

  • Justin Hardy

  • Moonlight Maid Cafe

  • Porkcutlett

  • Knox Pop Con

  • NINJ3FF3C7

  • Always Love Lorn

  • Kumi Alderman

  • Naoko Podhorszki

Johnny Yong Bosch

Johnny Yong Bosch got his start fighting giant bugs as Adam Park, the Black Ranger on “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.” It is a role that he would play for three and a half seasons on TV, two motion pictures and two special guest appearances in future “Power Rangers” seasons.


After “Power Rangers,” Bosch became involved in voice-over work for various titles. His first major voice acting role was Vash the Stampede in “Trigun.” He later went on to play the voices of Kaneda in “Akira”; Renton in “Eureka Seven”; Albert in
“The Count of Monte Cristo”; Kiba in “Wolf’s Rain”; Itsuki in
“The Melancholy of Haurhi Suzumiya”; Ichigo Kurosaki in
“Bleach”; Lelouch Lamperouge in “Code Geass”; Izaya in
“Durarara”; Guren in “Tenkai Knights”; Yukio in “Blue Exorcist”;
Sasori in “Naruto”; Nobita in “Doraemon”; Artemis in “Sailor Moon”; Nagate in the Netflix original “Knights of Sidonia”; Nate in “Yokai Watch,” and many more.


His voice can also be heard in numerous video games, providing voices for Nero in “Devil May Cry 4”; Kuhn in “.hack// G.U.”; Adachi/Narukami in “Persona 4”; Almaz in “Disgaea 3”;
Emil in “Tales of Symphonia”; Guy in “Tales of the Abyss”;
Firion in “Dissidia Final Fantasy”; Bumblebee in “Transformers:
War for Cybertron”; Yang in “Street Fighter IV”; Zero in “Marvel vs. Capcom 3”; Yukimura in “Sengoku Basara”; Torian Cadera in “Star Wars: The Old Republic”; and Kung Jin in “Mortal Kombat X.”


Bosch is also the frontman for the bandEyeshine, the winners of Ford Motor Company’s worldwide band search and produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Don Was (Rolling Stones, Elton John, John Mayer, etc.). They’ve played Warped Tour and Ernie Ball’s Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival, as well as having their music chosen for promotional use in the Call of Duty Endowment project. Eyeshine is also known for recording the song “Love Psalm” with Mary Elizabeth and Akira Yamaoka for the game “Silent Hill: Book of Memories.”

Cherami Leigh

Cherami Leigh Kuehn (born July 19, 1988) is an American actress and voice artist who has provided voices for a number of English-language versions of Japanese anime series and video games with Funimation, Bang Zoom! Entertainment and Studiopolis.
Leigh began acting at the age of six. She studied the Meisner-based Film Acting Technique with Nancy Chartier from the age of nine. As a child, she played Gretchen in Finding North, Marcia in Temple Grandin, the young LeAnn Rimes in Holiday in Your Heart (1997), Stacy Anderson in The President’s Man (2000), and appeared on the television series Walker, Texas Ranger (1993) multiple times. On-screen, she played Kim in Fast Food Nation (2006), a young LeAnn Rimes in Holiday in Your Heart and has appeared on Bones, Friday Night Lights, Longmire and Shameless. In 2014, she had the lead role in Shane Dawson’s Not Cool (2014).

As a voice artist, Cherami’s roles have included Sae Kashiwagi in Peach Girl, Lucy Heartfilia in Fairy Tail, Patty Thompson in Soul Eater, Asuna Yuuki in Sword Art Online, Cecily Campbell in The Sacred Blacksmith, Tamaki Kawazoe in Bamboo Blade, Kazari Uiharu in A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun series, Yoshika Miyafuji in Strike Witches, Eucliwood Hellscythe in Is This a Zombie, Mutsuki in KanColle: Kantai Collection, Aisa in One Piece, Mika Shimotsuki in Psycho-Pass, Shijima Kurookano in Nabari no Ou, Hibiki in Sekirei, Elizabeth Midford in Black Butler, Road Kamelot in D.Gray-man, Sailor Venus in the Viz Media dub of Sailor Moon, Plutia / Iris Heart in Hyperdimension Neptunia, Ulala in the Space Channel 5 series, Sarada Uchiha in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Chloe and Grookey in Pokémon, and Ilia Amitola in RWBY.
In video games, she voices Rottytops in the Shantae series, Gaige the Mechromancer in the Borderlands series, Arianrhod in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, Minerva in The Walking Dead: The Final Season, Rhea in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Makoto Niijima in Persona 5 and the Female V in Cyberpunk 2077 for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Performer in a Leading Role.
Leigh attended Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas and studied theater at Collin College in Plano. She worked for Radio Disney as a DJ and also voice-over promotions and commercials for ABC Radio for 10 years. In 2013 she moved to Los Angeles, and continued voice acting on video games and anime as well as take on live-action acting roles. She married fellow actor Jon Christie on April 13, 2014, whom she had dated since 2010.
Socials:

Twitter: @CheramiLeigh
Instagram: @clkstar

Clifford Chapin

Clifford Chapin is a voice actor best known for his work in animation and video games. At a young age, Clifford began studying all the ins and outs of filmmaking, which led to him beginning his freelance career at sixteen years old. While in college, Clifford discovered his true passion was for voice-over, changing his focus from being behind the camera to being behind the mic. Now, Clifford has voiced hundreds of characters across animation, including Katsuki Bakugo in My Hero Academia, Himmel the Hero in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Connie Springer in Attack on Titan, and Cabba in Dragon Ball Super. For video games, you can hear Clifford as Billy Kid in Zenless Zone Zero, Proton in Pokémon Masters EX, Ronan in Fire Emblem Heroes, and Kukulkan in Smite, among many others.

Trina Nishimura

Brandishing her voice just as Mikasa wields her blade; Trina Nishimura has sliced her way through the voice over world over the past few years. 

 

From meager beginnings as the little hungry girl Namiko in Desert Punk, to her much anticipated and lauded appearance as Mikasa Ackerman in Attack on Titan; Nishimura’s agile voice has brought her critical acclaim, awards, and unprecedented fan support. To date, she has voiced over 200 different characters in aps, movies, television shows, and video games. 

 

Fans will recall Trina’s many dutiful portrayals in such works as Attack on Titan and Attack on Titan Junior High (Mikasa Ackerman), My Hero Acedamia (Jiro Kyoka), Steins;Gate (Kurisu Makise), Soul Eater (Mizune), Monster Hunter (Navirou), Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Lan Fan), Trigun: Badlands Rumble (Milly Thompson), Solo Leveling (Park Heejin), Fairy Tale (Sherry), Evangelion 2.22 and 3.33 (Mari), Fire Emblem franchise (Erie), Black Butler (Ranmao), Love Live! Sunshine!! (Sarah Kazuno), Smite (Several Lead Characters) and the ever popular Pop Team epic (Popuko) to name a few. 

 

Some other exciting pieces of her work include Luna in Cashern Sins, Francesca Lucchini in Strike Witches, Sohara in Heaven’s Lost Property, Aiko Kudo in Baka and Test, Sakuya in ..hack//Quantum, Sen in Ben-To, Mamitas in Space Dandy, Chain in Blood Blockade Battlefront. 

 

Trina is that rare breed of performer who not only embodies her characters, but also embraces her fans…taking time to make appearances around the world. 

 

Though her voice and talents have taken her, and her characters to every corner of the globe….her heart will always belong to Texas. 

 

Ryan Bartley

Ryan Bartley is best known in the anime world for her roles in Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer:, Re:Zero ? Starting Life in Another World, isekai quartet, HunterXHunter and more. In gaming she voices Sage in Sonic Frontiers, Monster Hunter Wilds and many more! She is also the voice of Pompompurin in Hello Kitty and Allister & Alcremie in Pokémon.

Kristen McGuire

Kristen McGuire is a professional voice actor, artist, ADR director and script adapter with over 400 credits across anime and video games.

She is most well known for her work as the playable character Ye Shunguang in Zenless Zone Zero, Biscuit and Rouge in NIKKE: Goddess of Victory, Kachina in the Natlan region of Genshin Impact, Gemma in Monster Hunter Wilds, Sarah Connor in Terminator 2D: No Fate,
Penny and Tatsugiri in Pokémon Horizons, Milim Nava in the anime That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Akane Kurokawa in Oshi No Ko, Young Vash in TRIGUN STAMPEDE. Isabel Magnolia in Attack on Titan, Ruri in Dr. Stone, Tatami Nakagame in My Hero Academia, Yu in Fire Force, Senko in The Helpful Fox Senko-san, Hinano Kurahashi in Assassination Classroom, Mukuro in Date A Live, Vueko in Made in Abyss, Alice Lendrott in Duke of Death and His Maid and many more!

Kristen is also an award-winning anime artist. She draws all of her own autograph prints and offers anime-style caricatures of attendees at conventions.

Jessie James Grelle

Jessie James Grelle has been a part of the Anime VO community since 2004. She began her journey in Houston, Texas at ADV Films, and would go on to work for FUNimation, Crunchyroll, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, and more. In her 20 years of VO work, she has been involved in over 400 individual titles across anime, pre-lay animation, and videogames.  

Jessie’s most notable roles include Armin Arlert in Attack on Titan, Izo in One Piece, Grand Priest in Dragon Ball Super, Yuri Katsuki in Yuri on Ice, Tokoyami Fumikage in My Hero Academia, Kenichi in Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple, Tyrian Callows in RWBY, William Vangeance in Black Clover, Demigra in Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Issei Hyodo in High School DxD, Kinro in Dr. Stone, Byakuya Togami in Danganranpa the Anime, Ginoza in Psycho Pass, Ritsuka in Given, Snapper in Viral Hit, and Prince Zen in Snow White with the Red Hair and many, many more! 

When she is not behind the mic, Jessie streams on Twitch as her VTuber persona, Mim! You can watch her streams at twitch.tv/mimcubus!  

Bryson Baugus

Bryson Baugus is a voice actor, singer, and stage actor based out of Dallas, Texas. He is known
for voicing many roles in anime and video games such as Shoyo Hinata (Haikyu!!), Nagi
Seishiro (BLUELOCK), Falco Grice (Attack on Titan), Gepard Landau (Honkai: Star Rail), Bell
Cranel (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?), Akihiko Nirei (Wind Breaker),
Pegasus Seiya (Saint Seiya), Sherbet Cookie (Cookie Run Kingdom), Takumi Aldini (Food
Wars), and many others. For his full list of roles, check out BrysonBaugus.com!

If you would like to keep up with what’s going on with Bryson, give him a Follow on
Twitter/Instagram/TikTok (@baugusbryson)

Paul St. Peter

Paul St. Peter, twice nominated for BTVA Awards, is a voice actor from Los Angeles, whose many anime and video game credits include KINGDOM HEARTS (Xemnas), NARUTO (Nine Tail Fox), ONE PUNCH MAN (Beast King), DIGIMON (Wormmon, Leomon), ROBOTECH (Zor Prime), MIRACULOUS LADYBUG (Master Fu), BLEACH (Yammy Riyalgo), WORLD OF WARCRAFT (Boden The Imposing), DYNASTY WARRIORS I-IV (Yuan Shao), DIGIMON: THE MOVIE (Kokomon), ZETMAN (Sugito), MAJIN (Majin), TESTIMONY OF THE NEW SHE DEVIL (Valga), BERSERK (Grunbeld), MIRACULOUS LADYBUG (Master Fu), GODZILLA III (Takeshi), LUPIN Pt.5 (Mamo), and RESIDENT EVIL 5 (Swahili Zombie). Paul does comical voices too, from WORMMON (Digimon Warriors) to PUNCH (Cowboy Bebop).⁠

Jason Douglas

You may know Jason best as ‘Beerus the Destroyer’ and ‘King Cold’ from the DRAGON BALL franchise, ‘Krieg the Psycho’ in the BORDERLANDS 2 & 3 games, or even loyal Alexandrian ‘Tobin’ on THE WALKING DEAD. In fact, he’s performed in hundreds of iconic titles spanning film, television, games, and anime. He also plays the grizzled, veteran demon hunter ‘Kishibe’ in CHAINSAW MAN, gentle spiritual guide ‘Heiter’ in FRIEREN: BEYOND JOURNEY’S END, and sly detective ‘Iwanome’ in DEAD MOUNT DEATH PLAY.  Other recent fan-favorite roles include ‘Gildarts Clive’ in FAIRY TAIL, ‘Aokiji Kuzan’ in ONE PIECE, and ‘Miche’ in ATTACK ON TITAN. 

His prolific on-screen career includes recurring guest-star appearances on AMC’s Preacher, The Walking Dead, and Breaking Bad. Other television work: Cruel Summer, Breaking Bad, Revolution, The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice, The Lost Room, and From Dusk Til Dawn: The Series. Feature films include Sin City, A Scanner Darkly, Machete, Secondhand Lions, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, and the Coen Brothers’ Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men. 

Jason’s 25+ year career in anime began with legendary studios ADV Films and FUNimation, and continues into the modern era with Crunchyroll, Sentai Filmworks, Diskotek Media, and more. Notable voice roles include: Excel Saga (Il Palazzo), Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Major Miles), Fist of the North Star (Raoh), Black Butler 2 (Claude Faustus), RWBY (Jacques Schnee), Grimoire of Zero/Dawn of the Witch (Mercenary), Case Study of Vanitas (Ruthven), Dr. Stone (Kokuyo), Himouto! Umaru-chan (Bomber), After the Rain (Masami), Deadman Wonderland (Azuma), Psycho Pass (Tomomi Masaoka), Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 (Leon), Elfen Lied (Bandoh), Excel Saga (Il Palazzo), Original Dirty Pair (Chief Gooley), Rune Soldier (Louie), Azumanga Daioh (Chiyo-Dad), Gravion (Sandman), and Saiyuki (Homura). 

Socials & Links:

Linktree: linktr.ee/MrJasonDouglas 

 X/Twitter @MrJasonDouglas 

 Facebook JasonDouglasFans 

 Instagram MrJasonDouglas 

 IMDb   imdb.me/jasondouglas 

Bryce Papenbrook

Bryce Papenbrook has been a professional voice-over artist since the age of eight. He was introduced to the voice acting scene by his father, Bob Papenbrook, and has continued the trade in his footsteps. Bryce has performed in numerous video games, cartoons, and television shows.

In anime, some notable roles include Eren Yeager in Attack on Titan & Attack on Titan Jr High, Kirito in Sword Art Online, Inosuke Hashibira in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Rin Okumura in Blue Exorcist, Shirou Emiya in Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, Rokuro Enmado in Twin Star Exorcists, Meliodas, Zeldris & Love Helm in The Seven Deadly Sins, Fujita in Dorohedoro, Daisuke Dojima in Revisions, Nahoya “Smiley” Kawata in Tokyo Revengers, Liebe in Black Clover, Kibi & Lycaon in Beastars, Akechi Touma in The Disastrous Life of Saiki K: Reawakened, Kimura in Teasing Master Takagi-san, Ordinary Cell in Cells at Work!, Red in Pokémon Origins, Yo Shindo in My Hero Academia, Shigehiro Ogiwara in Kuroko’s Basketball, Masaomi Kida & Turquoise Biker in Durarara!! & Durarara!! X2, Caesar Zeppeli in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Staz Charlie Blood in Blood Lad, Chooki & Lydendor in Tenkai Knights, Basile Hardy and Jude Sharp in Inazuma Eleven: Ares, Takashi in Dino Girl Gauko, Kagura Karachi in Boruto, Makoto Naegi & Nagito Komaeda in Danganronpa: The Animation, Gugu in To Your Eternity, Alan Stuart in My Next Life as a Villainess, Kennosuke Tokisada Ouma in Kuromukuro, Cheshire in Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, Ghost Shroud in Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, Kaito in Ajin: Demi-Human, Eugene Sevenstark in Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans, Clay Sizemore in Soul Eater Not!, Calm Craftman in Aldnoah.Zero, Wataru Asahina in Brothers Conflict, Kaname Isaki in A Lull in the Sea, Suoh in Children of the Whales. Past leading roles include Shugo in.hack//Sign Legend of the Twilight, Jack in MAR, Hanabusa Aido in Vampire Knight, and Isami Fujiwara in Noein.

In animation, Bryce is fan favorite Adrien aka Cat Noir & Felix in Miraculous Ladybug, Dennis in Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed, Lemmee in YooHoo to the Rescue,

Bryce has worked extensively in video games. Notable roles include Law in Tales of Arise, Silver in Team Sonic Racing, Hunter Voice Option 3 in Monster Hunter Rise, Wol in Mobius Final Fantasy, Tao, Machina Kunagiri in Final Fantasy Type-0, Makoto Naegi & Nagito Komaeda in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Super Danganronpa 2 & Danganronpa 3, Theodore in Persona Q & Persona 3: Dancing in the Moonlight, Jack Russell in Radiata Stories, Kanata Kujo in Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky, Numerous roles in Call of Duty: Ghosts, Adol Christin in Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, Ys X: Nordics, Tiz Arrior in Bravely Default, Bast in Horizon Zero Dawn, Player (Male) in God Eater 3, Inky in Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures Game, Black Ranger in the Power Rangers Megaforce Game, Sultan in Disney Princess Palace Pets, Lest in Rune Factory 4, Henry, Raven, Karel & Oscar in Fire Emblem Heroes, Kamui in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Issachar in Shin Megami Tensei IV, Asbel Lhant in Tales of Graces F, Zidane Tribal in Final Fantasy Dissidia NT, and Guan Ping in Dynasty Warriors. He also voiced Frankie from the Jumpstart Learning App.

Amber

Amber (formerly Ask Cosplay-Senpai) is the Costume Design instructor at the Portland Fashion Institute. They have worked on costumes and props seen at Disneyland, Epic Universe, and on Broadway, as well as building animatronics on display at the Portland Aquarium. For over a decade, they’ve been a part of the Yama-Con lineup, and they are thrilled to return for a 13th year. Now found online @Amber, they’re bringing the same passion for teaching and fabrication to a new era. Want to learn something cool about that thing you like? Got questions about how to make something for your cosplay? Check out Amber’s panels for insights from a true industry pro and community veteran!

Callicake Cosplay

Callicake Cosplay Callicake returns! This cosplayer and convention panelist loves bringing imagination to life through cosplay, performance, tabletop games, and over-analyzing every piece of media she encounters. Passionate about sharing knowledge and bringing people along for the ride, she’s excited to bring her tips, tricks, and insights to Yamacon! Join her panels to explore the building blocks of storytelling, the joys of character creation, and the magic of cosplay.

Kaggy

Hello Everyone! I am Kaggy! A local Tennessee cosplayer of 4 years! I have been hosting panels for most of that time, and am absolutely honored to be a guest for the first time at Yama Con 2026! Please join me in celebrating our favorite fandoms this December as me and all my fellow panelists host exciting games, interactive fan meetups, loud and proud sing a longs, deep dives into confusing video game lore, and much more! You may know me for my deep love for Dungeons and Dragons, Mouthwashing, and all things Hellaverse! I hope to represent all of them well, and challenge myself to create panels I haven’t run before! My main passion is connecting all my favorite interests with real world culture and history! Seeing how our beliefs are represented in the media we love always intrigues me, and I find it beautiful that people with many differences can all gather to love the same things. My hope is by bringing attention to this we can all be more loving and kind to one another!

Maddy Kate Cosplay

Maddy Kate, has been a hobby cosplayer in the Portland. Oregon area for 12 years, and grew to become a professional full-time cosplayer for 7 years and counting. Along with her years of experience, she has honed the potential of an artist, panelist, lip-sync champion, cosplay guest and much more for conventions and brands across the country; alongside her talented twin brother Porkcutlett (aka, Adrian). Due to her platform, and enthusiasm for the like-minded peers in her community, she has inspired generations of cosplayers from her Tiktok videos of over 1 million subscribers since 2014. In her daily life she is a hard working Funeral Services graduate. Catch her panels and watch her prate in her interests and topics ranging from Identical Twins, Mortuary, insects, Black Butler, Arcane, and much more! She is dying to meet you all.

Maydayfireball

With a background in both online and live Vocaloid concerts under the event name Voca Live Party, Maydayfireball is a 3D modeler and concert director from Memphis, Tennessee. They have worked behind the scenes with Vtubers like Zentreya and Ironmouse and with Vocaloid producers like CircusP. Their skills are primarily self-taught and driven solely by their passion for Vocaloid and concerts.

Jessi Gaston (Delightfully Wierd)

Jessi Gaston (aka Delightfully Weird) has a varied background in the convention scene since 2007 as a panelist, performer, cosplayer, artist, vendor, staff, and more. She shares her love of Japanese street fashion and kawaii culture through her artwork and handmade jewelry and accessories. She also shares lesson videos of ParaPara dance routines through her Youtube channel and was named one of Japanese entertainment company Avex’s winners in the World ParaPara Championship in 2021. You can frequently find her hosting panels and workshops on kawaii art, Japanese music, street fashion, ParaPara, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, cozy games, and convention culture.

Find her online at:
Instagram @delightfullyweirdart
Facebook @delightfulweird
Youtube @JessiG
delightfullyweird.com

Justin Hardy

Working in the convention scene since 2008, Justin Hardy has been a prolific panelist, staff member, and director. He enjoys engaging audiences and building a strong sense of community with the shared enjoyment that stems from it. Having had a hand in multiple conventions in the Mid-South area, he currently strives to bridge the gap between anime and Western culture, especially through his love of Transformers. He has been an avid collector since childhood and is still collecting today. He hopes to share his expertise and good humor with everyone at YamaCon 2026.

Moonlight Maid Cafe

Moonlight Maid Café brings the magic of Akihabara to life! Step into a fully immersive café experience with live performances, interactive games, themed treats, and charming maids & butlers ready to make your visit unforgettable. A fun, family-friendly escape for guests of all ages!

Porkcutlett

Yama-Con welcomes Porkcutlett this year! Porkcutlett, aka Adrian, is a PNW cosplayer from Oregon who has been in the community for over 10 years. He brings his love for panels, cosplay, and vendor artwork to every con he goes to. Adrian’s an award winning Cosplay Lipsync performer along with his twin sister MaddyKateCosplays, bringing the lipsync scene to Yamacon in 2025! In his daily life, he is a licensed Tattoo Artist and is currently taking classes at Portland Fashion Institute to further his craft for cosplay and fasion. Need to talk about tattoos, cosplay, gaming, or even CRYPTIDS? Go and say hi!

Knox Pop Con

Knox Pop Con is a Tennessee nonprofit building community through K-Pop, J-Pop, anime, dance, cosplay, and cultural exchange. We host an annual festival, monthly meetups, weekly Knox K-Pop dance classes for kids through adults, leadership programs, and year-round creative workshops that empower youth and young adults to build confidence, creativity, and connection.

NINJ3FF3C7

From Atlanta to the Anime Rave Scene

A weeb who turned the volume up.

NINJ3FF3C7 (pronounced “Ninja Effect”) is an Atlanta DJ, producer, and VTuber who makes anime music for the dance floor. His YouTube tagline is “just a weeb EDM producer,” and the catalog backs it up. He takes anime themes and Vocaloid songs and rebuilds them as dubstep, future bass, bass house, and drum and bass, with more than 30 tracks pulled from over 15 anime series.

A lot of fans know his beats without knowing his name. He’s the producer behind many of None Like Joshua’s anime raps. NLJ, billed as the world’s fastest anime rapper, has over 200 million YouTube views, and their work together goes back to 2018’s My Hero Academia Rap. Since then they’ve covered JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Attack on Titan, Naruto, Black Clover, Jujutsu Kaisen, Solo Leveling, and Blue Exorcist. A few of those turned into all-star projects: “Pillar Men” brought in Nux Taku, CDawgVA, and Rustage, and “Golden Wind” packed in CDawgVA, The Anime Man, and six other voices.

He’s also active on the VTuber side of the scene. In 2023 he performed on the live version of “Edge of this World” at the birthday concert of Ironmouse, one of the biggest VTubers in the world, alongside shirobeats and Tsukuya. In 2024 he joined DEMONDICE, shirobeats, HalaCG, and Louverture on “CYBERSPACE DREAMS,” from shirobeats’ album WITCHING HOUR. He performs as a VTuber himself, with a character designed by @tachii_xx, modeled by @IPXakachi, and rigged by @KisaragiXeno.

At home, he’s part of InvAsian, the Atlanta party series that has been mixing Asian music, anime, and pop culture on the dance floor since 2021. Over Dragon Con weekend in September 2026 he played The Next Arc, the after-party at Believe Music Hall. On the road, he DJs for WeTouchGrass, the touring anime rave that has hit more than 40 cities in the US, Canada, and Europe since 2022, and he’s played conventions including Anime Expo, Tiger Con, and AAPI Vibe Fest. Put him on the decks and the room gets loud fast.

Always Love Lorn

Hello, I’m AlwaysLoveLorn. You might remember me from such panels as ‘A Taste of Anime’ and ‘The True Meaning of Christmas’. For over a decade my ADHD and love of lists have helped me in creating over a hundred panels and attending conventions in six different states. These panels range from Anime to Zombie with sprinkles of History, Folklore, Movies, Games, and more. I am excited to be returning to Yama-Con again as a guest panelist with a few never before presented panels.

Kumi Alderman

Executive Director, Asian Culture Center of Tennessee

Kumi Alderman, worked as a Tour Conductor based in Tokyo, traveling the world. Through her global experiences, she gained a deep appreciation for diverse belief systems, arts, and lifestyles—realizing that beneath all differences, people share the same humanity.

For more than a decade, Kumi has dedicated herself to organizing the Knox Asian Festival—ranked #1 Best Festival in Tennessee in 2024 by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. Through the festival, she has brought the richness of traditional Asian arts and culture to East Tennessee. Her passion lies in fostering mutual understanding, inspiring younger generations, and building a welcoming environment through cultural appreciation.

Kumi’s leadership and cultural contributions have been widely recognized. On August 1, 2024, she received the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation for her outstanding efforts in promoting mutual understanding between Japan and the United States. In 2025, she was honored with the Community Leadership Award by the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC) Southeast Region as the sole leader selected in the Southeast.

She was also invited to participate in Leadership Knoxville 2024, the program’s largest class ever, where she strengthened her leadership skills and built meaningful connections with community leaders.

Kumi is also committed to preserving the history of the Asian community in East Tennessee, ensuring that the stories, contributions, and cultural heritage of Asian Americans in the region are recognized and remembered for future generations.

Naoko Podhorszki

Executive Director Assistant

Naoko Podhorszki was born and raised in Fukuoka, Japan.

Naoko’s first cultural encounter came through American music and movies, an experience that sparked a lifelong interest in learning English and exploring different cultures. That curiosity eventually led her to study abroad in the United States and later work in Singapore, gaining valuable cross-cultural experiences along the way.

Having lived and worked in Japan, the U.S., and Singapore, Naoko has developed a deep appreciation for the richness of cultural diversity and the importance of mutual respect and understanding. Drawing from these global experiences, she brings a thoughtful and inclusive approach to connecting communities and sharing the beauty of Japanese culture here in Tennessee.

It is her great pleasure to share and celebrate Japan’s traditions, values, and spirit with all who wish to learn, experience, and embrace cultural exchange.