Saboten Con is proud to announce video game musician, Akira Yamaoka; voice actress, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn; voice actor, Troy Baker; and comedian/ voice actor, Phillip (Phil) LaMarr as some of the guests for 2012. Saboten Con will be held from September 1 to 3 at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel in Glendale, Arizona.
For the first time ever, Saboten Con welcomes Japanese guest Akira Yamaoka to the states for its 2012 convention year. Mr. Yamaoka joined Konami in 1993, after previously being a freelance music composer. He is most well-known for his work in the video game series, “Silent Hill”, for which he composed most the music and sound effects. Since “Silent Hill 3”, he became its producer while also still composing music for the series. Yamaoka also started working in collaboration with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Joe Romersa for vocal compositions.
Much of Mr. Yamaoka’s work from previous titles have been compiled for the 2006 “Silent Hill” movie adaptation, directed by Christophe Gans. He also composed songs for KONAMI’s “Bemani” series, which has featured tracks from “Silent Hill”. Currently, Akira Yamaoka is working on a project with Jeff Danna on the upcoming film, “Silent Hill Revelation” to be released sometime in 2012.
A veteran to Saboten Con, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is returning as a guest for 2012. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is an American voice actress, ADR director, writer, and singer best known for her extensive English-language dubbing of various anime, and her singing in multiple games from the “Silent Hill” series. As an actress, Mary Elizabeth has also had several movie roles. With her voice acting talents and dedication to Anime, she won an American Anime Award.
As a director, Mary Elizabeth recently finished directing the first season of “Stitch!” for The Disney Channel and the ADR on the animated feature film “Dino Mom”. She is currently directing “Naruto: Shippuden” for Disney XD. She has directed the 4 “Naruto” movies as well as “Naruto” the series for which she received the 2008 SPJA award for best director. Among her many other directing credits are “Cowboy Bebop” the series, “Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, “Wolf’s Rain”, the movie “Appleseed” and was a co-writer for the American adaptation of “Metropolis”. She also directed the original animated series “Gormiti Lords of Nature” for Cartoon Network and “Wild Animal Babies” for PBS.
For the gaming world, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn directed Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Perlman as well as the rest of the original cast in the recently released, “Afro Samurai” game. She also directed the entire cast of “iCarly” for their interactive game. Mary Elizabeth has directed the voice work for “Soul Calibur Legends”, “Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles”, “Devil May Cry 3”, “3.5” and “4”, “Spyhunter”, the “Naruto Clash of Ninja” and “Ultimate Ninja” series, as well as being second director for “Kung Fu Panda”.
Furthermore, Mary Elizabeth has had the great honor of singing the music of Akira Yamaoka for the movie “Silent Hill” as well as the games: “Silent Hill 3”, “4”, “5”, “Origins” and the newly released “Silent Hill: Shattered Memories” which she also co-directed.
Many of you who went to Saboten Con, told us how disappointed that our next guest was unable to attend last year. We heard you and invited him again. Troy Baker will make an appearance at Saboten Con 2012. A native of Dallas, Texas, Troy, once the lead singer for “Tripp Fontaine” (FMPM/Universal), first began working as an actor in TV and Radio commercials. He quickly became a mainstay voice actor of the Anime community with such roles in “Full Metal Alchemist”, “Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood”, “Trinity Blood”, “Basilisk”, “Code Geass”, and “Shin Chan”.
Troy can also be heard in lead roles for blockbuster video game titles like Abbaddon in “Darksiders, Snow Villers in “Final Fantasy 13”, Allen in “Modern Warfare 2”, Brooks in “Call of Duty: Black Ops”, Kanji in “Persona 4”, Vincent Brooks in “Catherine” and many others. Currently, Troy Baker is re-voicing James Sunderland in “Silent Hill 2” HD collection to be released sometime in January 2012.
As an actor, Troy Baker has excelled in the on camera industry. He has starred alongside Val Kilmer (Tombstone), Karl Urban (Star Trek), Steve Zahn (That Thingy You Do!), Elizabeth Banks (W), Glenn Morshower (24), and Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bamba). Troy was the host and co-producer for the hit reality TV show “Road Rage”, which spotlighted pop culture conventions around the country. Now residing in Los Angeles, Troy continues to write and record music.
Making his first appearance to Phoenix, Saboten Con welcomes Phillip ‘Phil’ LaMarr. Phil LaMarr is an American actor, comedian, and voice actor. He has an extensive voice acting career with major roles in the animated series “Futurama”, “Static Shock”, Cartoon Network’s “Samurai Jack”, “Justice League”, “Justice League Unlimited”, and “Transformers Animated”
In the video game industry, Phil has done voice over work for Vamp, a villain of “Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty” and “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots”. Additionally, he has notable roles in Square Enix’s “Final Fantasy 12” as well as in the PSP version of “Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions”. Other games he has dubbed include, “Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines”, the “Jak and Daxter” video game series, several characters in the game “Marvel: Ultimate Alliance”, “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction” and its sequel, “Mercenaries 2: World in Flames”, and PS3 titles “Infamous 1” and “2”.
Recently, Phil LaMarr voiced the merchant, Vulgrim in the new action/adventure hybrid “Darksiders”, reprised his role as Kit Fisto for the video game: “Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Republic Heroes”, and voiced Rick Grimes in the animation film adaptation of “The Walking Dead”.
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About Saboten Con:
Saboten Con will be held on September 1- 3 at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel in Glendale, Arizona. This will be our 5th year as the largest Anime Convention in Arizona. Our goal is to build on all the amazing previous years with more exciting programming, more guests, and more things to do. For more information or register, visit www.sabotencon.com
