I want to say how amazing it was to talk to such an amazing, ambitious and spirited woman. Katherine Castro a beautiful actress, native to the Dominican Republic chat’s with me about her journey to the states, realizing her dreams as a multiple talented artist, and her upcoming film, Pulse of Indigo. The Pulse of Indigo premiere this Friday, July 20th in Los Angeles and will be released internationally in the Dominican Republic on August 1st at Carribean Cinemas, Fine Arts Novo-Centro in Santo Domingo. In the mean time hear what Katherine has to say about being an actress and her upcoming movie.

— — —

How long have you’ve been an actor and how did you get your start as an actor?

KATHERINE CASTRO: I’m from the Dominican Republic and I got my start as a kid there. Like all kids, I started making shows for my parents at their house parties. I did little one-woman shows, played the piano, and did some monologues. I was always creating and it just became a natural transition for me into school plays in the Dominican Republic. I lived in the United States for awhile. When I lived here in the States I got involved in dancing, ballet, jazz, and gymnastics.  That was some of my first times being on stage in front of a live audience. Then I went back to the Dominican Republic, we were in the states because my Dad was in the military and he was working at the Dominican Embassy in Washington D.C. When his time was up we went back  and I knew then that dancing and acting was something that I wanted to continue to explore. I was the happiest when I was doing that.

Continue reading

Photographer: Lowell Ong

Helenna has been taking the geek community by storm as part of Geek Girls Create, her love for new media and her obsession with Joss Whedon. She recently landed one of her dream acting jobs and has joined the cast of Legendary: A Tale of Blood and Steel. She was kind enough to answer a few question for us on her role in this highly anticipated fantasy web series. She is definitely a girl to keep your eyes on!

— — —

What can you tell us about Legendary: A Tale of Blood and Steel and how did you get involve?

Helenna: I’m really excited to be a part of Legendary! It’s such a cool project and I think that anyone who is a fan of Game of Thrones, or the fantasy genre in general, is going to freak out over it since it’s basically Game of Thrones for the online audience.

Continue reading

Anime Expo 2012 is only a couple of weeks away and again, we encourage attendees to check out Brands Boutique inside the Exhibit Hall this year! Brands Boutique will be selling all kinds of cute and unique merchandise at their booth from eleven different indie, local brands. We interviewed Shing from Marlow the Monster last week and now we are happy to introduce you to Funkey Monkey.

Just as the name suggest, Funkey Monkey sells clothing, accessories, stationary, etc. with their monkey character at the center stage of all their design. Read our interview with them to get to know them better.

— — —

How did Funkey Monkey came to be and what is the inspiration behind the monkey?
FUNKEY MONKEY: Funkey Monkey was created a while ago to capture the concept of fun and what it means to be happy. The brand is inspired by laughter, happy memories, and the monkey is really about enjoying the best moments of life. It’s our dedication to friends, love, and that one person in everyone’s life who is so full of energy and brings fun to every outing!
Continue reading

The Brands Boutique will have pop up shop at Anime Expo on June 29-July 2, 2012 selling merchandise from 10 different and local indie brands in California. One of them is Marlowe the Monster by my friend, Shing Yin Khor, which will be available at the shop this year.

www.sawdustbear.com

How can you not love her work? These monsters are so adorable and she puts in a lot of work with all her individual pieces. They’re all handmade by her, baby, make no mistake. She not only sculpts them, she paints them and she publishes books and comics. Yes, she is one productive and busy lady — which is why I appreciate it when she takes time to eat ramen with me once in awhile!

Here’s an interview with Shing and her participation this year with Brands Boutique.

Continue reading

Get ready for May 4^th cause the Fourth is strong with The Avengers.

Greetings readers! Sabina AKA Wicked Phoenix here, sending her first transmission for Defective Geeks! A couple weeks ago, I got invited to The Avengers press junket and after writing my feature for Campus Circle, I found that there was so much material to share and geek out over with y’all.

Where to begin?

Ah-yes Robert Downey Jr. That man is Tony Stark or is Tony Stark just an extension or RDJ? He totally pulled an “I am Iron Man” moment when he announced, “Yeah, and not to keep you guessing, but we’re actually not done shooting. We are shooting one more scene tonight. Not kidding.”

That’s not exactly a spoiler, but since the premiere cut of the Avengers clocked in at roughly two-hours and a half, this news definitely a surprise to hear. During the second panel Joss was asked if Robert was kidding and he replied, “He’s Robert.  Of course, he’s kidding.”  (But apparently-NOT.  Many other news sources have confirmed that they did shoot an additional scene.)

Continue reading

Recently I was lucky enough to interview up and coming Canadian actor Lisa Berry. She has appeared on shows such as Lost Girl, Nikita, and The Firm and is currently filming a feature called The Colony starring Laurence Fishburne. For the record, Lisa Berry is kind of awesome. Not only is she a talented actor, she is also down to earth and a bonafide geek! It was really hard for me to stay quiet while she was answering my questions just because I so badly wanted to discuss geekery with her.

In this interview Berry talks about how she got into acting, her favorite genres, how she wants to be the next Wonder Woman, her advice for aspiring actors, and proves that she is an actor you ought to keep an eye on.

What inspired you to become an actor?

LISA BERRY: I don’t know! Isn’t that hilarious? I didn’t initially start out as an actor, I was a make-up artist. I was always behind the scenes and I just always enjoyed being a charismatic kind of person and somebody had told me that you could make a living doing it. When I was 22, a couple of my friends had asked if I could go to a Lion King open call audition and I said, “I’m not an actor, I’m not going to get that.” I somehow made it through to the final callback. It became a possibility and I saw that for the first time. Then, I went to theater school to see if I could follow this dream all the way through to the end, so it kind of just happened, for lack of a better word. It wasn’t a case of “I wanted to be an actor”, it was more like “I would love the idea of it”, but I didn’t think it was possible and then through the good grace of being around some fantastic people who believe that dreams can come true, I gave it a shot and it’s worked out well.

Continue reading

During Geek Girl Con 2011, Shing of Sawdust Bear Press and I had the pleasure of sitting next to Ada’s Technical Books inside the exhibit hall. The owner, Danielle Hulton, was at the convention for the entire weekend and I found it really cool that she owned her own bookstore! I think most of us book lovin’ people have had dreams about spending the rest of our lives surrounded by books.

Below, I interview Danielle on her fabulous Lady Geek life as a bookstore owner in Seattle!

What makes Ada’s Technical Books different from the rest of independent bookstores? Where did the name come from?

Annie Violet and I found each other on Twitter. When I first saw her Twitter profile, I admit it – I almost dismissed her as a spambot mostly because she had a super sexy photo on her profile (sorry Annie! Don’t judge by their profile photos, kids). But something made me take a pause and I decided to read a bulk of what she had written on Twitter. I quickly realized this girl was one of my Lady Geek sisters.

I  try to not judge other women who work in a certain industry. I judge them by their character and Annie and I have always had pleasant Twitter encounters – like getting excited about The Hobbit trailer. In other words, she’s a sweetheart. A Lady Geek has every right to take her clothes off in front of the camera and still be allowed to read the Lord of the Rings between takes. Dammit. Can’t blame a lady when she has a cute bum that the world needs to see. In this interview, Annie talks about the dichotomy of her work as a model and her nerdy side.

Read our interview below.

Continue reading