Announcing Ai-Kon's 2013 Guests of Honour

WINNIPEG, MB - May 7, 2013 - Ai-Kon is happy to announce their 2013 guest line up, Christopher Sabat, J. Michael Tatum, Chris Patton, Greg Ayres and Sarah Sullivan!

Christopher Sabat

Christopher R. Sabat has lived on a diet of Senzu Beans for nearly 15 years. As the Voice Director for Dragonaball Z as well as the actor behind Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, Mr. Popo, Kami, Jeice, Recoome, Korin, Burter, Shenron, Zarbon, Guru, Porunga, and countless others, you could possibly say he is the voice of Dragonball Z. Christopher currently owns Okratron 5000, a game audio and voice-over production studio in Dallas, Texas.

Christopher has also leant his voice to countless other roles in the anime and videogame world including Alex Luis Armstrong in Fullmetal Alchemist, Roronoa Zoro in One Piece, Ayame Sohma in Fruits Basket, Saiga Tatsumi in Speed Grapher, Kurogane in Tsubasa Chronicles, Daisuke Jigen in Lupin III, Garland in Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Rundas in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Alex D in Deus Ex: Invisible War, and both Captain Smiley and Star in Comic Jumper.

When not in the studio, Christopher tries to spend as much time as possible with his wife Tabitha and his brand new baby girl, Hero.

J. Michael Tatum

J. Michael Tatum was discovered by Funimation warhorse and visionary ADR director Christopher Bevins, who cast him as Rikichi in 2005's Samurai 7, Tatum's inexplicable luck has held long enough to see his flag hoisted on a slew of dream roles, most notably Kyoya Otori in the hit English language dub of Ouran High School Host Club, ruthless France in Hetalia: Axis Powers and Hetalia: World Series, and suave, demonic Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler.

Other characters the he has played include: Doumeki in XXXHolic, Jiro Mochizuki in Black Blood Brothers, Isaac Dian in Baccano!, Both God Eneru and Dalton in the new dub of One Piece, Komui Lee in D-Gray Man, Dororo in Sgt. Frog, the titular loveable savage of Heroic Age, Ryosuke Takahashi in Initial D, Lawrence Kraft in Spice and Wolf, Zarbon in Dragon Ball Z Kai, and Scar in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Chris Patton

Chris Patton has been Voice Acting in Anime for the past fourteen years for ADV, FUNimation, Okratron 5000, and Sentai Filmworks. Some of his credits include Sousuke in Full Metal Panic, Keima in The World God Only Knows, Kaoru in Kids on the Slope, Gammon in Phi Brain, Greed in Fullmetal Alchemist, Soushi in Inu X Boku SS, Hajime in Ghost Stories, Sho in Guyver, Ayato in RahXephon, Turles in Dragonball Z: Tree of Might, Asura in Soul Eater, Fakir in Princess Tutu, Creed in Black Cat, Ikki in Air Gear, and many more.

Chris also has voiced voer fifty Audiobooks, a ton of commercials and corporate narration projects, and a handful of video games, including Turles in three of the Dragonball titles. This is his third time in Canada, but his first time at Ai Kon!

Sarah Sullivan

Sarah Sullivan is no stranger to the animation industry. Previously holding the title of DVD and Blu- Ray Production Assistant at FUNimation, she visits Ai-Kon this year as Conventions Manager and Brand Ambassador after working on projects such as Princess Jellyfish, the Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE OVA, Hetalia: Axis Powers: Paint it, White!, Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt and many more as part of the Production Team, in addition to staffing at local Texas anime conventions for the last decade.

When not traveling the country going to ALL THE ANIME THINGS, she can be found crafting, cooking or causing general mischief, and occasionally tomfoolery.

FUNimation Entertainment is the leading anime publisher in North America. Titles like Dragon Ball Z. Panty & Stocking, Fairy Tail, and Afro Samurai are just a few of the big names on their roster. For more information about FUNimation Entertainment and its titles, visit www.funimation.com.

Greg Ayres

Greg Ayres has spent the last eleven years working in an industry he had admired for years as a fan. With almost 200 credits to his name, this fan-boy has managed to get to play a variety of characters that are almost as colorful as his hair. He was thrilled to be a part of the Toonami return this summer, voicing the roles of Ganta Igarashi in Deadman Wonderland, and Heihachi Hayashida in Samurai 7. His most recent roles include Sion in No. 6, Heisuke Toudou in Hakuoki, Arikawa in This Boy Can Fight Aliens, Tomoki Sakurai in Heaven's Lost Property, and Volken in The Book of Bantorra. Some of his favorite roles include Son Goku in Saiyuki, Chrono in Chrono Crusade, Kaoru Hitachiin in Ouran High School Host Club, Youhei Sunohara in Clannad, Yuki in The Wallflower, Leo in Ghost Stories, Satoshi Hiwatari in DNAngel, Kaworu Nagisa in The Director's Cut of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Negi Springfield in Negima. He can also be heard as Uesugi Kenshin in Sengoku Basara, Seikechi Tayama in Oh Edo Rocket, Hiro Hirono in ef: A Tale of Memories, Abe in Big Windup, Jr. in Xenosaga: The Animation, Tsujido inSpeed Grapher, Roan in Ragnorok The Animation, Yamazaki in Welcome to the NHK, Gau Ban in Shadow Skill, Pope Alessandro XVIII in Trinity Blood, and a bunch of other titles he'll probably forget to mention.

When he's not in a booth with headphones on, you can usually find him sporting headphones of another variety behind "the decks". A veteran nightclub DJ of many years, he jumped at the opportunity to play music at conventions. From packed rooms at anime conventions, to the legendary stage of The Knitting Factory (NYC), he never misses an opportunity to share his love of music with anyone who will listen

ABOUT AI-KON: Ai-Kon (http://www.ai-kon.org) is Manitoba's largest anime convention. An all- ages event, the goal of Ai-Kon is the promotion of Japanese/Asian animation and culture to the public. Started in 2001 by a local anime club, Ai-Kon took a reorganizing hiatus in 2002. It returned in 2003 to become an autonomous event, run by an independent volunteer committee. "Ai" means "love" in Japanese, hence Ai-Kon's slogan "For the Love of Anime".