Special Guests

Jay Klaitz received his M.F.A. from The Institute at Harvard University / The American Repertory Theater / The Moscow Art Theater. 

His stage credits include Broadway: Lend Me A Tenor (The Music Box); Rock of Ages (Brooks Atkinson); High Fidelity (The Imperial); off-Broadway: Expats (The New Group). 

His film credits include: Frozen River (Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Winner ‘08); The History of Future Folk (Fantastic Fest Comedy Screenplay Award ‘12); Super Powers (Tribeca Film Festival Best Short ’07). 

His TV credits include guest starring roles on Rescue Me; Law & Order CI; I Just Want My Pants Back; Body of Proof; Elementary.

Where can I see Jay?

Jason Trost is an American writer, producer, director and actor. He has starred in over twenty films, including MacGruber, Crank: High Voltage and Hatchet III.

Jason appears at the Gold Coast film festival with fellow producer Lucas Till to promote All Superheroes Must Die, his third feature film (after The FP, an adaptation of his own short film, and #WetAndReckless, which is set to release in 2013).

Where can I see Jason?

Lucas Till began acting in 2003, at the age of 13, and has since gone on to appear in over thirty films and television series, including X-Men: First Class, Battle: Los Angeles, Stoker and House.

He appears at the festival to support All Superheroes Must Die, in which he plays Cutthroat. He also produced the film alongside Jason Trost, who he has also worked with on #WetAndReckless.

Where can I see Lucas?

Twinfools

NovaVandorWolf

Lucas Wilson, known in the cosplay community as "Twinfools". is a popular cosplayer and a part of the cosplay group Fighting Dreamers Pro. He is considered an inspiration to many in the cosplay community due to his costuming skill and appearance as characters from such series as Naruto, Harry Potter, and Dragon Ball Z. Twinfools mostly makes his own cosplays and styles his own wigs, something he has become well known for, especially after the creation of his YouTube channel, which has received over 3 million views.

Twinfools appears at the festival alongside fellow Fighting Dreamers Pro member NovaVandorWolf.

Where can I see Twinfools and NovaVandorWolf?

Kern studied at North Carolina School of Arts, where his junior year short film, Roadside Convenience, won several awards, including Best Student Short at the Emerald Eye Film Festival and a Bronze Award at Houston WorldFest.

Upon graduation, he relocated to Los Angeles where he has worked on such productions as Strong Medicine, Slay Day, and the internet comedy miniseries Porntourage, which he co-produced.

Most recently, Kern directed genre legends Tony Todd, Noah Hathaway, James Duval, Jeff Fahey, Danny Trejo, Michael Biehn and Mark Hamill in the feature film Sushi Girl, which he co-wrote with Destin Pfaff.

Where can I see Kern?

Destin is founder and managing member of the film and television production company Assembly Line LLC, as well as COO of the Millionaire's Club. His many credits include The Disembodied, Married in a Year, and The Millionaire Matchmaker, in which he co-stars.

Recently, Pfaff and his Assembly Line partners have been featured in both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter with news on their upcoming projects - including veteran actor Tony Todd’s directorial debut Catalytic, and a development slate from legendary martial arts master Sonny Chiba.

Pfaff has been featured and profiled in a number of magazines, blogs and newspapers – and can be found all over the web. He has offered his relationship expertise as a guest on Loveline with Dr. Drew, NBC News, Moviefone, OK!, The Wrap, SG Radio as well as many others. Pfaff has worldwide recognition; his Facebook, Twitter and Fanpage followings are in the thousands. He has been parodied by Saturday Night Live, MAD Magazine and animated on Youtube. And even has a sushi roll named after him at the Luxor Hotel and Casino.

Where can I see Destin?

This charismatic six foot five inch tall actor has consistently turned in compelling performance after compelling performance. Tony Todd is perhaps best known for his chilling portrayal in the title role of Candyman, but has lead a long and successful career since his debut in Sleepwalk in 1986. His film career has spanned from Hollywood blockbusters to cult gems, including the likes of Platoon, The Rock, The Crow, Final Destination and The Man from Earth.

Tony has also recently starred in television series The Event and Chuck, with guest star appearances on the likes of 24, Law and Order, Smallville, Xena: Warrior Princess, The X-Files and Star Trek.

Tony’s passion for acting began in theater, first at the University of Connecticut, and then at the renowned Eugene O’Neill National Theatre Institute. His theater credits include originating the title role of award-winning playwright August Wilson’s King Hedley II, as well as Athol Fugard's The Captain's Tiger, for which he received a Helen Hayes nomination.

Tony is set to appear at the Gold Coast Film Festival to discuss Sushi Girl, as well as low-budget horror flick Dead of the Nite.

Where can I see Tony?

Noah Hathaway’s career began at a very young age. At the age of six, he starred on the original TV series Battlerstar Galactica, portraying Boxey and receiving a nomination in the inaugural Young Artists Awards.

Though perhaps his most memorable role saw him star as Atreyu in The Neverending Story, he has starred in such TV series as CHiPs, Mork & Mindy and Family Ties.

Hathaway’s strength as an artist stems from his versatility. As a dancer in the late 1980’s, he instructed advanced jazz and street dance and performed with Michael Jackson and Gloria Estefan. Also, Noah is a trained martial artist with two black belts and a boxer training with the acclaimed Freddy Roach for fifteen years. In collaboration with his wife Sameerah, Noah has owned and operated a tattoo parlor and is in the process of opening a new studio in Los Angeles.

Noah came out of retirement to star in cult hit Sushi Girl, but also makes a guest appearance in Blue Dream, which also screens at the 2013 Gold Coast Film Festival.

Where can I see Noah?

Over the last several years, Andy Mackenzie has worked constantly and extensively in both the film and television markets.

On the television side, he has guest starred in numerous high profile dramas such as Bones, True Blood, Burn Notice, CSI, The Mentalist, Brothers & Sistersas well as various sitcoms including Big Bang Theory, United States of Tara, My Name Is Earl, Two and a Half Men, Malcolm in the Middle, The King of Queens, and not to mention heavy arcs on Days of Our Lives and General Hospital.

Andy has proven himself to be exceptionally talented in both the dramatic and comedic genres, excelling in his naturalistic acting style. With the rest of his time, Andy acts as the drummer in the band 33DEGREE.

Where can I see Andy?

James Duval burst onto the indie film scene in 1993 playing a disillusioned teen in writer-director Gregg Araki’s Totally F***ed Up and soon became the embodiment of Generation X alienation in Araki’s follow-up films, The Doom Generation and Nowhere.

Duval’s 19-year career has been filled with diverse and offbeat roles, making him a favorite of indie fans and a notable presence in a variety of films, including Donnie Darko, SCL Punk and GO. Taking a leap into mainstream film, Duval also appeared in Independence Day.

Duval’s first lead role in The Doe Boy won him the Best Actor Award at the American Indian Film Festival. He would go on to join Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie and Giovanni Ribisi in the crime-thriller Gone in 60 Seconds as a member of a gang of professional car thieves.

James stars in Sushi Girl, as well as Blue Dream, a psychological drama that also screens at the 2013 Gold Coast Film Festival.
 

Where can I see James?

A formidable champion in the rise of the horror genre in Hollywood over the past decade to record levels of film distributor recognition, box office success and critical respect, Farmer is first and foremost most famous for creating good stories with good characters, maintaining authenticity and a scary, strong respect for his audience.
 

Where can I see Todd?

Steve Yun joined Harmony Gold to help develop the Robotech.com website, where his career would take off after years of working gruelling hours as a digital animatior.

He has co-produced and associate-produced many projects, including the Macross restoration,  the Robotech:Battlecry video game, the Robotech: Invasion video game, Robotech Remastered and Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles.

Steve is excited to screen footage of Robotech: Love Live Alive at the 2013 Gold Coast Film Festival for the very first time.

Where can I see Steve?

Andrew Leavold is a filmmaker, writer and lover of cult movies.

He grew up in the oil-rich states on the Persian Gulf, where weird, dark movies were not easy to come by, and yet he still managed to locate them in small, dark video stores.

At age 12 he began lending his films, which culminated in the iconic Trash Video in Brisbane's West End. Today, Andrew is revered as one of the world's greatest collectors of cult films.

He is currently working to complete his documentary The Search for Weng Weng, about the 'midget James Bond of the Phillipines'.

Where can I see Andrew?

Dr. Mark Ryan, who publishes as Mark David Ryan, is a Research Fellow and Lecturer in Film and Television for the Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology. His research focuses on genre cinema and policy, and he lectures in film studies and genre studies.

His PhD explored the recent boom in Australian horror movies: production and distribution models; and the industrial, market and technological forces driving production. His thesis constituted the first major study of Australian horror cinema, and the first to explore a popular movie genre’s industry dynamics within Australian cinema.

Where can I see Mark?

Shayne Armstrong + S.P Krause are a screenwriting partnership who write for film and television.

Armstrong + Krause developed the television series K9 for television which features the much loved canine character, K9, from the original series of Doctor Who. Their feature screenplays include Acolytes and BAIT 3D, the more successful Australian film in Chinese cinema.

Currently, the duo are writing feature films for Australian producers including Michael Robertson, Murray Pope, David Jowsey and Michael Wrenn and have a number of their own original feature film projects at various stages of development. Currently, and when their writing schedules permit, they are shooting their feature film script, 18, with S.P Krause directing.

Armstrong + Krause were awarded the 2009 John Hinde Award for Science Fiction for their television scripts for K9, and won an AWGIE award in 2012 for their short film Rarer Monsters.

Their feature screenplay BLACK ECHOES will be produced by Murray Pope and has Greg McLean attached to direct in 2013.

Where can I see them?

Where can I see Shirley?

Where can I see Darren?

Seph McKenna is the Head of Australian Production at Village Roadshow.

Seph came to Roadshow in March 2006 from Village Roadshow Pictures (VRP) in Los Angeles where he worked in the script development and assessment department.

Since his arrival, Roadshow have released such films as Beautiful Kate, Mao's Last Dancer, Bran Nue Day, The Cup, and Red Dog.

Where can I see Seph?

Where can I see Neil?

Chris Fitchett is an award winning writer/director (Blood Money) and producer (Queensland), and has had many years experience as a development and production executive for state and federal government film funding agencies including Project Manager/Deputy Director of Film Victoria, CEO of the Commercial Television Production Fund, and Chief Executive of the Australian Film Commission. In these positions he was involved in financing the Academy Award winning films Shine and Harvey Krumpet, and international successes Muriel's Wedding, Romper Stomper, Love Serenade, The Heartbreak Kid and Samson & Delilah, as well as television series The Flying Doctors, Halifax F.P., Blue Heelers and Hi-5!

He has produced three theatrically released feature films; Blurred (2002), Under The Radar (2003) and A Heartbeat Away (2010).

Chris currently holds a position as a Senior Teaching Fellow at Bond University.

Where can I see Chris?

Where can I see Jason