Special Guests
*Brian Froud will sign 1 item for free, any additional items will be £20 per item. Brian will have a small amount of Faery booklets for sale at £20.
**Lisa Downs will sign any LIFE AFTER merchandise for free.
Tami Stronach
Tami Stronach is well known for her beautiful and haunting performance as The Childlike Empress in the 80s cult classic The NeverEnding Story. Most recently she produced and starred in the Fantasy film Man & Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps. Tami has been creating interdisciplinary performance for the last 25 years.
Tami will be attending Friday-Sunday. *Autographs and Selfies will only be available at the Saturday convention*
Joey Cramer
Joey Cramer is an Actor best known for playing David Scott freeman in the 80's sci-fi classic Flight of the Navigator. What you may not know is that Joey was also in The NeverEnding Story! He was an extra in a scane with Bastian and was a stand in for one of the bullies- in the film you see Joey jumping into the Trash!
Joey will be attending the Saturday.
*Autographs and Selfies will only be available at the Saturday convention*
Jason james Richter
At 12 years old Jason starred as Jesse in Free Willy, and the film was such a success they made two sequels, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home and Free Willy 3: The Rescue. Richter went on to star in several other films including The NeverEnding Story 3 as the main role of Bastian Bux.
Most recently Jason took a role in NATTY KNOCKS (2023) in addition to producing the film.
Jason will be attending Friday-Sunday. *Autographs and Selfies will only be available at the Saturday convention*
Lisa Downs
Lisa is well known for being the Director and producer of the award winning 'Life After Movies' documentary film series. Her latest film 'LIFE AFTER THE NEVERENDING STORY will be screening at this event! Find out more here. Child of the 80s and teen of the 90s, Lisa loves everything nostalgia. An advocate of vinyl, physical media, actual photos, writing letters with a pen and avoiding the Cloud at all costs. Lisa will be selling Blurays of her previous movies, AND she will happily sign these for free!
Lisa will be attending Friday-Sunday.
*Autographs and Selfies will only be available at the Saturday convention*
Brian Wheeler
Brian started his career in entertainment answering an advert for people under 4’6”. The film was Star Wars Return of the Jedi, Brian played an Ewok in the village and a Jawa in Jabba the Hutts palace and barge. The NeverEnding Story followed where Brian Plays a Mushroom fantasia inhabitant. Brian can also be seen in Phantom of the Opera, four Harry Potter films, Artemis Fowl, Fantastic Beasts, Stag night of the Dead, Dangerous Parking, Hard Men and many others!
Brian will be attending Friday-Saturday *Autographs and Selfies will only be available at the Saturday convention*
Willie Coppen
Willie is an Actor and producer best known for playing an Ewok in Star Wars Return of the Jedi, a Nelwyn villager in the fantasy classic Willow (1988) and in the recent Disney+ TV series 'Willow'.
Willie played a Fantasia inhabitant in The NeverEnding Story and Widget in Through the Dragons Eye.
Willie has numerous other film credits and has recently produced the feature film 'Perran'.
Willie Will be attending Friday-Saturday.
*Autographs and Selfies will only be available at the Saturday convention*
Brian froud
Brian Froud is a living legend and very well known for his 1978 best selling book 'Faeries'.
Films fans will know Brian as the conceptual designer of the Jim Henson films 'Labyrinth', 'The Dark Crystal' and the Netflix TV Series 'The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance'.
If we're lucky, Brian might just bring along a few original pieces from the films he has worked on.
Brian will be attending on the Saturday only
William Todd-Jones
William Todd-Jones is a world class creature designer, performer, director, movement consultant, digital performance artist and writer for award winning film, television, and theatre.
Highlights include:
Destroying the Earth as a Vogon in “Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy”
Hagrid’s brother Grawp in “Harry Potter”, Batman’s cape, Narnia’s Glenstorm & John Carter’s Woola.
Head of creatures, daemons & bears for the recent “His Dark Materials” Lots of Muppets, Key puppeteer “Little Shop of Horrors” & “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” And Goblin & Toby wrangler for “Labyrinth”.
William Todd-Jones will be appearing on Saturday only.
Gary Pollard
Gary Pollard has been an industry sculptor for four decades in the film and theming industries.
His first major professional engagement was on 'Labyrinth' for the Jim Henson Organisation in London, working on The Worm and 'Nipper Sticks'. Gary worked in the design team on The NeverEnding Story III and was an animatronics modeller on Little Shop of Horrors.
Since then he has contributed to many major franchises such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, Doctor Who and Alien.
Gary will be attending Saturday only.
Alan Church
Alan Church - Visual Effects Supervisor and Producer. Film career started in 1981 prior to CGI technology, He trained initially as an Optical VFX Cameraman.
Throughout the 1980s, Alan made his mark on numerous fantasy films, including cult classics Krull, Return to Oz, Little Shop of Horrors, Aliens, 1984 and Star Trek IV.
In 1989, Alan worked with Derek Meddings at The Magic Camera Company, where he became an part of the VFX crew for The Neverending Story II and later on Muppets Treasure Island.
Alan collaborated directly with acclaimed author Neil Gaiman on the first series of Good Omens.
Most recently, Alan completed a 17-month tenure as the Productions VFX Supervising Producer on The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
Alan will be attending the Saturday convention only.
Ron hone
Ron Hone is a special effects technician working on many huge blockbuster films.
On Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back he worked on robot fabrication and supervision in the production and mechanical effects unit.
Ron has also worked on Conan the Barbarian, The NeverEnding Story, The Princess Bride, Slipstream, Rock-A-Doodle, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Lost in Space, Die Another Day, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Doom, World War Z, and so many more!!
In his picture here, Ron can be seen working on Yoda.
Ron will be attending the Friday and Saturday. *Autographs and Selfies will only be available at the Saturday convention*
Greg Steinbruner
Greg Steinbruner is the writer, producer and star of Man & Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps, an independent fantasy film inspired by classic fantasy film of the 1980s.
In 2016 Greg founded The Paper Canoe Company creative studio with his wife Tami Stronach.
In 2018 his family music album, Beanstalk Jack won an ALA Notable Children's Recording designation, a Parents' Choice Gold award, a National Parenting Association Award, and a Family Choice Gold award.
He is the creator of the viral hit stage production "A Sock's Fables Live," and the author of the dystopian theater piece "Light; A Dark Comedy."
Greg will be attending Friday-Sunday.
Michael McCormick
Michael McCormick, also credited as Mike McCormick, is a puppeteer and sculptor known for his work on Star Wars, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.
On Dark Crystal, McCormick was part of the Skeksis fabrication unit. His role expanded on Labyrinth, serving as goblin armour designer and working on the fabrication of both riding and walking goblins.
For Star Wars, Mike was one of the original puppeteers and sculptors of Salacious Crumb, Sy Snootles and Ephant Mon.
Mike will only be attending the Saturday.
Frank Lenart
Frank Lenart was born in Hollywood and moved to Germany when he was 9. He began voice acting at 10, stage acting at 14 and Film/TV acting at 18.
His life has been devoted to entertainment, be it acted, written or directed. Working out of Munich, Germany he has been in or involved with the making of the films THE NEVERENDING STORY (Voice of Teenie-Weenie), THE NEVERENDING STORY 2 (Bastians Swim Coach), THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS, THE NAME OF THE ROSE, TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING, EUROPA (Lars von Trier) and many more. He is BANZAI the Hyena in the German dub of Disney's THE LION KING, the German Voice of PADDINGTON BEAR in the TV-series and numerous other animation characters.
Maya Steinbruner
Maya makes her Big Screen debut in fantasy feature film Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps. Maya plays Cupid in the film.
Fun fact, Maya is also the daughter of our very own Childlike Empress Tami Stronach, and Actor/Writer/Director Greg Steinbruner
Maya will be joining us on Saturday and for the World Premiere on Sunday.