Stephen Blackehart was trained in England at the prestigious London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and in New York by legendary teacher Uta Hagen. Despite countless New York & London stage performances, he became prominent as a cult film actor, performing in such B-Movie classics as Tromeo & Juliet, The Land that Time Forgot, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, and many others.
In 1985, winning the Critics’ Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Stuart Gordon surprised audiences with his first feature film RE-ANIMATOR based on stories by H.P. Lovecraft. With its stunning box office success, RE-ANIMATOR became the first of a series of Lovecraft inspired films utilizing screenplays by longtime writing partner Dennis Paoli. They include: FROM BEYOND (1986), CASTLE FREAK, based on “The Outsider” (1994), DAGON (2001) and DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE (2005) which was produced for THE MASTERS OF HORROR television series.
Syl Disjonk lives in an hypercube in the Montreal Interzone. He owns a Certification of Insanity from Arkham Asylum for his sleep terror disorder. He has been attacked by dark ones in his dreams since his childhood. He still goes through an art therapy to keep his mind in place. He has made much progress in recent years and now manage to survive by using his skills in the field of graphic design and visual effects. Many of his personal artworks recall the universe of H.P.
T.E. Grau is an author of Weird, Lovecraftian, and Dark Fiction, whose work has been published in numerous anthologies, including Dead But Dreaming 2, The Aklonomicon, Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities, Horror for the Holidays, Dark Fusions: Where Monsters Lurk, Suction Cup Dreams: An Octopus Anthology, and Mark of the Beast, among others.
Thomas Phinney is a typographer and type designer who also happens to be very fond of HP Lovecraft and the Call of Cthulhu RPG. He combined these interests last year in a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund a set of Lovecraftian fonts inspired by the long-dead typeface used by Call of Cthulhu. He is currently putting finishing touches on this font family and pondering an encore. Thomas worked on fonts for Adobe (1997–2008) before joining Portland's Extensis (2009).
Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Todd began his lifelong love of all things horror watching “Creature Double-Feature” on local TV station WLVI 56.First discovering H.P.
Tom Gliserman is a director/editor living in upstate New York. The Thing on the Doorstep is Gliserman's first feature. For the last 25 years he has been creating award-winning commercials, high-end corporate work and programs for broadcast through his company GreyHouse Productions. His love for strong female characters probably stems from the fact that he has five daughters, an awesome wife and two female felines (yes they're black). Gliserman is thrilled to be showing Doorstep at the festival.
Troy Sterling Nies is a composer, paramedic, physician assistant, and gamer. His diverse experiences and vocations have provided him with a rich and often dark resource from which to find inspiration for composing to film. Originally born in Bismarck, North Dakota, he now resides in the Badlands-area of western N.D. Troy maintains a studio in his home and composes for a wide variety of media, including feature films, video games, concert hall, stage, acid-rock bands and everything in between for projects across the globe.
Victoria Blake is the founder and publisher of Underland Press, which has published novels by Jeff VanderMeer, Joe R. Lansdale, and Brian Evenson, among others. In the four years since launch, books from Underland Press have won a National Library Association Award for best novel, and have been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, Shirley Jackson, and Nebula awards.
Will's lifelong love of all things horror began the moment he read his first copy of Famous Monsters at the young age of seven. His professional career began as a composer before becoming involved in film production. Film scores include Dorian Blues, Nate Dogg and The Thing On The Doorstep. He has also composed music for numerous corporate clients and theatre companies. Will is a partner in Handsome Spyder, Inc., a film production company which has completed projects for Warner Bros., NY Life, United Way, etc.