The Talent

Author / Industry Insider

Robb Pearlman is a pop culturalist, Trekspert, publishing professional, and a #1 New York Times bestselling author, host, interviewer, editor, and award-winning author of over 70 books. Robb brings an authentic and celebratory look at pop culture. His unique brand of engaging, interactive, and fun events, panel discussions, book clubs, crafting activities, scavenger hunts, games, and even workouts are always fun, interactive, inclusive, and memorable.

Robb has written books based on characters and stories from fan-favorite properties including Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Star Trek, The Golden Girls, The Office, The Smurfs, Rick and Morty, Bob’s Burgers, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Alien, Game of Thrones, and Bob Ross. He is the author of original books including “Live Like a Vulcan, Love Like a Wookiee, Laugh Like a Hobbit,” “I Adulted,” “101 Ways to Kill a Zombie,” “Movie Night Trivia,” and “Nerd Haiku,” and stewarded books based on The Princess Bride, Hamilton, The Joker, Parks and Recreation, All in the Family, and Variety Magazine, as well as memoirs and monographs by acclaimed pop culture icons including Don Bluth, Ralph Bakshi, Bill Plympton, and Charles Busch.

Cosplay Guest

Yaya Han is a cosplayer, designer and author. She discovered cosplay in 1999, when it was still a small, quirky section of the geek-fandom. Armed with a used $40 sewing machine, Yaya threw herself into making costumes headfirst, and quickly absorbed the heart and soul of costume design and creation. To this day, Yaya has made more than 400 personal costumes in every fandom genre imaginable, as well as her own original designs. Her long-standing consistency of creating intricate and lavish costumes has made her a craftsmanship Icon and beloved competition judge in the cosplay world, and inspired countless people to get into cosplay.

Over the years, Yaya has played a pivotal role in introducing cosplay to the mainstream audience and shaping it into a commercial industry. She has been a Guest Judge on 3 seasons of TBS TV Network’s “King of the Nerds” competition show, starred in the Syfy TV Network’s Docu-Series “Heroes of Cosplay”, and been interviewed by countless magazines, books, newspapers and online media outlets.

In 2020, Sterling Books published Yaya’s self-written book about the evolution of modern cosplay called “Yaya Han’s World of Cosplay,” in which she also chronicles her life story of being born in China, raised in Germany and coming to America as a teenager and setting her life’s work in motion through the discovery of cosplay. The book is available worldwide wherever books are sold.

Yaya’s current focus is on making tools and materials more available to the cosplay community, through collaborations with global creative companies. She designs Yaya Han branded cosplay sewing patterns for The McCall Pattern Company, which are distributed worldwide. JOANN Fabric & Craft Stores carries the “Cosplay by Yaya Han” line in key categories of fabric and trims in stores and online, and she even partnered with Dremel to bring rotary tools to JOANN stores. In 2023, Swiss sewing machine company BERNINA launched a Yaya Han branded sewing and embroidery machine, the bernadette b79 Yaya Han Edition. It became an instant hit with cosplayers and sewists around the world,

Commercial ventures aside, Yaya often participates in charitable projects involving cosplay, and strives to be a positive force in the community. Through hard work, unmatched passion and infectious enthusiasm, Yaya has helped cosplay gain respect and integrity as an art form in the fandom world and art communities, and her decade long campaign for creativity has helped raise Cosplay to the standards we know today. Everyday, Yaya continues to pave the path for the beloved art and lifestyle we know as Cosplay.

Cosplay Guests

Cowbutt Crunchies Cosplay is an internationally acclaimed LGBTQ+ couple who specializes in couture cosplay, education, and incredible pop culture design. Always pushing the envelope of creativity, their experimental mixed media builds feature a wide mastery of unique techniques, from advanced embroidery, to extreme wigwork, to intricate armor. Their work is both intricately detailed and impossibly over the top, making use of their ever-growing skill sets including advanced needlework, extreme wigwork, detailed armor, makeup effects, moldmaking, lighting, and animatronics.

Their passion for cosplay has taken them around the world as educators, judges, and competitors with numerous national titles under their belts including the 2019 Crown Champion of Cosplay. In the professional sphere they have created corporate promotional builds for video game and TV launches, with a client list that includes Riot Games, miHoYo, and Marvel. You can also find their creations in various media outlets including ABC’s To Tell The Truth and Adam Savage’s Tested.

As experienced cosplay educators, they are passionate about sharing their knowledge and experiences with the community. To date they have hosted over 100 in-person panels and created hundreds of online tutorials for aspiring cosplayers to follow. They are also the authors of three published cosplay books – The Art of Extreme Wig Styling, Fabulous Cosplay Footwear, and The Cosplay Book of Ballgowns.

With over 20 years of experience, their focus is on learning and creativity – encouraging other cosplayers through cosplay education and community events that they’ve pioneered such as the Cosplay Couture Gala and maker meetups. They strongly believe in giving back to the community through workshops and online tutorials, as well as through their cosplay charity site. The name “Cowbutt” and “Crunchies” comes from their first two adopted cats, and to date they have raised over $25,000 for cat-related rescues.