Team Jedi News

Aaron did not grow up watching Star Wars, in fact it was the Special Editions that swept him up into the Galaxy Far Far Away. In 1997 he went and saw the Special Editions because he had heard that the Prequels were coming and this was his chance to learn about Star Wars. After seeing the Special Editions he wanted to learn more about the universe and went to his local library to get a list of all the Star Wars books they had. His first novel was The Courtship of Princess Leia, and from there he travelled backward to Truce at Bakura and started reading the books in chronological order. While the films initially brought him into Star Wars it was the Expanded Universe that would capture his imagination and turn him into a lifelong fan.

While he was making his way through the novels he also found himself interested in Star Wars comics. He began by reading the Dark Empire series and Tales of the Jedi. He has been reading comics ever since and especially loves the Republic series from Dark Horse.

And when the Prequels did come out he went to each one at midnight and got to share in the excitement of the new Star Wars films with many other adoring fans.

Aaron is now involved in the Star Wars fan community using his skills as a writer to blog for the Star Wars Report as well as Jedi News. He began podcasting by being a guest on shows like the Star Wars Report, We Talk Clones, and Tosche Station. He now co-hosts Star Wars Bookworms, a Star Wars literature podcast with Teresa Delgado and hosts a podcast all about Doctor Who called Bad Wolf Radio. Aaron has had the privilege to write for the Official Star Wars Blog doing coverage from different conventions such as Celebration VI, New York Comic Con and DragonCon.

Aaron’s Star Wars heart lies in the Expanded Universe (or Legends) and his favorite EU character is Quinlan Vos. He loves Return of the Jedi the most of the Original Trilogy. Luke Skywalker and prequel Obi-Wan Kenobi are his favorites to watch from the films while Ahsoka, Rex and the clones and Jedi in general are his favorite part of The Clone Wars. You can find Aaron at conventions on the East Coast of the United States especially at panels about Star Wars books, so keep an eye out for him.

Adam D. Bram (a.k.a. The Nilbog) is an aspiring writer, actor, and director. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance, and wrote extensively for his college’s newspaper.

For many years, all Adam knew of Star Wars was the Jabba’s Palace sequence from Return of the Jedi, which was one of many omnipresent films on the Betamax his parents had when he was a toddler.

In 1997, at the tender age of 11, Adam used the release of the Special Edition to finally see what this Star Wars thing was that everyone was talking about, and his life was changed forever. He ate up every second, bought up every toy, even cast his fifth-grade class as characters from the then-trilogy (Protip: Never cast your crush as Sy Snootles. She will not understand).

Adam’s favorite film in the saga is unabashedly The Phantom Menace, the only Star Wars film he was lucky enough to see on opening day. While Yoda is his favorite character of the saga, he identifies most with Jar Jar Binks (his fourth favorite).

Adam lives with his wife in Providence, Rhode Island USA (a wife who was gracious enough to allow “Across the Stars” as their wedding processional). When not immersed in the Galaxy Far, Far Away, he works as a Job Coach for young adults with Asperger’s Syndrome (after being diagnosed with the disorder himself in late 2010), plays World of Warcraft, writes and manages the self-indulgent blog “Nilbog’s Storybook Land”, and attempts (often in vain) to complete his novel. He secretly hopes that the production of the new Star Wars films will lead to open auditions.

Becca Benjamin is a collaborator and contributor for many outlets within the Star Wars community. She has been an adoring Star Wars fan since the tender age of four and even had Darth Vader proudly displayed on her fourth birthday cake – trimmed in pink icing! The addition of the prequels only intensified her love for the ever-growing franchise and sprung her into the fandom community at full force, pun intended.

She began her blogging career back in 2006 with a paid subscription for the official StarWars.com website, and has dabbled in writing since her high school days, and even studied creative writing in college as a secondary major under her major in medical office. Currently, she holds a fulltime position as a medical receptionist for a Retina specialist/surgeon.

Becca is the Editor-in-Chief for the former The Cantina Cast website, Co-host on Tarkin’s Top Shelf, a literary Star Wars podcast, and a Host on Kanata’s Castle Podcast. She also prepares titles and captions for Lucasfilm artist Steve Anderson, contributes a monthly blog for Coffee with Kenobi, and has recently made her writing debut on MakingStarWars.net. Becca is currently working on a plethora of Star Wars projects and you can connect with her on Twitter @urangelb

Chris Daly first saw Star Wars  back in ’78 when it made its way to the cheap theaters out in the Chicago ‘burbs.  Following some 40-plus viewings in the theater ($1 movies were good for these things), he’s been hooked for life.  At this point, he’s pretty sure his spirit animal is either a Wampa or possibly a Wookie.  In addition to a basement full of SW merchandise and memorabilia, CD sports a nifty Samurai Darth Vader tat on his left calf, owns no less than a dozen lightsabers, is a five time attendee of Disney’s Star Wars Weekends (and genuinely hopes the Mouse revives those), has been to Celebration twice (’13 in Orlando, ’15 in Anaheim) and even took his mother to stand in line at midnight for the most recent TFA toy releases.  For Jedi News, CD has covered SW comic books, local themed events, movie screenings and various SW goings-on.  Additionally, he is a proud member of the Rebel Legion’s Freedom Base as a Rebel Trooper.  CD also covers the music industry for such renowned sites as Passion of the Weiss and Odd Bloggings.

Residing in New York, Dianna Bates shares the same deep love for the GFFA as her husband Justin LaSalata. In addition to posting news articles on our website, Dianna assists with providing photographs from various conventions and Star Wars-related events including NY Comic Con, “Force Friday” and others.

The Dark Lord. The courageous Jedi. The cocky scoundrel. The witty Princess. These are all characters that James has known and loved for his whole life. He is obsessed with all elements of Star Wars: comics, books, films, TV shows, figures, merchandise, videogames. James contributes literature reviews to Jedi News.

My first memory of Star Wars is not the typical experience for most that are my age and are old enough to have actually seen them in the theaters. I grew up in a very strict household and was not allowed to watch much TV and we never went to movies, so my first actual interaction with anything Star Wars was in 1981 playing in the dirt with a neighbor kid who was slightly older than me but who had most of the original Kenner collection of action figures. The first figure I picked up was Hammerhead, (now known as Momaw Nadon but will always be Hammerhead to me.) The look of this figure was so riveting to me. I had never seen an alien of any sort up until this point. Along with Hammerhead there were also other memorable alien figures such as Walrus man and Greedo. All these characters were really interesting to me and made my mind race with questions and intrigue. The only humanoid character that I remember was Big head Han and of course He was with his trusty companion Chewbacca. To add to all this The Millennium Falcon was the centerpiece of this new playworld. From that point on, despite the fact that I still had not seen any of the movies I never stopped thinking about Star Wars because I was creating my own stories.

The first time I actually saw Star Wars was on the last day of school before Summer vacation in 1983. I was in the third grade and the teacher brought in her personal copy of Star Wars that she had bought during the holiday season the year before. I was finally seeing what I had only imagined in my mind. The aliens and characters I had only seen in plastic form were coming to life on screen right in front of my eyes. It was absolutely exhilarating. That was where it all started.

My first real experience with the Star Wars fan community and the collecting community was at Celebration V in Orlando back in 2010. Just prior to that I had no knowledge of Celebration. I first became aware of Celebration in 2008 when I purchased a Ralph McQuarrie 30th Anniversary Threepio and Artoo and a Celebration II Commander George Sacul at San Diego Comic con. After doing some research I found out about these incredible gatherings every few years. Fortunately for me I lived about 3 hours south of where Celebration V was going to take place. My wife and I attended in the summer of 2010 and we were so blown away. Wehave not missed a Celebration in the U.S. since.

I manage a small commercial printer in Jupiter Florida of which I have worked at for over 20 years. It is here where most of my contributions to Jedi News occur. Although I have written for Jedi News, I utilize my printing knowledge and capabilities to produce promotional materials for the Conventions that The Jedi News Team covers.

Force for Change Spotlight girl Joelle discovered Star Wars when she was 6 years old, after being encouraged to watch “Attack of the Clones” by her friends, who told her that her sister looked like Natalie Portman.

Since then, Joelle has gone on to watch all of the space saga’s offerings, including a modest 7 sittings to see “The Force Awakens” at the cinema. She has even interviewed Executive Producer of “Star Wars Rebels”, Dave Filoni for a national news outlet.

Having fallen in love with “A New Hope’s” scene on the Death Star, where Han and Luke change back into their clothes with Stormtrooper belts on hip, Joelle has since flaunted many fashion looks, incorporating her very own TK belt.

Finding her love for singing at a young age, Joelle developed a distinctive vocal sound. Combining this love for music and Star Wars with her various charitable initiatives, she has created her own project for Force for Change. Joelle is soon to be seen performing an original charity record “Skoobie Dootle”, in a music video showing her parading around New York, whilst wearing her Stormtrooper belt. All proceeds from downloads of the track will be donated directly to Lucasfilm’s charitable movement.

In 2014 Joelle became a Young Person’s Ambassador for the UK’s leading alopecia charity, Alopecia UK, having lost all of her hair when she was 8. Appearing on national TV and radio and being covered by press around the world, Joelle is no stranger to the public eye.

John appeared in A Bridge Too Far (1977), in the 1980 hit sequel film Superman II as an astronaut named Nate, also that year he appeared in Flash Gordon. He was featured in the BBC television series Oppenheimer (1980). He portrayed Dak Ralter, Luke Skywalker’s Gunner during the Battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. When Jeremy Bulloch played an Imperial Officer, he needed someone to cover him as Fett. Morton being similar in height was a body double for two days in costume. He filmed with another unit, the sequence when Fett confronts Darth Vader in the Bespin hallway during Han Solo’s torture – while Bulloch filmed his scenes as the Imperial Officer. Afterwards he left Hollywood and eventually settled in public relations work back in Annapolis.

He is also an accomplished musician (guitar player) and a writer (Backstory in Blue, 2008).

Johnamarie is the Apparel Editor for Jedi News as well as the co-host of Galactic Fashion, an apparel centric podcast on the Jedi News Network.

Jonathan Hicks was born in 1971 and by the time Star Wars appeared in the UK in late December 1977 was already a huge science fiction and fantasy fan. He began writing stories inspired by Star Wars in the early 1980s. This love of the written word progressed into all kinds of writing which includes short stories, novels, novellas, scripts, game design and magazine articles.

After co-creating the Setnin sector, a playground for his Star Wars creations, Jonathan fleshed it out with the West End Games Star Wars D6 roleplaying game. He had already been involved in the roleplaying hobby since 1983. His writing credits include an article in Arcane magazine, he has been published twice by the British Science Fiction Association’s writer’s magazine Focus, written reviews for RPG.net, edited and published the free online RPG magazine ODDS, designed the missions and wrote the dialogue for a video game of Universal’s re-imaging of Battlestar Galactica, published the short story collection Those Dark Places and the book The Book Of Roleplaying Hints, Tips and Ideas, written articles for various online websites and runs the small RPG company Farsight Games and its accompanying blog Farsight Blogger.

Jonathan is currently working on a major RPG property Stellar Adventures, an Adnavced Fighting Fantasy RPG, due for release in 2017.

Jonathan is the Roleplay and Gaming Editor of Jedi News and is also the founder of the GammaCon roleplay convention which held it’s first event in January 2012.

Jonathan lives in Lichfield, England with his wife Lisa and his son Bruce.

Marc was born in 1985, so his first experience of the original trilogy was on VHS. Being such a young age his dad would have to read the opening crawl to him, Marc continues the tradition of the reading it aloud in the ìepic movie voiceî to this day.  Even though he was terrified of the rancor and the evil Emperor Palpatine he fell in love with everything Star Wars. In 1997 he finally was able to experience the films on the big screen with the release of the special editions and a few years later the prequel trilogy.  The Phantom Menace introduced him to two new ways of enjoying Star Wars, Novels and videogames, his two favorite parts of the franchise today. Videogames really give him the chance to become a part of the story, to be the Jedi, or in his case the Sith. While other things come and go in life, to him Star Wars has been there throughout the years.  While being an only child, Marc is very happy to be a part of JediNews, since he has found so many brothers and sisters in the force.

Marc lives in the Chicago land area and helps run a family owned paper recycling company. For 13 years he worked at different haunted houses doing construction, make-up, acting and actor training.  While working at the haunt he met his wife who also worked there.

Besides Star Wars his other passions include the Chicago Blackhawks, professional wrestling, reading and playing all different types of video games. Marc has a very large family who he enjoys spending a lot of his free time with.

It was not easy to find much Star Wars memorabilia in 1990. The films had all come and gone and yet for a five year old Mark, it was all he wanted to play with. Thank goodness he had the coolest nan in the world, who brought all the vintage toys from the kid down the street, who didn’t want them anymore. Standing them up, lowering the landing gears and turning her lounge into every Star Wars fan’s dream, Mark’s nan ensured he would be hooked for life when he walked in.

Since then his love of Star Wars has led him to the Expanded Universe, where Mark has tried to read every book and comic he could find that further enriched a galaxy far, far away. He is also an avid fan of the Clone Wars and, in particular, Rebels.

Mark’s day job is a primary school teacher, where in his classroom you will find life size cut outs of Darth Vader and Chewbacca, trying his best to educate the youth of today in the ways of the force.

When Paul isn’t working on a ship in the North Sea he likes to travel to as many Star Wars (and LOST) events and locations as possible.

He’s often found roaming convention floors cosplaying as Bad Robot. His love for J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot started when he became addicted to the TV show LOST and when his two fandoms collided to make The Force Awakens he had to pinch himself. When he wore his Bad Robot costume at Star Wars Celebration Essen for the first time Kathy Kennedy stopped a Lucasfilm meeting to have a picture taken with him. Kathy then told Paul that she was going to email the pictures to J.J. Abrams. Paul may or may not have wet himself a just little bit.

The sight of Bib Fortuna still freaks him out the same as it did when he was 6 years old watching Return of the Jedi in the cinema. Only these days he doesn’t need to run out of the room and miss all of the first act.

His love for R2-D2 (the true hero of the Galaxy) and now BB-8 influences what clothes he puts on each day.

There’s nothing that makes him happier than enjoying a few drinks with friends he’s met through social media at conventions and events. If you see him at a bar tell him you read this and he’ll buy you a blue milk.

Paul first saw Star Wars back in 1978, starting an affection for the galaxy far, far away that continues to this day. He wrote Frayed at the Edge, his first Star Wars story back in 1988. Already a lifelong friend of Mark, Paul then regularly role-played with Jonathan and Mark developing the Ryath Centaur character and integrating his creations into the fabric of Setnin. As well as playing a character, Paul was the groups second most prolific GM, running many campaigns in a style totally different to Jonathans and adding a hard, tough edge to Setnin that helped define the sector and the famed Setnin Way.

Along with more short stories, Paul continued to develop his own batch of characters which revolved around the ex-Imperial Centaur, and by 1999 and the launch of Lightsabre was a regular contributor to the fiction section, adding many flourishes to the Chronology with his great memory of roleplay games from days past.

As a collector Paul has focused on the Kotobukiya range, building an army of armour that is tough to beat.

Paul consults on story and character content and was a part of the Lightsabre Celebration Europe team that raised over £1000 for Cancer Research UK.

Paul lives in Heathcote, England with his wife Georgina.

Husband. Father. Star Wars fan. Yep that’s about it.

Randall has loved Star Wars since his parents took him to see Return of the Jedi in theaters when he was 2. It is one of his first memories. Randall has been a comic collector since 1999 when he started having some disposable income. He gets SW comics, novels and Insider. He shares his love of Star Wars with his 4 kids who are all avid Star Wars fans themselves. He lives in Oklahoma, U.S.A.

Richard Hutchinson was born in 1976 and cannot remember a time without Star Wars in his life. His highlights of visiting his relations in the early 80’s include taking action figures to have space battles with his cousins and watching endless reruns on Star Wars on pirate VCR.

As with most children in the North, he had to grow up fast and his toys were given away to younger relations. However, this led to an evolution of his Star Wars enjoyment and toys were replaced by the Expanded Universe books, comics and video games which are his pride and joy to this day. Of course there were also the prequels which he loved from first viewing and many hours were spent wasting time on the Internet in the mid 90’s chatting to fans online throughout the world getting involved in the growing online community.

It wasn’t until a brave eBay purchase around 2011 that he started vintage toy collecting again, telling anybody who would listen that he only wanted one of everything loose. Like most collectors, he was immediately hooked and now has a diverse collection of vintage and modern items together with a lack of space to display it properly.

Outside of Star Wars Richard is a school teacher who teaches Computer Science to pupils aged 11 to 19. He can also be found wandering the hills and moors with far too many groups of pupils in his role as a Duke of Edinburgh leader.

His love of the community side of Star Wars is infectious and he can often be found supporting toy shows, such as Farthest From, and Celebration. He is co-host of The Vintage Rebellion podcast which is a monthly vintage Star Wars collecting show.

“I don’t want to see Star Wars!” I said back in the summer of 1977. I had my hands full with Planet of the Apes, Batman and Hong Kong Phooey. Then one August night, I gave in and saw THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD – STAR WARS!

That first viewing back in 1977 changed the course of my destiny in so many ways. From working in the creature effects department on features films, to the time I met my Sweetie, Sarah. I was dressed as Anakin Skywalker at a Halloween party and she came over and asked, “Can I dance with a Jedi?” I knew at that moment we would be married. And, just a few years later we were married in Star Wars/Disney style!

Sarah and I have expressed our extreme fandom through all kinds of creative endeavors including the fan film, TPZ, which shows what the tabloid show, TMZ would look like in the Star Wars universe.

Then Sarah and I caught the podcasting bug and in 2013 we created Skywalking Through Neverland. This combined both our passions of Star Wars and Disney into a family-friendly podcast that brings the listener (or Skywalkers as we call them) fun-filled stories from creators and fans! We’ve also created spin-off podcasts like Classic Marvel Star Wars Comics where we look back at each issue of the classic comics from 1977-1986 with artist Randy Martinez. Then we had to satisfy our Disney passion with Step In Time: Remembering Disney’s Matinee Movies. Here, Sarah and I look back at the Disney live-action films of the 1960’s through the 1980’s with guest hosts such as Grand Moff Tarkin voice actor, Stephen Stanton, and Tinker Bell reference model, Margaret Kerry.

Now, I hope you enjoy the fun-filled stories I have here on Jedi News! And always remember, Neverland on Alderaan!

A born ‘n’ bred Londoner, Rutvig Vaid graduated from the Kent Institute of Art & Design in Maidstone with an HND in Graphics & Illustration.  He went on to Columbus State University in Georgia, USA for his BFA in Fine Arts before attending the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, for their MFA course.

His early work consisted primarily of non-representational canvases using acrylics, exploring relationships between organic forms and geometric shapes. But his current work focusses on the subtle abstractions found within the human form, primarily through graphite portraits of figures from film and television.

Being a fan, Star Wars has always crept up in his work but now shows up prominently in his portfolio. He has created various pieces for both private clients and conventions, including bespoke Star Wars images for his wife Arti Shah (of TFA and Guardians of the Galaxy fame), Miltos Yerolemou (TFA, Game of Thrones) and Mike Edmonds (Return of the Jedi, Dark Crystal, Time Bandits). A recent artistic venture saw him live drawing Darth Vader, projected on a cinema screen, to an audience of a thousand+ people at WinterKino, an annual event held in Bern, Switzerland.

Vaid has also been working as a writer, actor and filmmaker since 2010, writing and performing his first short play for the London stage in 2015. He’s appeared in various short films and ads (Jameson and Carlsberg), as well as acted, directed and produced various shorts, with his latest, ‘Robbed’ due to hit the festival circuit in 2017.

Sarah Woloski is co-host of two well-known podcasts:  Skywalking Through Neverland (Disney/Star Wars Podcast with her husband Richard) and Fangirls Going Rogue (The first all-female Star Wars Podcast – Tricia Barr, Teresa Delgado co-hosts). Sarah and Richard live just 20 minutes from Disneyland and cover media, movie and theme park events. She is generation 1.5 of Star Wars, meaning she got into the original trilogy in the Dark Times (early 1990’s), having been born post-Empire Strikes Back. Sarah loves John Williams, Julie Andrews, running, creating art and podcasting.

I’m an 80’s-VHS generation Star Wars fan who grew up on a repeat diet of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi on the small screen. My earliest memory of Star Wars is seeing C-3PO and R2-D2 wandering around in the desert. While Star Wars was always a film franchise I enjoyed, it was the books that sucked me in deeper. First it was The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels which fascinated me with the names, details and histories of all the ships that appeared in the movies and some that didn’t. Then there was The Essential Guide to Characters that opened my eyes to the characters of the Expanded Universe. Years later, I read my first Star Wars novel, starting with all things Dark Force Rising.

Surprisingly enough, skipping Heir to the Empire didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the book, and I soon found myself reading every Star Wars novel I could find.

From there I discovered Star Wars forums and joined EUCantina, where I’m still a moderator and active poster to this day. That in turn led to Star Wars online roleplaying where I wound up creating several sites and wasting countless hours imagining characters in a galaxy far, far away. I even dabbled in fanfic which is still out there in a couple places.

Now I run the Star Wars website Roqoo Depot with my co-admin Geralyn. We cover Star Wars news, reviews, interviews and other sci-fi and fantasy material. I do the Databurst From the 501st covering all 501st events around the world each week, as well as the Podcasts in Review covering various Star Wars podcasts. And you can occasionally spot my Star Wars reviews right here on Jedi News.

I honestly cannot remember a time when Star Wars has not played a role in my life.

My earliest Star Wars memory comes down to playing the Jedi Knight & Dark Forces series of video games in the mid-90’s. Before this, as far as I can remember I’d never seen the movies, but playing these games & immersing myself in a Galaxy far, far away led me to watching the films & ultimately making my first Star Wars action figure purchase.

Which brings us to where we are now! After losing touch with friends Iíd shared the love of Star Wars with through childhood, I decided to share my passion with the world, joining YouTube in 2008 & working hard to develop a channel dedicated to Star Wars toy reviews! Over the years I’ve covered an extensive range of products in my videos, including Hasbro action figures & vehicles, LEGO sets, 1:6 scale action figures, prop replicas & much more! I’m now happy to boast that SithLord229 is YouTube’s largest video archive of Star Wars toy reviews, with almost 850 videos uploaded to date!

You can find me across the web & at www.youtube.com/SithLord229!

Not only has my YouTube channel allowed me to share the passion for Star Wars & collecting with the world online, it has also enabled me to enjoy the hobby with new friends closer to home, via events such as the Star Wars Fan Fun Day, whose team I’ve worked closely with over the years to develop promotional material & cover the events I’ve attended! The event has also allowed me to do my bit for charity, raising a collective £500 for Macmillan Cancer Support & the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity, based in my hometown of Sheffield. My love for Star Wars continues through events such as this & through interaction with fellow fans & collectors!

Steve was 5 years old when he saw Star Wars for the first time during its first UK cinema release. He considers himself a first generation Star Wars fan and in his own words is a ‘Child of 77’.

With no new films on the horizon, he moved on from Star Wars around the age of 15 to pursue other interests. Then in 1991 a newly released book on the shelf of WH Smith caught his attention and the circle was complete. That book was the expanded universe novel by Timothy Zahn; ‘Heir to the Empire’. The Star Wars candle was relit and then in 1995 with the release of the POTF2 figures, petrol was thrown on that candle, which over the last 20+ years has now become an out of control raging forest fire once more.

He is a collector of comics, novels, books, figures, Lego and a myriad of other items and boasts a collection of all ‘Legends’ era and original novels on first editions in his collection.

Steve is new to Star Wars writing and has had some guest articles posted here on Jedi News recently.

Whilst contributing literature reviews to Jedi News, Steve is also the Social Media Manager for The Fly Casual Podcast, as well as a staff writer of news & reviews for The Bearded Trio website.

When not working on Star Wars websites, Steve is an active member of the 501st & Rebel Legion.

Teresa’s Star Wars journey began when as a child her mom introduced her to the world of Star Wars while she was sick with chicken pox. Teresa is from the new era of Star Wars fans as she was not around when the Original Trilogy was released in theaters. Instead her trilogy in theaters was the Prequel Trilogy. Teresa began truly indulging herself in the Star Wars galaxy by reading the books and comics. Through the literary world she found herself liking the realm of the Expanded Universe and wanting to learn more. She began toy collecting when her nephew was trying to play with her Force Unleashed figures. She knew she needed to find something else Star Wars for him to play with and she found the Galactic Heroes. From there the collecting of Star Wars began to build and she now has collections of the Force FX lightsabers, Williams Sonoma Star Wars line, Force Unleashed, Marbles, Playing Cards, LEGO, Hallmark Ornaments and anything that has to do with Darth Maul, Ewoks or R2-D2.

Teresa is a freelance writer and owner of Fangirl Next Door a fandom website that focuses on the world of girls in fandom. The site primarily focuses on Star Wars but looks at all things geeky. She is also the host of the Fangirl Next Door Podcast. In addition she also is a staff member and writer for The Star Wars Report. She is also the primary writer of a blog for a prominent Orlando, FL wedding photographer. She enjoys writing about the things she loves and sharing it with the world.

Teresa enjoys reading, writing, collecting and going to Walt Disney World. Her world of choice is one of fantasy and sci-fi and she tries to find every avenue she can to engulf herself in that magical place. She recently got married and resides with her husband in the great lone star state of Texas.

Teresa has reported from Star Wars Fandays, Wizard World Austin, Star Wars Weekends and Star Wars Celebration. Her fandom has expanded to the world of podcasting where she is the co-host of a number of shows including Disney Vault Talk, Fangirls Going Rogue, Star Wars Bookworks (with fellow Team Jedi News member Aaron Goins) and Galactic Fasion alongside Johnamarie Macias on the Jedi News Network.

It was my dad who initially introduced me to the saga as he was trying to educate me with as many classic films as possible. However my primary spark of fandom was really born in the summer of 2008 when my Uncle had come over to visit from Zurich, Switzerland, where he used to reside. I was on the summer holidays from junior school from at the time I was 9 years old. A new animated film called Star Wars The Clone Wars had hit the silver screen so it seemed a perfect excuse to go out. My uncle was already a bit of a Star Wars fan and I had only recently been introduced, so after deciding to invite my mum and brother along we set off. My memory from that age is a bit fussy so I can’t quite remember the details of the whole day. But what I can remember on that day is, how my life got changed. I walked out of that cinema feeing like Iíd just been reborn into another universe, another life.

And so it started. From that point on my love of life became Star Wars. My brother and mum always said that ìoh itís just a fadî and ìyouíll grow out of it one day. Grow out of it I asked? The only thing I intended on was growing into it…and thatís what I did.

I’d really try and collect anything I could get my hands on, whether it was the weekly Clone Wars comic releases or the odd find at my grandmaís charity shop. Fast forward through 5 years of dedicated fandom and I start writing for Jedi News which was April of 2013. It was at this point that my obsession turned into a passion and my love of Star Wars started to mature into another level of knowledge.

I started out mainly as a reviewer for the site, reviewing the Dark Horses weekly comic publications. Then I gained access to the Facebook page and started it growing into more Likes, and then over time I have become a general staff writer for the site, while still co-running the Facebook page. Over the past year I have also started taking the role of events photographer for the likes of the MCM comic con expos, Farthest From events and hopefully now future Celebrations and whatever I can make it to.

Currently I am studying A level Media, Film, English Combined and Btec Business with which I hope to go on to work my way into the film and media business. I have a growing knowledge in these fields through completing work experience at Double Negative visual effects, Sunday Express and Black Sun plc.

Every day I feel grateful for being a member of Team Jedi News (despite being the youngest on the team). It has opened up so many experiences and opportunities, where by I’ve met so many people and most important of all what I would consider my second family – Team Jedi News.

That’s what I really love about Star Wars, it’s not just a film, it’s a way of life.