YC3 2023 Celebrity Guests
YC3 is thrilled to be the premier source of entertainment in the Texas Panhandle! This year we’re delighted to bring the following guests to Amarillo on April 21st – 23rd:
DJ Qualls
DJ Qualls grew up in the small city of Manchester in Tennessee, USA, one of five children. After studying in the UK at King’s College, University of London, he returned to Tennessee where he began acting in a local theatre. During that time, he was discovered by photographers David La Chappelle and Steve Klein, which led to modeling work for Prada, as well as other advertising campaigns. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Qualls is proud to be a cancer survivor and an advocate for cancer research and awareness.
Qualls made his feature film debut in Road Trip (2000). Qualls is also seen in the comedy thriller Cherry Falls (2000), in which he co-stars with Jay Mohr, Brittany Murphy, and Gabriel Mann in a story of the killings of virgins in a small town high school. His earlier credits include the miniseries Mama Flora’s Family (1998), based on the book by Alex Haley, and “Against The Wall”.
In 2002, Qualls played Archie in the film Comic Book Villains, Andrew in the film Big Trouble, Junior in the film Lone Star State of Mind, Dizzy Gillespie Harrison in the film The New Guy, and Rat in the sci-fi film The Core. He starred in the comedy Delta Farce. In 2005, he appeared as Shelby in the film Hustle & Flow. His television work includes eccentric hunter Garth Fitzgerald IV on Supernatural and appearances on Monk, Scrubs, Criminal Minds, Lost, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, CSI, Numb3rs, My Name Is Earl, Breaking Bad, The Big Bang Theory, and Memphis Beat.
Katy O’Brian
Katy O’Brian is an actress and martial artist from Indianapolis, IN. Her love for acting began with local theater productions at a young age, but her true passion was always in film. After working on several local projects, in 2016, Katy moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Film and Television. She landed her first TV role as a savior on AMC’s, “The Walking Dead” followed by small parts on, “Halt and Catch Fire” and “How to Get Away with Murder,” before landing her first series regular role as George on the Syfy zombie apocalypse series, “Z Nation.”
O’Brian played a minor villain in Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and also appeared in several episodes of the Disney+ Star Wars series “The Mandalorian” as a communications officer. Her latest role is to play Jentorra, the leader of a group of freedom fighters in the upcoming “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”.
Katy continues to teach and train martial arts and loves to incorporate that passion into her acting career whenever possible.
Bonnie Piesse
Bonnie Piesse first got into the business when she was 14. A friend of hers got an agent and began doing some work, and suggested she do the same. Bonnie got the very first role she auditioned for and played a Trapeze artist in the Australian children’s television show, High Flyers (1999). She took six months off High School for the shoot. Bonnie picked up the guitar when she was 14 and started writing songs. She entered them in, and won a number of prestigious Songwriting Awards. In 2002, was selected with only a handful of the highest-achieving arts students from around Victoria, to perform in two “VCE-Season of Excellence” events, including one at the Melbourne Concert Hall.
Bonnie acted in other Australian TV shows, including Blue Heelers (1994), Stingers (1998), Horace & Tina (2001), and Last Man Standing (2005). Then came the job that has garnered her the most attention, by not only Australian audiences, but the world, as Luke Skywalker’s foster mother, “Beru Whitesun”, in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005).
Bonnie then moved to LA where she met Grammy-winning Music Producer, Val Garay (Kim Carnes, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, Santana). Val introduced her to many world class songwriters including Eric Kaz (“Love Has No Pride”), Bonnie Hayes (“Have a Heart”), Jack Tempchin (“Peaceful Easy Feeling”, “Slow Dancing”) and JD Souther (“Heartache Tonight”, “New Kid In Town”).
Her debut album, “The Deep End”, will be released in January 2011 on Big Deal Records, and her song, “All I Have”, was featured on Life Unexpected (2010) in Sept 2010 on the CW network.
J. Michael Tatum
Nurtured on anime classics from the tender age of Star Blazers, this reclusive actor/writer spent more years than he cares to remember in what might charitably be called free-fall before landing, mostly by accident, smack dab on the industry of his dreams. To this day, some believe the small crater made by the impact remains the source of his power.
Cast as Rikichi in 2005’s Samurai 7, Tatum’s inexplicable luck has held long enough to see his flag hoisted on a slew of dream roles, most notably Kyoya Otori in Ouran High School Host Club, suave, demonic Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler, France in the Hetalia franchise, Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss, and the equal parts maniacal/vulnerable Okarin Rintarou from Steins;Gate. More recently, Tatum can be heard in the epic My Hero Academia as Teyna Iida.
Other characters the man still can’t believe he’s had the crazy good fortune to play include: Doumeki in XXXHolic, Jiro Mochizuki in Black Blood Brothers, Isaac Dian in Baccano!, both God Eneru and Dalton in One Piece, Komui Lee in D-Gray Man, Dororo in Sgt. Frog, the titular loveable savage of Heroic Age, Ryosuke Takahashi in Initial D, Kraft Lawrence in Spice and Wolf, Zarbon in Dragon Ball Z Kai, Scar in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Acnologia in Fairy Tale, and Erwin Smith in Attack on Titan. His vocal “stylings,” much to the chagrin of drama teachers everywhere, he’s sure, have also been featured in Romeo X Juliet, Speed Grapher, Trinity Blood, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Black Cat, Nabari no Ou, Ghost Hunt, School Rumble, The Tower of Druaga, Aquarion, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles, Shuffle, Shigurui, Glass Fleet, Mushishi, Soul Eater, Cells at Work, along with feature-length films like Vexille, Summer Wars, Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker and Empire of Corpses, among many others. His videogame credits include Sir Hammerlock from the Borderlands franchise, Julius Kresnik from Tales of Xillia 2, Mr. Foster from Killing Floor 2, Kelvin and Pendles from Battleborn, fifteen playable characters from SMITE, and August Wallenstein from Tales of Luminaria.
And as if being involved with so many awesome shows wasn’t enough, in late 2007 the fluky so-and-so tempted fate by officially branching out into ADR directing and adaptive scriptwriting. His ADR directing credits to date include Aquarion, Jyu-oh-Sei, Romeo X Juliet, Big Windup, Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne and Shikabane Hime (Corpse Princess), while his writing credits include substantial work on Ouran High School Host Club, Heroic Age, Initial D, Blassreiter, Ga Rei: Zero, Hero Tales, Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Fractale, Deadman Wonderland, Steins;Gate, Assassination Classroom, Dragon Ball Z Kai, Attack on Titan, Tribe Nine.
Ever the workaholic, Tatum is currently burning the midnight oil on a number of exciting projects due for release later this year. He also co-hosts Ghoul Intentions, a spooky podcast dedicated to creeping you out. And before you ask, the “J” stands for… Well, it stands for whatever you’d like it to.
Brandon McInnis
Brandon McInnis is an LA-based voice actor, singer, and translator with over 130 roles in anime and video games, and a prolific TikTok account (@branmci: >550k followers). Notable roles include Gyutaro in Demon Slayer, Sir Nighteye in My Hero Academia, Finral Roulacase in Black Clover, Yuta in SSSS.Gridman, Milo in Sabikui Bisco, Astolfo in The Case Study of Vanitas, Kenshiro Daimon in ODDTAXI, Samon Goku in Nanbaka, Sonosuke Izayoi in Danganronpa 3, Ares in Banished from the Hero’s Party, Mangod (Hitogami) in Mushoku Tensei, Yūichirō Kurono (Uncle Reaper) in Fire Force, Xane in Fire Emblem Heroes, Featherlight in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, Patrick Phelps in Black Butler, Ganos in Dragon Ball Super, and many more.
Having collaborated musically with content creators such as AmaLee and Jonathan Young, he regularly posts both cover songs and originals on YouTube (http://youtube.com/branmci) and Spotify (https://ffm.bio/branmci) including EPs of music originally from the anime Given and the Kingdom Hearts franchise.
Other notable roles include Iketeru in Life Lessons with Uramichi-Oniisan, Edward of Westminster in Requiem of the Rose King, Hirano in Sasaki and Miyano, Saku in ACTORS: Song Connection, Selen in Show By Rock!!, Yuta in Stars Align, Kanata in Ensemble Stars!, Shu Bi in Back Arrow, Al Lyon in Appare-Ranman!, Leonardo in The Gymnastics Samurai, Tsubasa (Kashiwagi’s Boyfriend) in Kaguya-sama: Love is War, Dellinger in One Piece, Makoto Teruhashi in The Disastrous Life of Saiki K, Count St. Germain in Code: Realize, and Keita Amano in Gamers.
Previously a software engineer, McInnis also holds a degree in Japanese and lived in Tokyo working as a translator. While he has interpreted for a variety of CEOs, musicians, and manga artists, one of his most cherished professional experiences has been to interpret on several occasions for Nobuo Uematsu, the famed Final Fantasy composer.
McInnis can be found under the handle of @branmci on a variety of platforms including Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch.
Karan Ashley
Karan Ashley has had a career as an actress, singer, TV host, radio DJ, reality star, writer and TV and film producer. Karan Ashley is currently Producing her graphic novel series The Order Icarus Rising and The Order Movie.
She began her entertainment career as a child singer in the girl group KRUSH. They were signed to A&M Records and had their first single, “Let’s Get Together” on the Mo Money soundtrack. They worked under the famous Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. With the group they earned a platinum record and had a hit dance song, Let’s Get Together (So Groovy Now.) Karan also had her first acting audition while in the group for Sister Act 2. She didn’t get the part but she got bit by the acting bug and she knew that she wanted to transition into acting.
Her big break came when she went to an open call audition and beat out over 10 thousand hopefuls and landed the lead role of Aisha the Yellow Power Rangers on the #1 kids show in America, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. She was able to do over 80 episodes and star in the hit movie “Power Rangers the Movie” produced by 20th Century Fox.
She began to pound the pavement and worked with comedic legends like Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, Kenan Thomas and Kel Mitchel. She enjoyed guest star and recurring characters on, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, The Steve Harvey Show, One on One, The Parkers and Kenan & Kel. She shifted gears and tried her hand in radio and guest DJ’ed with KKDA’s K104 in Dallas and produced her own web series Uncensored Talk. She has also enjoyed a career in writing and producing and has 2 independent film under her belt: Devon Ghost and Unto Thee. She also produced Grow Up Already which was a TV sitcom. She also guest starred on the comedic web series Class Dismissed. She reprised her role as Aisha in 2018 on the Interactive Gaming Power Rangers spinoff Hyper Force.
She has worked with many successful companies such as MTV, BET, ABC, Twitch, Nickelodeon, Disney, The WB, 20th Century Fox, Asiatic Productions and formed her own production company KAsh Pictures, LLC and KAsh Publishing INC..
Catherine Sutherland
Australian born actress Catherine Sutherland, is best known for playing Katherine “Kat”
Hillard, the Pink Ranger in the legendary hit kids show, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
She continued her role for three seasons in Power Ranger Zeo, Power Ranger Turbo,
and Power Ranger Turbo the Movie. With over 100 episodes filmed in the series,
Catherine has most certainly made her mark in the industry. After Power Rangers she
went on to perform in the film,The Cell starring Jennifer Lopez,and various
commercials.
You may recognize her voice on one of your children’s toys/games or see her appear in
a commercial from time to time. She recently voiced a character in the online game
Battle Battalions.. Although, she is rarely in front of the camera these days, Catherine is
focusing her creative energy on writing and publishing her first children’s book series!
Her greatest joy in life is raising her two children with her husband in California.
