David Baker

Robert Chapin

*note – Due to feature film shooting, Bob will not be able to join us in 2012. Don’t miss the opportunity to win The Hunted’s 48 hr Combat Con Film Festival though!

Actor, writer, director, stunt coordinator and visual effects supervisor. Chapin wrote and starred in Ring of Steel, and appeared in the films Dragon Fury, Sinbad, Night of the Hyena, and Lancelot. He also appeared in the television shows Magnificent Seven and Sabrina. Chapin’s special effects work can be seen in movies such as Watchmen, Fantastic Four, Fast and Furious, Cloverfield, Chronicles of Riddick and X-Men 2 & 3. He has also worked on Hook and Army of Darkness. Currently, Chapin is producing and directing the vampire-laden internet series The Hunted (www.TheHunted.tv).

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Jack Dagger

“The King of Fling” has been inducted into the International Knife Throwers Hall of Fame, won several World Championships, and has invented the first new knife throwing stunt in almost a hundred years: The Jack Knife – Cucumber Slice (as Seen on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien). He was recognized by People magazine in 2008 as one of the Sexiest Men Alive (in Sexiest A-Z, as “K for Knife Thrower”). He worked on You Don’t Mess with the Zohan with Adam Sandler, “Monk” with Tony Shaloub, and “BONES” with David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel. He was featured on History channel’s “More Extreme Marksmen” as the world’s most accurate marksman and expert in the field of knife throwing, and TOP SHOT Seasons 1 and 2 teaching the competitors how to handle the primitive weapons and providing color commentary.

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Anthony De Longis

Actor, fight director and swordmaster, and professional weapons trainer. De Longis has appeared in many TV series, including Star Trek: Voyager, Justified, Leverage, The Riches, iCarly, ER, The Outer Limits, Queen Of Swords, The Adventures Of Shirley Holmes, The Adventures Of Sinbad, Conan The Adventurer, Babylon 5, and Highlander: The Series. He has also appeared in popular movies such as Jet Li’s Fearless, Road House, Masters Of The Universe, and Sword And The Sorcerer, and trained prominant actors such as Michelle Pfeiffer, Harrison Ford, Ellen Barkin, and Angelica Huston. De Longis has also been a fight choreographer, swordmaster, stunt coordinator, and fight director for many major films as well as the Los Angeles Music Center Opera.

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Maxwell Alexander Drake

Maxwell Alexander Drake, or Drake as he prefers to be called, is an award-winning Science Fiction/Fantasy author and Graphic Novelist. Drake teaches creative writing around the country as well as for the library district in Las Vegas, NV. Find out more about him at his website, www.maxwellalexanderdrake.com.

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Nick Gillard

*note – 6/15/12 due to a personal emergency, Nick can no longer attend CombatCon 2012.

Best known as the fight director for Star Wars I, II and III, Nick Gillard has worked in the industry for a long time. By the time Nick started work on Star Wars he had already built an impressive list of films such as: Aliens, The Three Musketeers, Indiana Jones, Wanted, Reign of Fire, Shaft, Red Dwarf, Waterworld, Judge Dredd, Interview with a Vampire, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Labyrinth, Legend, Krull, James Bonds and heaps more (full details available on IMDB or his website).

On Star Wars Nick guided the actors and stunt players through a new kind of movement to bring a special dimension to the action scenes. To do this, Gillard had to create a fictional martial art that has an authentic, time-honored feel. Rather than assembling a pastiche of various martial arts, Gillard worked to create a distinctive technique that is based on the fact that the Jedi have specifically “chosen the sword as their weapon.”

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Robert Goodwin

Robert G. Goodwin is a sword/martial arts master with over 40 years of experience and has trained or choreographed many of Hollywood’s leading actors and actresses. More recent highlights include training Christian Bale for “Batman Begins”; co-fight coordinator for the last “Dreger” fight in “Sherlock Holmes,” and movement consultant for Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx in “The Soloist.” Other highlights include training: Alicia Marie and Triscity for “Wonder Woman”; Ron Perlman, Eric Roberts, Patrick Warburton, Khrystyne Haje, Ashley Jones, Illeana Douglas, Charles S. Dutton, Rocky Carroll, Ving Rhames, Matthias Hues, Jennifer Tilly, Elias Koteas, Jake Busey, Crispin Glover, and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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Luke LaFontaine

Luke LaFontaine works as a 2nd unit director, stunt coordinator, choreographer, swordmaster, stuntman in the movie industry.  With 25 years of professional experience his work can be seen in Tin Tin, Green Hornet, Iron Man, Beowulf, Serenity, Master & Commander and many more. He is owner of Weapons Action Resource Studios (War Studios).  He was the Ancient weapons expert and sword safety/advisor for season 1 & 2 of Deadliest Warrior. He has had the pleasure of training stars like Brandon Routh (Superman), Brittany Murphy, Katie Sackoff (Battlestar Galactica), George Hamilton and John Neville to name a few.

Click Luke’s name for more information or check out IMDB!

Paradox Pollack

Kyle Rowling

Actor, fight double, action coordinator, and fight director. Kyle is known for his role as Joclad Danva in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, as well as being Christopher Lee’s fight double in Star Wars: Episode II and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Siths. Additionally, Rowling was the motion-capture model for General Grievous in Star Wars: Episode III. Rowling worked on the film Wanted, was the action coordinator for films Gabriel and Domestic, and appeared in TV show Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and TV movie Invincible. Additionally, Rowling was Eric Bana’s Personal Weapons Trainer for the movie Troy.

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Neal Stephenson

Renowned author of “The Baroque Cycle” (including Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World), and novels Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Zodiac. Stephenson is also the Chairman of the Board and cofounder of the Subutai Corporation, which is offering the interactive fiction project “The Mongoliad.”

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Tony Wolf

Writer, researcher, teacher, stuntman, fight director, and stunt coordinator. Wolf was the Cultural Fighting Styles Designer for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, during which time he developed the fighting styles used in the movies. His other fight and stunt credits in the fantasy/science fiction/horror genres include the TV series The Tribe and The Legend of William Tell as well as feature films Dead Alive, The Truth About Demons and Forgotten Silver. Additionally, Wolf has worked as a professional wrestler and a martial arts instructor. He has been largely responsible for the resurrection of the forgotten art of Bartitsu, popular in London during the time when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was writing Sherlock Holmes, and now known as the martial art that Holmes himself practiced.

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Kristina Charron

Kristina Charron holds a B.S. in Animal Science with an Equine major from The Ohio State University. She has been riding horses for over twenty five years and has been a professional riding instructor and horse trainer for over fifteen years. For the last ten years she has applied her practical knowledge to researching the use of the medieval warhorse, including cavalry tactics and the use of sword, bow and spear from horseback. She has been invited to publish several articles, and to deliver numerous lectures and demonstrations on her ground-breaking research.

Derek Conley

Derek was born June 27, 1975 in Sarasota, Florida.

Performing began at age 5, appearing on “Romper Room” in Tampa, FL. At age 7, he began his martial arts training in Okinawan Shotokan Karate; by age 10 he was assisting with choreographing fights for martial arts demonstrations. During this time Derek also acted in various plays; by high school he was active with JROTC and performed in Drill Team competitions.

Derek’s late teens saw him becoming a featured performer in Human Combat Chess matches and performed stage combat fights in front of thousands of spectators for several years, while also performing a variety of main characters in the same productions. He went on to perform in various Renaissance Festivals, Medieval Faires, and Pirate Shows all over Florida and the Florida Keys. It was during this time he discovered his love of teaching; his martial arts background assisted greatly with his performances at the various shows and he became an Assistant Director for the Ringling Medieval Faire, as well as teaching during the “off-season”.

Derek then began studying and practicing the classic treatises of period fencing masters such as DiGrassi, Saviolo, Agrippa, et all. Studying real-world technique allowed him to excel at performing and choreographing; his fights became known for their speed, complexity, and technical historical accuracy.

Derek also performed in several independent films and took the opportunity to work on improvisational acting skills due to the venues in which he most commonly performed.

He then joined the United States Marine Corps and took a break from performing for a few years as he pursued his training; the skills learned while becoming a Marine serve him still.

After his time with the USMC, Derek returned to performing locally with the Bay Area Renaissance Festival in Tampa, Florida, as a featured stage combatant as well as portraying one of the main villains of the show for several years. He also became the Co-Director of the Bay Area’s Chess Match, assisting with the teaching and choreography of a cast of over 30 actors and combatants.

Derek’s direction then turned to another longtime interest; law enforcement. Derek attended the police academy in 2005 and was hired shortly thereafter as a Law Enforcement Officer.

Moving towards the TV/movie industry, Derek’s combination of over 20 years of fight choreography experience, coupled with extensive weapons training, martial arts, military experience, as well as law enforcement experience bring a background which is difficult to achieve and of which he finds himself extremely fortunate to have accomplished.

Derek has been working closely with Battlestar Galactica’s own Richard Hatch, renowned martial artist/actor/producer Michael Wehrhahn, and others.

JP Dostal

Jp has been training in weapons for over 24 years. His instruction began in 1986 at age 6 in Toledo Spain from Maestro Valendo. Since that time Jp has branched out into many weapons and styles from all over the world including spending 3 years training with the legendary fight coordinator Bob Anderson. From the US to Europe, Japan to Australia he has coordinated fight scenes all over from Knights to Gladiators, Shakespeare to Samurais. The last few years has seen him branch into fire combat and he has coordinated over 100 fire scenes with a variety of different weapons.
Founding member of Duel at Dusk Productions he splits his time between the stage and business aspects of the company. A graduate from MSU with a Masters in International Business and a BA in Ancient History.  That compiled with his background in theater and stage combat allows him to develop new and interesting approaches to theater. From an early age he was exposed to theater his interest began when he visited his cousins who were starring in CATS on Broadway in 1987. From then on he was hooked working on numerous productions across the us and abroad. In 1999 he formed Duel at Duel at Dusk Productions to take over the production of the Michigan Renaissance Fair, producing new and original programming across the 15 stages and seen by over 250,000 people. Since that time DADP has been hired to produce original shows from Austria to Spain and Italy.

Company website: www.duelatdusk.com
Compnay Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/duelatduskcombat