Cast & Crew

Production Crew:

Producer: Chris Lester

Assistant Producers: Bill Bowman, Dawn D. Wood, Paulette Jaxton,  Bryan Watson

Art & Graphic Design: Arthur Wright

Cover Artist: Jeff Himmelman

WordPress Theme Created By: Gurdit

Writers: Chris Lester, Bryan Watson, Nobilis Reed

Metamor City is inspired by the Metamor Keep shared story universe, created by Kevin “Copernicus” Deenihan and held in joint copyright by the members of the Metamor Keep writers’ community. Inquiries about Metamor Keep should be directed to story universe coordinator Christian O’Kane.

Cast members, in order of appearance:

Chris Lester

(Host, Narrator, Assorted Voices)

Chris Lester (she/her) has tried her hand at many trades: marine biologist, title insurance officer, high school science teacher, writer, editor, clinical researcher. Through many ups, downs, derailments, and right-angle turns, two things have remained constant: a passion for storytelling, and the drive to change how people see the world. Whether behind the microphone, at a keyboard or in front of a classroom, Chris never feels more alive than when she’s introducing others to new perspectives and new ideas. Chris came out as transgender in 2023.

Born in Michigan, trained as a scientist in California and Montana, Chris now makes her home in Madison, Wisconsin. When she isn’t writing or doing research, she enjoys playing piano, board games, swing dancing, and being out in nature. She lives with her wife Melanie and a menagerie of rescued dogs and cats.

Leann Mabry

Leann McNaughton

(Morgan Drauling, guest narrator)

The world is not ready for Leann. Her Parsec Award-winning show, Tag in the Seam, was a fantastic example of the creativity inherent of the podcasting community and has now led to offers of her life-long dream: voiceover work. In 2007 Leann was awarded the Parsec Award for Tag in the Seam and the Joe Murphy Memorial Award for her contributions to the podcasting community, most notably her efforts in founding the Joe Murphy Memorial Fund. A resident of the Deep South for most of her life, Leann now lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband.

Beq Vyper

(Callie Linder)

A veteran D&D player from the 1st Edition years, Beq Vyper is a woman of a dozen Internet aliases and a half-dozen gaming addictions, and she can probably kick your ass at any of them. She is also an amateur writer who has crafted what is probably the single most detailed Babylon 5 story arc that anyone has ever devised without actually being paid to do so. She works in Metro Detroit as a landscaping designer.

Bill Bowman

(Trajan, Victor hin’Kavos)

Another veteran D&D player, “Bilbo” never knew that he wanted to be a voice actor until Chris asked him to try out for The Metamor City Podcast. By day he works as a tech support specialist for the local library, solving problems with “computers and the people who use them.” He lives in Metro Detroit with his wife, their adopted son, and a dog small enough to fit in your coat pocket.

Heather Nowak

(Abbey Preston)

Heather met Chris in 1996 when they were both working as lowly laboratory assistants at Macomb Community College. By sheer coincidence she began attending youth group at Chris’s church that same year, where she was instrumental in showing Chris that spending time with friends really could be more interesting than sitting at home watching Babylon 5 reruns. Over the years she has worked as a Certified Massage Therapist, an emergency medical technician, a midwife’s assistant, an accountant, and a minister for the United Methodist Church. She lives in the “thumb” region of Michigan with her four daughters.

Paulette Vallad

(Mother Annabelle, Assorted Voices)

Paulette Vallad always wanted to be a voice in a cartoon, so when Chris presented the call for character actors for Metamor City, she jumped at the chance. She lives in Metro Detroit, Michigan, where she serves as a corporate wage slave for the monstrous automotive industry. You’ll find her at any Detroit intersection, sitting in traffic, singing at the top of her lungs along with the radio.

Cunning Minx

(Jenna Hartmann)

Minx is the creator and host of Polyamory Weekly, a podcast that explores the topic of responsible non-monogamy and deals with “really lascivious things, like communication and honesty in relationships.” She has also read several stories for Escape Pod, the weekly science fiction podcast magazine, where her sultry voice has fast become the stuff of legends. She lives in Chicago.

Mur Lafferty

(Trisha)

The Grande Dame of Podcasting, Mur is the creator and host of Geek Fu Action Grip and I Should Be Writing, the co-author of Tricks of the Podcasting Masters, and the author of the Parsec Award-winning podcast novel Playing For Keeps (now available in print). She is also a long-time freelance writer for the RPG industry and a regular columnist for Knights of the Dinner Table and Grumble Magazine. She lives in Durham, North Carolina with her husband, her dog, and a daughter whom she often refers to as the Pink Tornado. And yes, she does know kung fu. (This picture of Mur was also taken by JR Blackwell, and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 2.0 license.)

Bryan Watson

(Artax, Brian Sommers)

An amateur writer and marmiton extraordinaire, Bryan grew up about three miles away from Chris but never met him until the fall of 2004, when a mutual friend brought him to a Bible study at Chris’s house. They quickly became friends when they discovered a shared love for science fiction, C.S. Lewis, and snarky commentary. Bryan lives in Metro Detroit.

Dani Cutler

(Sasha King)

Dani Cutler is the host of the political podcast Truth Seekers, a contributor to the Pickle News team and SFF Audio, a podiobook reviewer for Podiobooker, and the overnight announcer with kwss 106.7 out of Phoenix, AZ. She also does voice acting and editing work for Dream Realm Enterprises. In her spare time, Dani is a mother of two (four, if you count husband and dog), plays the viola occasionally, and chats online WAY too much.

Christiana Ellis

(Fiona hin’Conaill)

Christiana is the author and host of the Parsec Award-winning audio drama Space Casey and the Podcast Peer Award-winning comedy podcast Christiana’s Shallow Thoughts. Her vocal talents have been featured in P.G. Holyfield’s Murder at Avedon Hill and Tee Morris’s Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword, and she is also the co-host of Talking About Stuff and SciFi Smackdown. She lives in North Carolina, where she spends her days working as a mild-mannered engineering consultant.

Donte Taylor

(Trace Umbara)

A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Donte served in Camp Pendleton, California and Quantico, Virginia. He was discharged in 1993 and has since pursued a career in music and acting. He lives in Metro Detroit with his girlfriend and their three children.

Nobilis Reed

(Del Matthews)

Nobilis is the creator and host of Nobilis Erotica, a podcast that airs erotic science fiction written by himself and others. He takes care of a disabled spouse, two children, and two cats, and is completely unsurprised to find that a background in defense research and software engineering is of no use in starting a career in writing. Extasy Books has published much of his work in e-book format, including the highly-rated novels Our Robot and Centaur.

P.G. Holyfield

(Kevin Darby)

The sworn nemesis of Metamor City creator Chris Lester, P.G. was a writer, podcaster and former religious studies major. His first novel, Murder at Avedon Hill, was released as a podcast, and featured vocal contributions from many prominent members of the podcasting community. He also appeared in Tee Morris’s podcast novel Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword, where he played the part of Franklin Rothchild, and in many other podcast productions. He lived in Charlotte, North Carolina. On August 20th, 2014, P.G. passed away as a result of a rare form of cancer called cholangiocarcinoma. The podcast community wrote a tribute anthology in his honor, Tales of a Tesla Ranger, the proceeds of which go to support P.G.’s family. P.G. is survived by his two daughters, his partner Kim Herrick, and his ex-wife Liza, the mother of his children. (Photo by JR Blackwell.)

MA in PA

(Rebecca Brower)

MA is the host of Better Late Than Never, a podcast where she chats about genre fiction (both old and new) and shares the trials and adventures of her life as a geeky single mom. Her vocal work has also appeared on Pseudopod and Murder at Avedon Hill, and she is a regular contributor to Fanboy Hell. As her nom de guerre implies, MA lives in Pennsylvania.

Heather Welliver Heather Welliver

(Kathryn Kitaen, Stacy Sharabi)

Heather is a singer, a frequent guest host on the A.D.D. Cast, and the wife of Grailwolf, the host of Grailwolf’s Geek Life. She got involved with Metamor City because of an interview with MA in PA, who managed to convert her to the cause while she was supposed to be getting interviewed. :) Heather lives in the Washington D.C. area with her hubby and is always looking for new opportunities to use her prodigious vocal talents.

Serah Eley

(Nathan Levy)

Serah Eley is a software developer and former podcaster who once produced a weekly science fiction podcast called Escape Pod. It’s since gone on to become somewhat successful. She strangely mispronounced her name as Steve Eley at the time; she’s since realized that life is much more fun as a woman, and came out as transgender in 2015. Serah lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her two wives, Alison and Cat.

So if there were ever any betting pools on what happened to Steve: changed sex, joined a committed lesbian love triangle is the dark horse winner. She is, obviously, still Having Fun.

Cat (Sci Fi Ranter Girl)

(Denise)

Cat, also known Sci Fi Ranter Girl, is the co-host of the Lipstick Aliens podcast, in which she and fellow geek-girl Lynne dish out their analysis and commentary on TV, movies and other forms of entertainment. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Tee MorrisTee Morris

(Evan Selindi)

Tee Morris is a writer, broadcaster, and cutting-edge technologist. An early adopter of using social media to reach audiences for his sci-fi and fantasy novels, he continues to blog, podcast, and stream content of all kinds. He’s the author of Twitch For Dummies and co-author of Podcasting For Dummies.

Tee lives in Virginia with his wife and co-author, Philippa Ballantine, with whom he wrote the “Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences” series of steampunk novels. He continues to freelance as a graphic artist, web designer, and video editor. (Photo by JR Blackwell.)

Philippa Ballantine

(Eva Selindi)

Philippa Ballantine who also uses the pen name Pip Ballantine, is a New Zealand author of speculative fiction and an avid podcaster. She is also the co-author of the “Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences” novels. The first, Phoenix Rising, came out in 2011 and won an Airship Award for best written work. She now lives in Virginia with her husband and collaborator Tee Morris.

Indiana Jim

(Crew Chief, Janus Starson)

Jim Perry, aka Indiana Jim, is a writer, musician, blogger, husband, father, and podcaster. After being a regular voicemail contributor to Slice of SciFi, Dragon Page: Cover to Cover and other Farpoint Media shows for quite some time, Jim launched his own podcast, The Adventures of Indiana Jim, in which he gives an optimist’s perspective on the news, geek-related media topics, and anything else that’s close to his heart. In 2007 he released his first venture into audio fiction, an original (and farcical) short story called Thesis A Fantasy. He followed this up in 2008 with the original Star Wars audio drama Codename: Starkeeper. Jim lives in Indiana (shudder gasp) with his wife and three children.

Jessica Sharrow Jessica Sharrow

(Josephine Matthews)

After spending over a year listening to podcasts of all kinds, Jessica failed to find one that covered her one true passion — NASCAR –so in 2007, with a friend, The Cup Car Update was launched. She has also read a Story so Far for Scott Sigler’s Nocturnal. Jessica is a Colorado Native, a wife, and mother to 2 active children.

Martha Puskas

(Miriam Bakhtavar)

The mother of Beq Vyper, Martha enjoys playing handbells, singing in the choir, directing and acting in various dramatic productions, and running the Vacation Bible School (VBS) for her church. In spite of her various creative skills and a list of social activities that would exhaust many younger people, she still claims to have gone through life without having done anything particularly interesting or noteworthy. She lives in Metro Detroit.

J. C. Hutchins

(William Westerson)

“Hutch”, as he is known to his fans, is the author of the smash hit podcast novel 7th Son. After a successful career as a journalist, during which time he wrote for such diverse publications as The Palm Beach Post, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Lexington Herald-Leader (Ky.), and Wizard: The Comics Magazine, Hutch left the newspaper business in 2002 to focus on writing his novel, which eventually became the 7th Son podcast trilogy. Hutch lives in South Florida, where he is hard at work on his next novel.

Sara Lloyd

Sara Lloyd

(Danni Sharabi, Caitlyn)

Sara discovered The Metamor City Podcast through her friend and co-worker, Bryan Watson. While she had never done any acting before, she was intrigued by the world and its stories and eager to try her hand at voicing a character. A former band geek, she credits her musical training with giving her the confidence (and lung power) necessary for voice acting. A native of Texas, she now resides in Metro Detroit, Michigan.

Jason Adams

(Jared Tamlin)

Jason is the creator and host of the Random Signal podcast, which dishes out interesting and eclectic podsafe music from around the world. He is also the co-host (with Mur Lafferty) of the Geek Fu Morning Show and the former co-host (also with Mur Lafferty) of lulu.tv’s vidcast This Day In Alternate History. When he’s not roaming the time/space continuum with Mur, Jason can be found in North Carolina with his wife and daughter.

Chris MillerChris Miller

(Egan Hunter)

Chris Miller is a senior software engineer for Mahalo, a Co-founder and lead developer for Podiobooks.com, and a Parsec-award nominated podcaster. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his very tolerant wife, two daughters, one son, one frog, one cat, one rabbit, and one internet connection.

Kevin BatchelderKevin Batchelder

(Hotel Night Manager)

Kevin first became interested in sci-fi by watching the original Star Trek series in reruns during the early 70’s. Along with Firefly the other popular sci-fi and fantasy topics he enjoys are Farscape, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix and The X-Files. He is a regular contributor to Firefly Talk and The Signal and co-hosts The ScapeCast, a Farscape-oriented show. Kevin has worked as a computer network support engineer for many years. He lives near Boston, Massachusetts with his lovely wife and two daughters.

Marc Bailey

(Braddock)

Marc is the host of Grailwolf’s Geek Life, in which he shares his journey through the world of geek TV, books, movies, video games and gadgets. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his son.

TD-0013TD-0013

(Malcolm ard’Valos)

TD-0013 is the writer and host of the podcast A Different Point of View, which is a look at the Star Wars universe through the eyes of an Imperial Stormtrooper. He can be heard on various other podcasts, lending his voice to many projects such as Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword, Three Edged Sword, Variant Frequencies, and 7TH SON: OBSIDIAN. He is a former professional stuntman and has been seen on television in various programs, the most recent being the 2007 Rose Parade. TD-0013 lives in a bunker in an undisclosed location with his faithful droid, QT 3.14159.

Kimi Alexandre

(Seralina Greyhaven)

Writer, voice actress and podcaster Kimi Alexandre has been on the Web since the mid-90s. Her award-nominated podcast Tale Chasing, a show for urban fantasy readers and writers, is now in its third year. Guardians, her novel about a body guard drawn into a murder mystery with supernatural elements, launched as a serialized podcast in 2009. She has also played numerous voice roles in other podcasts. A native of Kansas, she currently resides in New Jersey and refuses to confirm or deny rumors that she’s seen the first two Twilight movies at least 10 times each.

Mindy Marlatt

(Fiona’s Mother)

As a youngster, Mindy fell in love with science fiction, fantasy and horror, spending countless hours watching the many memorable films that played at her family’s cinema. Sharing her father’s love of film, and seeing that the job of Princess Leia had already been filled, Mindy studied the art of Special Effects Make up and graduated from the prestigious Joe Blasco School where she studied under some of Hollywood’s most notable make up professionals. Since 2000, Mindy has been working in the film and television industry as a professional special effects make-up artist. She is a regular contributor to Firefly Talk.

James Watson

(Levinson)

Jim Watson retired from Chrysler Corporation and has spent the last several years trying to catch up on his list of things to do. He enjoys furniture making and tinkering with old cars, He recently rebuilt a ‘63 Willys and is currently working on a ‘46 DeSoto. A lifelong Sci-Fi fan, he recalls reading some of the “Grand Masters” when they were still alive and writing. He and Nancy, his wife of 35 years, split their time between Florida and Michigan. He is Bryan Watson’s father and admits to being older than sand, but not older than dirt.

JoeyJoseph Russell

(Jon Tunstall)

Joey is a young man struggling his way through college while still trying to be a kid. As he himself has pointed out, that doesn’t always work too well, because being an immature grown-up is inherently contradictory. He discovered Metamor City through his connections to Bryan Watson, who used to work on youth staff at Joey’s church. Besides kicking and screaming his way though community college, Joey loves extreme sports, playing guitar, reading, writing, watching movies of all kinds, and causing general mischief.

Danae Winters

(Leanan Sidhe)

A native Californian, Danae often finds herself bored with burning her candle at both ends, and opts to pick up a blowtorch instead. She’s a mother, a singer, a Thespian, a jewelry maker, and yes, even a writer (though not all at once – try as she might). She is currently attending a six-month course at the local junior college, to perfect her erotic growling techniques for future episodes.

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