TONY PASTOR, JR. - Writer/Director/Producer

Tony has directed and/or story edited over 800 hours of Television programming?including such hits as “Spider-Man”, “The Silver Surfer”, “Peter Pan”, “The Avengers”, and “The BackStreet Boys series”. Tony is also a recording artist, a record producer, a writer, and an accomplished stage and film actor.

Growing up in an artistic family (his father, Tony Sr. was the celebrated big band?leader and song stylist of the 40’s and 50’s), he pursued his acting interests and ?moved to Los Angeles for the lead role of Tom Lee in the L.A. production of “Tea and Sympathy”. Spotted by a talent scout from Universal Pictures, Tony soon had his first film role acting with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis as Seaman Fox in the classic movie “Operation Petticoat”

Tony’s musical pursuits led him to tour with his brothers across the U.S. and Europe.

While attending college at Columbia University in New York City, Tony was a script reader for famed Broadway producer, David Merrick. Tony entered the advertising business where he quickly became Creative Director at Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample, one of the top ad agencies in the world at that time. Tony has created campaigns for the likes of Coke, Nissan, Maxell, Dr. Pepper, Firestone, Gulf Oil, to name a few.

A chance meeting with Joseph Barbera took Tony in a new direction, as Creative Director and head of development for Hanna-Barbera. Margaret Loesch, later president of Marvel Entertainment convinced Tony to join her and work with, ?Creative Head of Marvel Entertainment, Stan Lee.

In 1990, Tony established Pastor Productions to produce family entertainment?for theatrical, television and home video markets. In 1998, Tony became Vice President of Creative Affairs at Stan Lee Media.

Wanda Jackson, best known as the Queen of Rockabilly and the first female sound recordist’s of Rock and Roll, has mesmerized audiences from around the world.  With her earlier years of dating Elvis Presley and touring with some of the most influential people in music such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, Carl Perkins and many more Wanda has and still is one of the most remarkable music artists in the world.

Herschell Gordon Lewis - “The Godfather of Gore”

The incredibly popular, violent horror films of recent decades, such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday The 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, owe much of their existence to the undisputed Godfather of Gore - Herschell Gordon Lewis. In 1963 Lewis, with his monumental splatter movie Blood Feast, single-handedly changed the face of horror cinema forever.

As well as virtually inventing the gore generation, Lewis also produced a number of "exploitation" movies, as well as sampling the full gamut of exploitation subjects ranging from wife-swapping and ESP to rock 'n' roll and LSD. A Taste of Blood details all these, plus gore classics such as 2,000 Maniacs, The Gore-Gore Girls, Color Me Blood Red and Wizard of Gore, placing them in context amid the roots and development of the exploitation film.

Lewis, beloved and revered by horror fans all over the world, is also regarded as a marketing genius.  He is former chairman of Communicomp, a full-service direct marketing agency with clients throughout the world, renamed as a division of the advertising holding company Interpublic. He now heads Lewis Enterprises, through which he writes and consults individually. He is arguably the best-known direct response writer and consultant in the United States.

"Herschell Gordon Lewis is the man who put red meat into the American cinematic diet. Ultimately Herschell made Quentin Tarantino possible." - Joe Briggs

Roy Frumkes’s feature-length DOCUMENT OF THE DEAD (which he wrote, produced and directed) is a comprehensive study of independent filmmaking in the U.S. focusing on the career of George Romero.  A special edition of the award-winning documentary was released on DVD by Synapse Films in 1998, and again in 2004, as part of the Deluxe 4-disc Dawn of the Dead DVD release.  Roy is currently at work on an expansion of the feature doc entitled THE DEFINITIVE DOCUMENT OF THE DEAD, for 2008 release.  The rough cut of THE DEFINITIVE DOCUMENT OF THE DEAD will premiere at BNFF on Thursday, March 27th.

Roy created and co-authored the action-adventure hit THE SUBSTITUTE, starring Tom Berenger, Ernie Hudson and Marc Anthony.    Roy later co-authored two sequels starring Treat Williams – THE SUBSTITUTE 2: SCHOOL’S OUT, which was a highly rated HBO Cable Network Premiere in the Spring of ’98, and THE SUBSTITUTE 3: WINNER TAKES ALL, which proved just as popular with HBO’s over twenty million subscribers when it premiered in August of ’99.

Recently Roy produced the romantic comedy THE SWEET LIFE, starring Joan Jett, which had its theatrical premiere in Buffalo and is set for DVD release in 2008. Allworth Press has published a book detailing the film’s creation written by Roy and Rocco Simonelli titled SHOOT ME;  Independent Filmmaking From Creative Concept to Rousing Release.  IndieWIRE.com called it “one of the best books out there right now on making an indie film from scratch” and “the filmmaking bible of the moment.”

Roy also wrote and produced the cult classic STREET TRASH, which enjoyed wide theatrical and video exposure both here and abroad.  His new feature-length documentary, THE MELTDOWN MEMOIRS – four years in production - is double-billed with STREET TRASH on a double-disc DVD, which was released in the Fall of 2006 by Synapse Entertainment and immediately went into the black.

Since assuming ownership of FILMS IN REVIEW, America’s oldest and most prestigious film publication in 1997, Roy has brought the magazine into cyberspace as www.filmsinreview.com, where it currently garners thousands of hits a day.

Stunt Performer and Actor, Cheryl Lynne Quiacos, was born on December 21st, 1974 in Toronto.  Cheryl first got her 'butt-kicking' start on the TV series: Relic Hunter (II &III) as Tia Carrere's stunt double.  Shot in Toronto, Paris (France), & England. Her television and film credits as an actor and stunt performer include:  Missing, Starhunter, The Dresden Files, The Day After Tommorrow, and Resident Evil Apocolypse and more recently, The Diary of 

the Dead. 

Cheryl has been one to fly through the air for most of her life. Her 10 years of competitive gymnastics training led her to the national level, traveling through eastern Europe as early as 12 years old.  Following her gymnastics career, Cheryl began classical ballet training at the age of 14 at The Conservatory of Dance and Music in Toronto and continued her training at The Ailey School, New York City.  She later toured professionally throughout The Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland.  She has also trained in Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, and Boxing. 

Her love for the theatre led her to The University of Toronto where she obtained her bachelor's degree in Theatre and French.  She has also studied acting for film at Carter Thor East Studios under Jock MacDonald and at Equity Showcase Theatre under teachers such as Bruce Clayton and David Rotenburg.  She lends much thanks to Carter Thor Studios, home to actors such as Christina Applegate, David Arquette, Drew Carey, 

Cameron Diaz, Faye Dunaway, Chris Klein, Johnathon Schaech, Sylvester Stallone, and others.  

As Cameron says, “this is not the class where we train actors to be good for a part.  This is 

the class where we train actors for whom parts are written.”  

Born in San Diego California, raised in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico; later in Mississauga, Canada. Graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Literary Studies and Philosophy and did a three year stint as music and news editor of RPM Weekly, once the Canadian equivalent of Billboard. Later still, became bored with the music industry and in 1997 launched RUE MORGUE, an independent magazine focusing on “horror in culture and entertainment.”

Since then RUE MORGUE has grown to become one of the leading horror publications in the world. In 2000 Gudiño began programming the CINEMACABRE MOVIE NIGHTS in Toronto, a monthly screening of new, rare, classic and cult horror films in Toronto’s Bloor Cinema. Through CineMacabre he premiered films as diverse as Ichi The Killer, Ringu, Dog Soldiers, House of 1000 Corpses and many more. That same year he began working on an all horror music show with Tom “Tomb” Dragomir, that resulted in a weekly programme in 2006 called RUE MORGUE RADIO.

In 2004, Gudiño expanded the RUE MORGUE brand to the country’s largest horror convention, the RUE MORGUE FESTIVAL OF FEAR which has brought guests as diverse as Clive Barker, George Romero, Crispin Glover, Alice Cooper, Elvira, Linda Blair, Tom Savini and many more to Toronto. That same year, he produced NIGHTMARE PICTURE THEATRE, a multimedia stage show starring James Fisher that became a full-length album of the same name.

Melantha Blackthorne is a talented starlet who was recently named "Scream Queen Of The 21st Century" by David L Tamarin of Scars Magazine.

As a young girl she was always writing little horror stories and eventually borrowed her father’s video camera to create mini home movies. As she grew, her taste for horror evolved into something of a fetish and she began exploring new and unique ways of expressing herself. 

In 1999 she created the web character Countess Bathoria that quickly gained popularity and legions of fans. Her popularity in the genre has now made its way to the big screen, and she is in demand as a performer of independent horror films. 

Melantha has starred in such films as 'She Demons of the Black Sun', 'Prison Of The Psychotic Damned', 'Countess Bathoria's Graveyard Picture Show' and many more. 

She also co owns Robomonkey Productions, which released her directorial debut 'Sinners and Saints' and most recent atrocity 'Inbred and Undead', receiving much critical acclaim from numerous horror magazines and websites.

Melantha’s indie success has led to even more exposure as she is about to appear in Roger Corman's classic "Death Race 3000" which was directed by Paul Anderson (Soldier, Resident Evil) and stars Jason Statham (Crank, Transporter). She plays the part of Pachenko's Navigator who is one of Statham's driving nemeses in the movie.

You can hear Tony every day on several networks or on any given radio station as the voice of a product or service and of course, on any number of cartoons.  You also can see him,  playing guitar with a local Toronto band or on the TV series “Eerie Indiana the Other Dimension”.  He played Elvis on that show, and you could’ve sworn it was the King himself!