Every year "Geek To Me" recognizes women who have distinguished themselves in the realm of geek & nerd culture. This year we have a singer/songwriter who is also the Head Bartender for the new Geek Bar Chicago; a YA author and comic-book writer; a couple geek columnists; cosplayers; bloggers; an actress and video producer; a showrunner; and a mom who lives like Wonder Woman and has started her own "geek centric" cafe! These are the Top Geek Gals of 2013!
Laura Green loves booze. Loves it. She loves cocktails, beer, wine, scotch, gin and everything delicious in between. She's also a geek. Nerd. Fan girl. Slightly obsessive. So, it's not surprising that she's the Head Bartender at Geek Bar, opening in 2014. Between slinging drinks and binge-watching Supernatural, Laura also makes music under the name Lady Laura. You may also know her from singing with 2013 Hottest Geek Guy Matt Ryd, Jess Godwin, and I Fight Dragons. But she hasn't always worn the powerglove tattoo. Laura grew up in Flossmoor, then moved to the city to study Musical Theatre at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. After graduating, she worked at theaters such as Northlight, Court, and American Theater Company before giving up her career in theatre to commit to I Fight Dragons. After touring the country twice and meeting countless members of the nerd community (including the cast of Battlestar Galactica WHAT), Laura's time with IFD ended and she needed a job. She found one behind a bar. That's when she fell in love with creating cocktails. She practiced her craft by asking twitter for a subject from a video game, movie, comic book, or TV show and she'd have a new, creative, and delicious cocktail recipe to share within the hour. That brings us to now. What have we learned? When life gives you lemons, grab your knife and cut a lemon wheel into Pac Man to garnish your drink. Laura looks forward to seeing you on the other side of the Geek Bar in 2014, but in the meantime, you can follow her @ladylaurag. — Elliott Serrano, Dec. 31, 2013
Kate Kotler is a writer, media-relations ringer and complete geek. She's been immersed in the world of sci-fi, comics, computers and gaming since 1987 (when she and her brother got into trouble for BBS'ing with a network in Toronto so they could play online chess.) You probably know her best as a gender and pop-culture columnist from Bleeding Cool (she co-authored the "Keep Your Pants On" dating column with Elliott Serrano). For some reason, people react very strongly to her writing and she's attracted a fair amount of controversy over the years, despite being a really nice person. Kate frequently hosts panels at comic cons which are dedicated to empowering women to fully participate in geek culture and discussing pop-culture current events as they apply to the gender politics of the comics industry. In her writing career Kate has written for ChicagoNow, GeekMom, GeekNation, The Geek Girl Network, Wizard World Digital, Attention Deficit Disorder, GirlyGeekdom, Broke-Ass Stuart's Goddamn website, BitchBuzz, DollyMix and a host of other pop-culture-y publications. She also founded two geek-centric websites (Geek Girl on the Street and Comix Chix), has hosted a few podcasts and was paid to be the editor-in-chief of a indie film website. What you don't know is that professionally, Kate has supported herself by advising consumer tech and social media startups on public relations and communications strategy for nearly 10 years. She works in the Sears (dang-it) Tower for mobile marketing powerhouse, ComboApp and spends her days talking to journos from CNET to ZDNet (and Wired, in between) about the latest and greatest mobile apps. She also writes prolifically about tech and social trends for a spectrum of industry blogs. Currently Kate is on pop-culture writing hiatus, as she¿s five months into cooking a baby geek and is about to get married. She says that she is the self-proclaimed "queen of selfies" and "#1 David Tennant fangirl" - she also reads a metric-shitton of comics and books, loves good movies/documentaries and cooking shows, enjoys pretending to be the Swedish Chef in her own kitchen, crafting and hanging out with her "own personal Arthur Darvill" and crime solving dog, Max Tango (Canine Private Eye). You can read her tech writing at http://comboapp.com/blog; pop-culture writing at aforementioned publications or katekotler.com. Follow her on the Twitters @adorkablegrrl or @ComboAppKate. — Elliott Serrano, Dec. 31, 2013
Delilah S. Dawson writes kissing books. But she also writes demon books and comics and brought vampire rabbits back in style. As a novelist for Simon & Schuster, she's responsible for a story in the Carniepunk anthology and the three-book, three-novella Blud series, which includes the best steampunk vampire carnival adventures you'll ever read. In the next three years, she has three dark but whimsical books for young adults out with Simon Pulse and recently began branching out into comics with a commissioned novelization of Shadowman and a horror story in BOO! #3 from Monkeybrain. If you're looking at ancient history, Delilah was a high school Valedictorian who lettered in Drama and acted as vice president of the French Club. Her degree in studio art is practically worthless, although she painted murals for several years and taught art classes for adults and kids. Her son's room features a mural of Godzilla tearing down a city and eating a jet. She writes full-time now, including a gig as Associate Editor at www.CoolMomPicks.com and www.CoolMomTech.com, where she's given the weird and geeky stuff to cover. Especially Star Wars. When she's not writing, Delilah loves archery, horseback riding, cake, The Cure, eating weird animals, and taking circus arts classes, especially flying trapeze-- you can even watch her first catch on her blog. Her car has the following stickers: Marceline from Adventure Time, the Venture Bros. logo, a zombie, a steampunk octopus, a mythosaur skull, and the Ravenclaw crest. She's still looking for Saga and Firefly stickers that fit the aesthetic and will happily geek out with you over Archer, Frisky Dingo, Arrested Development, Futurama, Community, Battlestar Gallactica, Pitch Perfect, awesome books by awesome authors, and most of the Avengers. Delilah lives in Atlanta with her family, two fat cats, a bully mutt named Merle, and a Tennessee Walker named Polly. She has four tattoos and a mole shaped like a heart, but she won't say where. As the picture shows, she voted for Cthulhu in 2012 and therefore can't be blamed for anything. Personal URL: http://www.delilahsdawson.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/DelilahSDawson Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DelilahSDawson Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Delilah-S.-Dawson/e/B008MLEMCQ — Elliott Serrano, Dec. 31, 2013
Jessica Mills is an actress, writer and producer. She grew up in rural west Texas, and has lived in London, New York City, and Los Angeles. She is the award winning creator/producer of the hit web series "Awkward Embraces" and is a lover of all things geek and New Media. Jessica is currently appearing in her show "N00b Chronicles" on YouTube. Jessica has written geek editorials and interviews for CBS Interactive at Tech Republic and the League of Extraordinary Ladies. She has also spoken on panels at Geek Girl Con, Wonder Con, CES, and Comikaze Expo. She recently co-created UComics with acclaimed artist Len Peralta, and is working with Gamewick Productions co-writing educational app/tablet video adventure games. When not exploring the internets or obsessing over Doctor Who, Jessica is wandering the earth with her three-legged dog Lisa looking for inspiration. — Elliott Serrano, Dec. 31, 2013
Lauren "Troppy" Rapciak is a cosplayer, gamer, and the writer behind ChicagoNow's Geek Girl Chicago blog. Some of her earliest memories are geeky ones- particularly, building Han Solo and Princess Leia out of LEGO Duplo bricks, and then making them kiss. By day, Lauren works at a science museum. By night, she posts convention coverage, costume photos, interviews, product reviews, and the occasional rant. She also sews and produces audio books somewhere in there- perhaps by using a time turner or TARDIS. Geek Girl Chicago's main goal is to give local geeks something fun and social to do every weekend. The blog was originally intended for girls, but Lauren quickly decided that gender shouldn't matter. When it comes to fandom, everyone can play! Lauren loves attending conventions, and goes to as many as she can. Her favorite is Dragon Con, where she recently got engaged dressed as Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite. It took years, but Lauren has finally chosen her top 3 favorite video games of all time: Earthbound (MOTHER 2), Catherine, and Mass Effect (a trilogy counts as one game, right?). However, Final Fantasy X has probably stolen the most hours of her life. Lauren also enjoys Taco Bell, board games, being on podcasts and wishing her landlord would let her have a dog. She does NOT enjoy cooking, wedding planning, or shopping for business attire. A few weeks ago, Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor) told her she could be the first female Doctor. Since then, Lauren has pretty much done nothing but wait for a call from the BBC. — Elliott Serrano, Dec. 31, 2013
Natali's foray into geekdom started with 7 pairs of Wonder Woman underoos and an Apple IIC. Graphic & Web Design/Developer/Girl Friday by day, Ninja mom to 2 geekling girls obsessed with Star Wars and Doctor Who by night. Baker of full-size Yoda cakes, front line of defense when the Zombie Apocalypse breaks out, and on a mission to pave the way for her daughters in a world where they can truly be anything. In fact, they think she's secretly Wonder Woman. Natali is the former co-host of The Power Geeks podcast; founder of UberDork Café- an all-in-one café, gaming center, and classroom; and creator of the Wonder Scouts- a scouting group open to girls and boys of all ages that asks "What Would Wonder Woman Do?" and will grow into a social network for geeky kids to connect and relate to each other in 2014. — Elliott Serrano, Dec. 31, 2013
Showrunner, Writer, Host and one of Comic Con's "Most Dangerous Women," Kristen Nedopak is the creator of many geek-genre series, including the award-nominated The Skyrim Parodies, Fight Class, Outta This World: The Art of Fantasy and Sci-Fi and the first-ever Hollywood award show for geeks: The Geekie Awards. Born to a sci-fi / fantasy lovin' mom and a dad who never missed an episode of Doctor Who, Kristen grew up watching Star Wars, The Labyrinth, Dune, The Dark Crystal and every geekie TV show out there. It's no wonder her imagination took off and she began to create stories in similar realms, going as far as to produce an award show dedicated to indie filmmakers and artists doing the same. Kristen is a public speaker and the founder of `Geek Girls Create', a traveling panel of creators aimed to inspire artists to follow their passions, and she works as a mentor and writer for Women 2.0, Ms In The Biz and other organizations aimed at helping creative entrepreneurs succeed. She's also been the cover girl of and featured in numerous publications such as The Hollywood Reporter, LA Times, Zap2It, Tubefilter, Cupcake Pin-up Magazine, The Mary Sue and many other popular outlets for her work in film and series. Kristen is an avid lover of mystic lore (she is actually a faerie), and is the official Master of Ceremonies for Faerieworlds and other live events. When she's not working, you can find Kristen body boarding in Hawaii, snuggling with her kitties, sword fighting or in the midst of making yet another epic costume. // Drink of choice: rye whiskey Manhattan. // Favorite shows: The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy, The Vampire Diaries. // Gaming console: R2-D2 XBox. // Favorite color: Purple. // Good luck charm: A red dragon. http://KristenNedopak.com http://Twitter.com/Nedopak http://YouTube.com/KristenNedopak http://TheGeekieAwards.com http://Twitter.com/TheGeekieAwards http://YouTube.com/TheGeekieAwards — Dec. 31, 2013
