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This upcoming weekend it is time for one of our favorite comic cons again... On the 5th and 6th of April, the FACTS mothership will land at Flanders Expo in Ghent (Belgium) for the weekend. We will be there on Saturday and now we will tell you all about the amazing actor/actress guestlist!

Whoop whoop! This upcoming weekend it's time for the Winter edition of Heroes Dutch Comic Con in Utrecht and we are so excited.  Dutch Comic Con had their first edition in March 2015 and we have been there for every edition since! It is to be expected that around the 50.000 fans of everything pop culture will make their way to the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht for a weekend full of entertainment. As usual we focus on the actors guestlist and today we have got our first article for you. Let us tell you all about the first three names on the list...

Last weekend the halls of Flanders Expo were the place to be for everyone into movies, series, cosplay, comics, anime, board/video games and much more. Yes it was time for the Fall edition of FACTS. The first edition of FACTS took place in 1993 in 'Café Het Tonneke' in Ghent. About 40 comic book enthusiasts were there at that first edition. Last weekend more than 40.000 people made their way to Flanders Expo to indulge themselves in the world of comic con. We were there on Saturday and we is I (Liv) and close friend Nicole (Carola was still on holiday in Tokyo). It was Nicole's first time at a comic con and I think I got her hooked. Let me tell you all about our day at FACTS. One things is for sure, one day is not enough to see it all, but we did our best.

This weekend it's time for FACTS Fall Edition 2024! Unfortunately, Carola won't be able to make it, but I (Liv) will be there on Saturday and I am very excited about some of the guests. I haven't missed an edition of FACTS since 2015 and we always have an amazing time in Flanders Expo. Today we have a the first of our traditional 'looking forward to the guests' article for you. There is one guest in particular I am very excited about and that is also the first guest I am going to talk about in this article. The second guest is also a great addition to the guest list. Sit back and relax and let us tell you all about these first two names.

Whoop whoop! Are you ready for our second article about the guests of Heroes Comic Con Belgium!

This weekend it is time again for Heroes Comic Con Belgium 2024 in Brussels Expo! Over the last years, Brussels Expo has been the location for the combo-event Heroes Comic Con Belgium and Heroes Made in Asia Belgium and that will also be the case for this edition. But there is more, this year GameForce Belgium will also be held at the same location. When you buy a ticket, you will be able to visit all three of the areas. If you haven't bought a ticket yet, go to the website and secure one of those last tickets. After that come back here to read our first (of two articles about the movie and TV guest who will be attending the event. In our first article we already talked about the 'bloody' part of the guest list and now we are talking about the remaining guests.

Ah yes 1990, I (Liv) was 10 years old when "Beverly Hills 90210" hit our TV screens. I loved it right away and remember my whole bedroom walls and ceilings were full with posters of the show and the cast. Ok, ok... I'll be perfectly honest: I was "Team Dylan", back in the days, so he was on the biggest part of them. That didn't mean I didn't like Brandon and over the last weeks I have been enjoying watching the first seasons of the show again. Ok back to 2025... Jason Priestley (who played Brandon) will be a guest at FACTS this upcoming weekend and we are very excited about that. But Jasn is known for more than just "Beverly Hills 90210" and we are going to tell you all about this Canadian born actor.

Jason grew up in a creative environment and when he was only 5 years old, he told his mother he wanted to become an actor. She introduced Jason and Justine in the business and asked acting agent Fiona Jackson to represent them. Jason began acting in commercials, when he was a child and later transitioned to television. During these early years of his career Jason played some minor (one episode) roles in series, like: "Airwolf" (1987), "21 Jump Street" (1987), "Danger Bay" (1987), "MacGyver" (1988) and "Quantum Leap" (1989).  Just before his big break, Jason started to land some bigger roles. In 1989, he played the lead role in the teen fantasy drama "Teen Angel". Jason played the role of 1950s guardian angel Buzz Gunderson, who was killed in a car accident. In order to get into heaven, Buzz has to complete various tasks and assignments. The series consisted of 12 episodes and aired on the Disney Channel. Later in 1989, Jason reprised his role as Buzz in the sequel series "Teen Angel Returns". The sequel also starred Jennie Garth, who Jason would get to know a lot better soon.  Fun Fact: During these early years of his career, Jason shared an apartment with none other than Brad Pitt. In later interviews Jason talked about a shower competition they use to have for fun. They used to compete in who could go the longest without showering and shaving. Having to go to an audition usually put an end to a streak. According to Jason, Brad always used to win.

Jason was doing a show called "Sister Kate" (1989) when he got a call from his agent about a new Aaron Spelling pilot called "The Class of Beverly Hills". The agent said they had been looking for the male lead for a while now and they wanted to see him the next day. When Jason got to the Spelling offices, he ran into a bunch of actors he knew and everyone was pretty nervous. Although he did not have a show on TV at that moment, Aaron Spelling was the most successful TV producer in the world. As we all know, Jason was chosen to play the role of Brandon Walsh in "Beverly Hills 90210" and that role changed his life forever. Although he looks back at his time on the show as some of the best years of his professional life, it was also kind of scary. The show grew out to be a huge success and Brandon was one of the fan favorites. This meant there was a huge spotlight on Jason and his cast mates all of the time. Eventually Jason played the role of Brandon for 245 episodes from 1990 until 2000.

During these years, Jason used to take on a lot of different roles, whenever the show was on a break, to get as far away from Brandon as he could. Among these 'side projects' Ray Darpinian), "Tombstone" (1993, as Billy Breckinridge), "Coldblooded" (1995, as Cosmo Reif), "Biker Mice From Hell" (1995, as Jack McCyber), "Love and Death on Long Island" (1997, as Ronnie Bostock) and "Common Ground" (2000, as Billy). After "Beverly Hills 90210", he tried to branch out and diversify his career and prevent being typecast as Brandons for the rest of his career. 

During his time on "Beverly Hills 90210", Jason developed a passion for race cars and race car driving. He started participating in amateur racing events and eventually turned pro, competing in the Indy Racing Infinity Pro Series. In 1998, Jason achieved his first professional victory at the Motorola Cup Street Championship. Jason loves the speed and starts branching out to other types of racing, like powerboat racing. With racing comes crashing and Jason had his fair share of that. The year 2002, however, turned out to be a dramatic year for him.  In April 2002, Jason was involved in a crash during a powerboat racing competition in Miami Beach. His boat collided with another one,but luckily JAson walked away unharmed from this one. This was different in August of the same year. During a practice run for the Indy Racing Infinite Pro Series at the Kentucky Auto Track, his car slid into some oil on the track. Jason lost control over the car.and hit two concrete walls head on. He was transported to the hospital by helicopter, where the severity of his injuries became clear.Jason had fractured his spine and both feet. He also had head and face injuries and had to undergo multiple surgeries following the accident (including back, nose and eye surgery).

Jason later described the two years after his accident as the toughest years of his life. At one point he even feared it was the end of his acting career. Luckily this wasn't the case and in 2004/2005, he joined the cast of "Tru Calling". Jason played the role of Jack Harper in 13 episodes of the show. Over the decade that followed, he played in a whole lot of movies and series. He also kept on working behind the camera. From 2005 until 2016, Jason played in movies and series, like: "Murder at the Presidio" (2005, as Tom), "Coldlitz" (2005, 2 episodes as Rhett Barker), "What I Like About You" (2005, 2 episodes as Charlie), "Love Monkey" (2006, 8 episodes as Mike Freed), "Medium" (2007, 3 episodes as Walter Paxton), "Side Order of Life" (2007, 13 episodes as Ian Denison), "Everest" (2007, 4 episodes as John Lauchlan), "Expecting a Miracle" (2009, as Pete Stanhope), "Scoundrels" (2010, 2 episodes as Grant Wilby), "Call Me Fitz" (2010-2013, 48 episodes as Richard Fitzpatrick) and "Haven" (2011-2015, 6 episodes as Chris Brody).

In 2016, Jason landed the role of Matt Shade in the comedy drama series "Private Eyes", which was received very well. Eventually Jason would play this role for 60 episodes (from 2016 until 2021). In March of 2019, something terrible happened; Jason's old cast mate, neighbour and long time friend Luke Perry died after a massive stroke. His death came as a total shock and Jason talked about how it made him think about his own mortality in later interviews. A few months after Luke's death, the old gang reunited for a reboot of "Beverly Hills 90210", well not exactly a reboot. In this new show called "BH 90210", the original actors play an exaggerated version of themselves, whoo come back together trying to reboot the old series. Although Luke did not take part in the reboot about the reboot (because of contractual obligations to "Riverdale"),  the show did pay tribute to Perry. Unfortunately "BH 90210" was cancelled after only one season, due to disappointing ratings.. After this trip down memory lane, Jason was a guest judge in 2 episodes of "Canada's got talent" (2022) and in one episode of "Fantasy Island" (2023, as Gavin Beck). In 2024 he landed the main role of George Graham in "Wild Cards", but in July 2024 he got bad new again. Shannen Doherty, his old cast mate and friend passed away after a long battle against cancer. Jason commented on social media that Shannen will be missed and that she was a force of nature... 

Gabrielle Anne Carteris was born on January 2nd, 1961 in Scottsdale, Arizona (U.S.). She has a twin brother named James. Their parents Marlene (a realtor) and Ernest (a restaurateur) separated when the twins were only 6 months old. Gabrielle's mother Marlene, took her and her brother and moved to San Francisco, where she started a boutique in children's clothing. Gabrielle's maternal grandparents Sidney and Rae (Ray) also moved to San Francisco to help Marlene raise the kids. Gabrielle was very close to her grandfather Sidney, who passed away when she was only 9 years old. 

She showed an early interest in the arts and especially in ballet. She even wound up studying ballet, while growing up in Northern California. AT one point, however, a teacher told her that she would never be tall enough to become a ballerina. Before high school, Gabrielle was a bookworm and a loner, but this changed when she went to Redwood High School in Marin County. Up until then she never had a social life with her peers, but when she went to Redwood she entered a world of parties and experimentation with drugs and alcohol. When Gabrielle was 16 years old, she performed with a mime group, during a trip through Europe. 

Eventually all of her hard work paid off, when she landed the role of Andrea Zuckerman in "Beverly Hills 90210". Gabrielle was 29 years old at the time, but she was supposed to play a 15 year old. She was the oldest of the cast members playing a teenager. Later on, she revealed that she lied about her age during her audition. She told the producers she was 21 years old, while she was actually 29 years old. When her true age came out, the character of Andrea was already established and the show was starting to become more and more popular. One of the producers told her she was lucky she wasn't fired at the moment they realised she was older than she said. Eventually, Gabrielle would play Andrea in 147 episodes from 1990 until 2000. In 1992, Gabrielle got married to her husband Charles Isaacs. Soon the couple dreamed about starting a family, so Gabrielle went to showrunner Aaron Spelling and told him about it. She said she wanted him to write in that Andrea gets pregnant, because she didn't want to have to hide her pregnancy. She said she wanted her baby to know she was proud. According to Gabrielle, Spelling was a bit shocked but agreed to it. Eventually Gabrielle got pregnant from her first daughter Kelsey Rose and she was born in May 1994. In 1999, the couple was blessed with another daughter named Molly Elizabeth. Eventually Gabrielle left "Beverly Hills 90210" after 5 seasons in 1995 (she returned for some episodes in latter seasons). She had her own TV talk show "Gabrielle" for a short time and kept on acting in series and (TV) movies. 

In 2006, disaster struck when she was sidelined by a workplace accident. Gabrielle was rehearsing a fight scene with a much bigger man, who held her in a chokehold and dragged her down the stairs. At one point she felt something go very wrong and she discovered that her face was partly paralyzed. It turned out she had suffered some nerve damaged and this resulted in face and neck spasms, which resulted in the disability to work. Where one door closes, another one opens because it was during this period that she gained a new appreciation for the work of her Union. She says it became clear to her, that strength comes in numbers. When Gabrielle was ready to go back to acting, she started to volunteer at the Union. Soon she made her way up the ranks and 2012 she was elected as executive vice president of the SAG-AFTRA. In 2016, while Gabrielle was in New York to negotiate a contract for actors in commercials, she got the call that the acting president (Ken Howard) died. Two weeks later Gabrielle was elected to succeed him and became the new president of the SAG-AFTRA. SHe was elected to serve ot Howard's term and was re-elected in 2017 and again in 2019. In 2021, Gabrielle was succeeded by actress Fran Drescher (known for her role as and in "The Nanny"). 

Besides of her work for the SAG-AFTRA, Gabrielle also kept on acting in movies and TV shows. She also did voice work for video games, as well as for animated series. In 2019, the cast of "Beverly Hills 90210" reunites for a reboot abou a reboot. Earlier that year, old cast mate Luke Perry passed away after a massive stroke. After this devastating news, the old gang came together at Gabrielle's house to talk about it and shared memories. They agreed about the facts that the show should pay tribute to Luke. Five years later another one of their old cast mates passed away, when Shannen Doherty lost her battle against cancer. Gabrielle posted on Instagram that she was sure that Luke was up there to welcome her with open arms. Unfortunately the reboot "BH 90210" was not picked up for a second season, but it was fun while it lasted. Hopefully we will see more of Gabrielle in the future again, but for now we are happy to be able to meet her at FACTS this upcoming weekend.