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...
Mark Williams
Accio Father Brown! Yes, I know, I am mixing things up. One is a spell from one of the most successful movie franchises in history and the other one is one of England's most beloved detectives. They do have one important person in common and that is the legendary actor Mark Williams. Of course, Mark is known for his role as Arthur Weasley in the "Harry Potter" franchise, but he is also known for his role as the smart crime solving priest in "Father Brown". Well, do we have good news for you, because the man himself is coming to Utrecht next weekend for Heroes Dutch Comic Con!
Mark Williams was born on August 22nd, 1959 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire (England). He was born into a working class family and his parents were among the first generation to be educated after the horrors of WWII. Mark's parents met at art college. Mark's mother was a very talented artist, but eventually she ended up as a librarian. His father went on to become an architectural technician. Mark knew he wanted to become an actor from a young age. He went to North Bromsgrove High School, where he acted in plays. When he was on stage for the first time (he was the jester in 'The Reluctant Ogre'), it was a liberating experience for him. In later interviews Mark stated that he was no good at sports or math, but on stage he knew what to do. Besides his passion for acting, Mark had another big passion: history. He grew up in an industrial area and has a passion for the industrial history. When Mark was 13 years old, he won the school's history award and as a prize he requested a copy of R.A. Buchanan's Industrial Archeology. Later on in his career, he got to make some documentaries about the history of industry for the BBC.
After graduating North Bromsgrove High School, Mark went on to study English Language & Literature at Brasenose College in Oxford. During his time in college, he worked and toured with the Oxford Union Dramatic Society. When he left Oxford, Mark joined a fringe theatre called 'The Fools and later on he joined the 'Mikron Theatre Company' in 1983, where he got his equity card. As a theatre actor, Mark made a career with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Royal National Theatre. In the mid 80's, he made a transition to movie and TV. He had already made his film debut in back in 1982 in the Oxford University Film Foundation's production "Privileged", where he played the role of Wilf. Another famous actor made his debut in this film and his name is Hugh Grant. With his role in two British comedy sketch shows, Mark came to wider public attention. In 1988/89, he was a member of the cast of "Alexei Sayle's Stuff". From 1994 until 2000, he played multiple parts in "The Fast Show". During the 90s, Mark really made a name for himself starring in movies and TV shows, like: "Kinsey" (1992, as Danny), "The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer" (1993-1995, as Don Powell from Slade), "101 Dalmatians" (1996, as Horace), "Shakespeare in Love" (1998, as Wabash) and much more.
His real worldwide breakthrough came in 2002, when he joined the cast for "Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets" (the second movie of the franchise). Mark landed the role of Arthur Weasley, Ron Weasley's dad. Before Mark got the role, he had read one of the books and he became interested in the story. He decided to call his agent to inform about the possibilities to do the talking books. When he found out that Stephen Fry was already doing this, he got interested in playing the role of Arthur. Mark went to a casting meeting with director Chris Columbus and producer David Heyman. After a while, Columbus addressed the other people in the room and said that "he (Mark) looked like he was old enough to play Julie Walters' (who plays Molly Weasley) husband". At this moment Mark realised he got the part and it was the beginning of a magical journey. He reprised the role in the rest of the movies in the franchise, being: "Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban" (2003), "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire" (2005), "Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix" (2007), "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (2009), "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - Part One" (2010) and "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - Part 2" (2011).
During his time on the Harry Potter movies, Mark did not sit still and played roles in various movies and TV shows, like: "The Fast Show Farewell Tour" (2003), "The Rotters' Club" (2005, as Sam Chase), "A Cock and Bull Story" (2005, as Ingoldsby), "Viva Blackpool" (2006, as Tommy Vesty), "Stardust" (2007, as Billy), "Sense and Sensibility" (2008, as Sir John Middleton), "The Indian Doctor" (2010, as Richard Sharpe) and more. In 2012, Mark had a two episode role as Brian Williams in the iconic British TV show "Doctor Who". And then in 2013, Williams got another big role, as the titular character in the British detective show "Father Brown". This immensely popular series is loosely based on the short stories by G.K. Chesterton. Over the last decade he put on the cassock and hat of Father Brown in 120 episodes (and counting). Williams recalled that he was absolutely speechless when they offered him the role. He was already familiar with the character, because he read the short stories. Of course, Mark did a lot of other projects over the last 10 years and if you want to know more about these projects, check out his IMDb page. Most recently he played The Mayor in "Robin and The Hoods".
Mark Williams will be a guest at Heroes Dutch Comic Con in Utrecht on 23-24 November 2024.
Prices:
Photo op: €40
Autograph: €30
Selfie: €35
Combo autograph & selfie: €60
Meet & Greet: €150
Combo Entrance & Photo op: €76
Combo Entrance & Meet & Greet: €186
Times:
Photo op Saturday: 11:15-12:00
Photo op Sunday: 11:15-12:00
Meet & Greet Saturday: 13:00-13:30
Meet & Greet Sunday: 13:00-13:30
Q&A Saturday: 16:00-16:40
Q&A Sunday: 16:00-16:45
Signing sessions Saturday: 10:00-11:15 - 14:45-15:15 - 16:45-18:00
Signing sessions Sunday: 10:00-11:15 - 14:45-15:15 - 16:45-18:00
Graham McTavish
Any "Outlander" fans here? Well, we are! And we are very excited about this next guest, because of his roles in "Outlander", "The Hobbit" trilogy and "House of The Dragon" to name some. But besides these, we also love the "Uncharted" game franchise and this next guest voices (and does the motion capture for) the source of all evil Zoran Lazarevic in the second game. And he does the same for Charlie Cutter in the third and fourth one. Of course we are talking about the amazing Graham McTavish!
Graham McTavish was born on 4 January 1961 in Glasgow, Scotland (United Kingdom) to parents Alec and Ellen McTavish. When he was still a child, the family left Glasgow and throughout his life he has lived all over the world. When Graham was still in school, he used to write comedic sketches with a friend. When the original actor in one of the school plays fell ill, Graham's drama teacher asked him to take over the role and so he did. Following high school, Graham attended the Queen Mary University in London, where he studied English literature. During his time at Queen Mary here, he played in three Shakespeare plays a year. All of this earned him his equity card, besides this he also earned a degree in English literature. During the early days of his career, Graham did a a lot of theatre work in Dundee and London.
In 1986, Graham made the transition to screen acting and made his television debut in an episode of "John Silver's Return to Treasure Island". In the following years, Graham had minor roles in TV shows and movies, like: "For Queen & Country" (1988), "Erik the Viking" (1988), "Highlander" (1996) and more. In 1997, Graham played Banquo in "Macbeth" and in 1998, he played Rengal in the TV movie "Merlin". In 1999, Graham played the role of Ackerman in 5 episodes of "Red Dwarf". From 2000 until 2012, McTavish did a lot of TV, movie and voicework. Among his projects are: "Ali G InDaHouse" (2002, as police officer), "Family" (2003, as Tony Bishop), "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" (2003, as Submarine Captain), "Empire" (2005, as General Rapax), "Rome" (2005, as Urbo), "The Bill" (2005-2006, as Pete Larson), "Rambo" (2008), as Lewis), "Prison Break"(2008, as Ferguson), multiple "Call of Duty" games (as the voice of Archer and additional voices) and many more. In 2010, he gets a recurring role as Mikhail Novakovich in "24".
Graham's actual big break comes in 2012, when he lands the role of Dwalin in Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey". He reprised the role in the two sequels "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" (2013) and "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" (2014). In 2014, Graham lands the role of Dougal MacKenzie in "Outlander". Because of these last roles, his star is rising star and in 2015, he lands the role of Tommy Holiday in "Creed". In 2016, Graham joins the cast of "Preacher" as The Saint of Killers. He winds up playing the role in 42 episodes of the show (until 2019). In 2018, he enters the DC Extended Universe, with his role as King Atlan in "Aquaman". In 2019, he puts on the holy habit for the recurring role of Father Kinley in "Lucifer". Over the last few years, Graham McTavish has become a household name in the entertainment business. He confirms his status with roles in two of the biggest shows of the moment. Graham plays the role of Sigismund Dijkstra in "The Witcher" and the role of Ser Harrold Westerling in "House of the Dragons". Recently he played Walter Wentworth in the thriller "Dirty Boy". McTavish is a jack of all trades and he also does a lot of voicework. Check out his IMDb page for all of his work.
Graham McTavish will be a guest at Heroes Dutch Comic Con in Utrecht on 23-24 November 2024.
Prices:
Photo op: €50
Autograph: €40
Selfie: €50
Combo autograph & selfie: €80
Combo Entrance & Photo op: €86
Times:
Photo op Saturday: 13:00-14:00
Photo op Sunday: 13:00-14:00
Q&A Saturday: 12:00-12:45
Q&A Sunday: 12:00-12:45
Signing sessions Saturday: 10:15-12:00 - 15:00-16:00 - 16:45-18:00
Signing sessions Sunday: 10:15-12:00 - 15:00-16:00 - 16:45-18:00
Matthew Mercer
Matthew Mercer was born Matthew Christopher Miller on 29 June, 1982 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida (U.S.). There isn't a lot of information to be found about Matthew's parents, but we do know his father was an audio engineer and musician. His mother was a scriptwriter and producer. Matthew has an older brother, who is also a musician, with the stage name Dave Heatwave. Matthew spent his early childhood in Palm Beach (Florida) and later on talked about the fact that he was a lonely child. He had a loving family, but few friends. He said, he was one of the 'nerdy, smart' kids and spent a lot of time playing video games, reading books and watching cartoons. He also mentioned that he wouldn't want to change it for the world. During his early childhood, Matthew suffered from a stutter. His father (also a stutterer) got him a speech therapist, who helped him reduce it to a point that only certain words trigger it.
Matthew's grandmother was a big name in the entertainment industry. She was head of Burt Reynolds Productions (a production company). She was also the manager of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Jupiter (Florida), where both of Matthew's parents worked. When Matthew was 8 years old, the family moved to Los Angeles, when his mother got a new job as scriptwriter for the sitcom "Evening Shade". The show starred Burt Reynolds and was also produced by Burt Reynolds Productions.
When he was young, Matthew wanted to become a chemist, but that changed when he was in high school. When he was a freshman (around 14 years old) at the Agoura Hills High School, he joined the popular arts club. It was here that he played Dungeons&Dragons for the first time. Matthew also joined the drama club and he began aspiring a job as illustrator. After high school Matthew applied to the California Institute of the Arts, where he took part in their animation program. Conversations with his peers and professional animators, made him doubt his decision and all of this steered Matthew towards the gaming industry. He started working as a game tester at Sound Source Interactive (later known as TDK Media Active). His hard work and dedication paid off and he quickly moved up the corporate ladder, to become chief tester and manager. He also contributed to the production of "God of War" and "God of War II". During his time at Sound Source Interactive, he also explored voice acting work and he participated in so called walla sessions for games. Walla is the name of the background murmur of a crowd. At one point his father introduced Matthew to a Japanese animation producer and he realised that his true passion was voice acting. In 2007, he quit his job at Sound Source Interactive to pursue a career in voice acting . When he joined SAG-AFTRA he took on the name Mercer, because there already were multiple Matthew Miller's. Taking the name Merder helped him distinguish himself on a professional level.
His career took a significant turn in 2015, when "Critical Role" launched on the YouTube channel of multi-media production company 'Geek&Sundry'. "Critical Role" is a web series revolving around a group of professional voice actors playing 'Dungeons&Dragons'.Matthew took on the role of Dungeon Master in campaigns 1,2 and 3. 'Geek&Sundry' produced the show from 2015 until 2018. Since 2018, production was taken over by 'Critical Role Production' (which was co-founded by Matthew). "Critical Role" spawned a lot of other shows and spin-offs. Among them is the adult animated action series "The Legend of Vox Machina", which is based on the first campaign of "Critical Role". Over the years Matthew grew out to be one of the key players in de anime and video game voice acting world. He has a lot of credits to his name and it's too much to name them all, but we will mention some of the most important ones. Among them are "Attack on Titan" (as Levi Ackerman), "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" (as Jotaro Kujo), "Iron Man: Rise of Technovore" (as Tony Stark/Iron Man), "Naruto" (as Yamato), "One Piece" (as Trafalgar Law), "Dragon Ball Super" (as Hit), " Hunter X Hunter" (as Leorio), "Resident Evil 6" (as Leon S. Kennedy), "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" (as Ganondorf), "Mortal Kombat 9" (as Kurtis Stryker) "Sonic The Hedgehog" (as Espio the Chameleon), "Overwatch" (as Cole Cassidy/Jesse McCree), "Fallout 4" (as MacCready) and many, many more.
Matthew Mercer will be a guest at Heroes Dutch Comic Con in Utrecht on 23-24 November 2024.
Prices:
Photo op: €80 (SOLD OUT)
Autograph: €60 (SOLD OUT)
Selfie: €60
Combo Entrance & Photo op: €87,50 (SOLD OUT)
Times:
Photo op Saturday: 12:15-13:15 - 14:15-15:15
Photo op Sunday: 12:15-13:15 - 14:15-15:15
Q&A Saturday: 10:30-11:15
Q&A Sunday: 10:30-11:15
Signing sessions Saturday: 10:00-10:30 - 11:15-12:00 - 15:15-16:00 - 16:15-18:00
Signing sessions Sunday: 10:00-10:30 - 11:15-12:00 - 15:15-16:00 - 16:15-18:00
There are still tickets available, so if you don't have one yet...get over to the website of Heroes Dutch Comic Con and get some! Will we see you there?
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