Miggy Smallz [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Miguel Francisco, better known as Miggy Smallz, is a K-Pop mashup mixer on YouTube. Although initially a classically trained pianist, he first developed an interest in music production through urban/hip-hop and K-Pop dance, creating set mixes for his teams’ performances. Through his YouTube, Miggy pairs his knowledge of music theory with a passion for outdated BTS “beach” memes, resulting in mashups with a distinct richness and attention to detail.
Madison Bickel [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Madison, or Maddie for short, is here to make everyone’s UNIVERSE a little brighter. Excuse the pun, but Pentagon is a huge part of their music life. After Pentagon Maker and a whole lot of listens to their debut album, Maddie slowly started bringing friends into the UNIVERSE world. Now, after watching the fanbase grow, it’s time to share the love! Can you feel it? Let’s Shine and dance the day away Like This. Runaway with us at KCON! Let’s talk Pentagon.
Kevin [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
To summarize Kevin and his relation to K-Pop, he is your inner army. We’ve all been there with all of our favorite K-Pop artists, but Kevin is shameless when it comes to his love for BTS. His expression for the band within the fandom has been regarded as either over the top or relatable. Nonetheless, his outgoing bubbly personality will remind you of why you got into K-Pop in the first place, and that is to have fun and be yourself.
InternetsNathan [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Nathan is the personality behind the YouTube channel InternetsNathan and has been a K-Pop fanboy for years through reaction videos, K-Pop news, and sketches. He shares what K-Pop means to him with others, who also love K-Pop to death and he hopes to have a great time this year with y’all!
Heesun Lee [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Heesun Lee is a rapper and a spoken word artist who is breaking stereotypes! She is mother and a wife, and not afraid to show her audience that she goes against the standards of what people expect out of a female rapper. She is believes in empowering women, uplifting moral values, and being a positive influence. She has been rapping for over 15 years, all over the country, was place #7 on iTunes christian/gospel charts and #24 on Billboard Christian/gospel charts for her Sophomore Album “Stereotypes”.
Fresh Baon [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Sugar, spice, and everything nice! These were the ingredients chosen to create the crazy K-Pop Fanboys “Fresh Baon”! With so much energy they will make you laugh, cry and even make you hungry! Well maybe not that last part! Remember if the BAON ain’t FRESH than it ain’t BAON!
Fire-Raising [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Fire-Raising is an award-winning Master level costumer from Toronto, Canada with over 7 years of sewing, cosplaying and costume-making experience. An avid fan of K-Pop and K-Dramas, she has sewn a multitude of outfits from massive historical royal hanbok reproductions to flashy idol stage outfits and everything in between. Be on the lookout for her latest creation: a dress made entirely of recycled KCON17 “SORRY” cards.
Emlyn Travis [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Emlyn Travis is a journalist specializing in Korean culture and entertainment including K-Pop, K-Dramas, and K-Beauty. She has covered the spread of the Hallyu wave for multiple outlets including Trendio, The Kraze, and PopCrush. She also writes for television at 24 Hour K-Pop TV in San Francisco and helped pen the award-winning “History of K-Pop” segment.
BRISxLIFE [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
BRISxLIFE is someone who loves music in general and recently found and fell in love with K-Pop. His YouTube channel (BRISxLIFE) is about him reacting to K-Pop and showing his love for BTS. He is an ARMY and he has the most LIT YouTube community called the BRISxGANG. BRISxLIFE is from Compton, CA and grew up listening to Hip Hop, R&B, Soul etc. RM from BTS is what made him love K-Pop BRISxLIFE being able to relate to RM is what started BRISxLIFE’s journey into K-Pop.
Matthew Tishler [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Matthew Tishler is a 15x multi-platinum songwriter and music producer, with a specialty in K-Pop and J-Pop. His songs have been recorded by EXO (“Sing For You”, “For Life”), Taeyeon (“Rain”, “Make Me Love You”), AOA (“Good Luck”), Taemin (“Soldier”, “Rise”), Red Velvet, TVXQ, SHINee, Seohyun, BoA, and BTS (“dimple”). In Japan, he has written for Namie Amuro (“Finally”, “Dear Diary”, “Red Carpet”), EXILE Atsushi (“Itsuka Kitto”), Kumi Koda (“Love Me Back”, “No Me Without You”, “Gimme U”), Tohoshinki, Happiness, Crystal Kay, and Akina Nakamori. Matthew also operates Laundromat Music, a full-service music publishing and production company.