Tamar [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Tamar covers K-Pop and Asian entertainment as a columnist and contributor for Billboard and Forbes. Over the past few years, she’s interviewed heavy-hitting artists like BTS, Girls’ Generation, TVXQ!, BoA, SHINee, Red Velvet, Twice, and Psy, and has been featured on CBC Radio. She’s obsessed with social media’s affect on the global spread of K-Pop, so hit her up @TamarWrites on Twitter and Instagram.
Stevie Chong [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Stevie Chong is K-Beauty retailer Glow Recipe’s Senior PR Manager, overseeing all communications with media and beauty influencers. With over 8 years of experience in fashion and beauty, he is integral in spearheading their external communications and positioning in the media, working closely with co-founders Sarah Lee and Christine Chang to tell Glow Recipe’s story – both the brand’s namesake skincare line as well as the best natural K-Beauty brands curated on their website. If he wasn’t a publicist, he would be a professional mukbang YouTuber.
Riley T. [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Riley T (get it? Cha?) got into K-Pop thanks to the irresistable charm of a certain maknae, and now works as a fashion photographer living in Seoul. She dedicated her life to K-Pop after the Ring Ding Dong MV, and dreams of one day shooting another K-Pop album. She spends her days thinking about shoot locations, her ideal Pokémon team, and wondering why more men don’t wear short shorts. She loves bright colors, femme men, and snorkelling (and also Roy Kim).
Joon Lee [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Joon is an actor, comedian, and MC best known for his Asian mom (ahJOONma) skits on Instagram. He is also known for his dance performances on stage and high energy while emceeing. Whether it’s seeing his skits behind camera or watching him live, you are sure to be entertained!
Jenny Zha [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Jenny Zha, Viki and Soompi’s Strategic Engagement Manager, keeps her inner fangirl satisfied by attending concerts, conducting interviews, and even producing short-form shows with your favorite idols. These days, Jenny spends her time scrolling endlessly through Twitter’s trending topics and wishing she was a part of the Running Man cast.
Jeff Benjamin [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Jeff Benjamin has been Billboard’s K-Pop columnist for more than five years and is the editorial director at Fuse TV. He’s written about K-Pop for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and NPR, while being asked to share his expertise with The Washington Post, CNN, USA Today and beyond. He has shared groundbreaking stories about K-Pop in America, including exclusives with BTS, CL, Seventeen, Psy, while hosting events with KARD and Kevin Woo. In 2017, The New York Times referred to him as “the most knowledgeable person in America about K-Pop.”
Jasmine Clarke [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Hailing from Australia but now a resident of Los Angeles for the last 4 years, 18 year old Jasmine Clarke is a singer who has garnered over 369K subscribers and 33M views on YouTube. She is known for singing not only in English, but Mandarin, Korean and Japanese, across genres of pop, r&b, soul and K-Pop.
Jasmine [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Jasmine is one half of the youtube duo 2MinJinkJongKey! This fun loving channel provides in depth reaction videos, vlogs, challenges, and all things K-Pop!
Gil Smith [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Gil Smith is a sought-out American music director, producer and arranger who has played an intricate role in creating some of the highest grossing K-Pop tours.
Ellie Lee [#KCON18LA Special Guest]
Ellie Lee is a TV host/actress/dog rescuer! She’s been a host for MTV K, VH1 News, People Style, Complex, & has been on “The Wendy Williams Show” & “The Steve Harvey Show”. When she’s not hosting, she’s acting in short films and just completely her first feature film as the female lead in a movie called “I CAN I WILL I DID”. She is currently the digital host at iHeartRadio where she’s interviewed K-Pop stars, BTS, EXO, and Eric Nam.