Crew Page

Anna joined the Browncoat ranks at the first ever Can't Stop the Serenity screening in Portland, OR in 2006. Her reaction upon seeing the movie was, "What the hell is THIS?" She then dug herself in deeper, until in 2009 she co-chaired the screening for Portland. This coincided with joining the crew of the Signal, where she enjoys writing and voicing pieces, as well producing episodes of the show.

Anna is addicted to Sims 3, EQII, and podcasts. She is currently so far behind on her podcast listening there's a good chance she'll never catch up, but she can't bear to delete any of them. (What if she misses something good?!) She's also addicted to her iPhone and Twitter, but who isn't? You say you aren't? You're lying.

Kara Helgren has been a Browncoat since 2005 when she happened to see the review of the movie Serenity in a local newspaper. Since then she has worked on Can't Stop the Serenity every single year because, as she puts it, "It's fun". As part of the PDX Browncoats you may have seen/heard her in such varied things as 'I'm your CSTS MC 2006 and 2009' as well as here on the Signal as part of the Browncoat News Network (BNN - bringing you the latest in barely news news from all corners of the 'verse, or at least that one corner way over there. No, not that corner. The other one). In her spare time she enjoys having a job, riding her bike to said job, and going home from said job when it's quittin' time. She lives in the Portland of Oregon with a husband and a dog.

Nick (Lemming on some boards) bumped into Jill and Kari at a Shindig back in early 2007 and to his amazement, on the basis of some minimal audio work, was offered a place on the Crew! Since being thrown in at the deep end back in early Season 3, he's done most types of articles as well as writing, editing and acting in Badger's World. As well as learning "on the job" how to audio edit, write articles, audio drama and editorials, he was a regular show producer from the start of Season 4 in 2008 through to early Season 6 in 2010.

Nick has been married to Joy for 21 years and they have 4 kids, all of whom are Browncoats too (and who sometimes get roped into recording stuff for The Signal!). In between dealing with a large family and assorted pets and watching DVDs of Firefly, Buffy, Angel, Heroes, Northern Exposure, Dr Who, BSG, Supernatural all the usual geeky suspects and films, Nick somehow finds time to be a mad scientist, ride motorbikes, read SF and comics, hang out on Browncoat boards and the Larry Niven mailing list, go to Shindigs, drink beer, do Archery, play the guitar, drink more beer (good whiskey, decent port, decent wine, home made Sloe Gin.... I have a wide taste in stuff that potentially makes you fall over :-) and very occasionally gets to do his favourite thing.... sleep. Becoming involved in podcasting and other audio projects is the latest masochistic attempt to finally eliminate that last thing.

Nick lives in a village near Banbury in Oxfordshire in the UK and doesn’t miss London one gorram bit (apart from going there to do fun stuff). He also sometimes takes part in the UK Firefly Podcast, Sending A Wave. Other past audio drama podcastery madness is playing Spike in Buffy Between The Lines seasons 1 and 2 and Angel Between The Lines, doing a cameo as James Bond in Lara Bond: Face of Gold (Bonus Show), as well as doing some other audio editing, Foley SFX work and playing various parts in other audio projects, like reading emails on the Whedonverse podcast, Joss'd or discussing Whedon related stuff on the Whedon based chat 'cast, Let's Talk Joss.

It's no surprise that friends successfully recommended Firefly to Cornelius, who's a fan of both science fiction and western. Being kinda late to the show - Serenity wasn't in the cinemas anymore - he was happy to find a still active fan community and the Signal to read and hear more about Firefly. Living in the city where the only CSTS events in the whole country are based wasn't that bad either.

Cornelius is studying media engineering in Hamburg and works at the Signal as an audio editor.

Les is a long-haired occasionally-utilikilt-wearing computer geek. He was born in New Jersey and lived there & in Massachusetts untill the age of 18 when he moved to Georgia to go to college and has lived there ever since. He is currently living in the Atlanta area with his wife of 10 years and their three cats Mulder, Leeloo & Petaline. He likes to play MMOs with his wife and friends.

He learned about Firefly from an item on Slashdot. He started watching Firefly with the airing of Bushwhacked on Fox and was hooked by Our Mrs. Reynolds (the third episode in air-order). He participated in some of the early postcard campaigns to write Fox and the sponsors to support Firefly, and a little later to try and get SciFi to pick it up.

He is a professional software engineer and have been using Perl as hi primary development language for the last 7 years or so. He has a background in information security (CISSP) and in Unix admin (he has been using Linux since the 0.99pl12 kernel) & networking. He is currently employed by a large bank in the field of quantitative finance.

James is an eighth grade science teacher who hales from Southern California via Michigan. A self-styled science geek, James is never happier than when he is blowing something up in the service of educating his students. Never, that is, except when he is able to spend time with his wife, Carolyn, away from the concerns of either of their jobs.

James has been a fan of the 'verse since its television days and somewhat annoyed his then fiancée when he spent the money to by the DVDs. Money was a little tight then. He has since had the great pleasure to see her hooked on the series, so much so that she started writing for some podcast or other just so that she could spread the word to the masses.

James spends the small amounts of freetime that he calls his own playing poker, reading science fiction novels, assistant coaching for his schools Science Olympiad team, and lately, thanks to his wife, reading unhealthy amounts of Firefly Fanfic.

Not a huge fan of sci-fi, westerns, or even a regular watcher of television, Bindiya became a Browncoat proper in 2010 while discovering one the characters of Firefly through an online role-playing site. The depth of character prompted her to borrow a friend's collection of the series and movie, after which she could not find it humanly possible to shut up about the damn things. The comics, analytical books and official scrapbooks, and even teas fashioned after certain characters were soon to follow. She is now an eager recruiter and an enthusiastic member of the fandom, though still hoping to find more Kansas City-area Browncoats to fashion together into a real group. In the meanwhile she'll be happy contributing to the signal as the new Newshound and voice of News From the 'Verse.

On a more personal level she is a Gemini and enjoys rum, skydiving, WoW, and sushi. She is also a big costume nerd and loves cosplaying.

Most memorable fandom moment: stepping on Sean Maher's foot. Oops.

Yi (aka brushmen), lives somewhere on the east coast of USA. Currently adamantly pursuing a career (?) in comics self-publishing... Or audio drama editing... Or something related...

A long time Signal listener, and first time trying out for the audio editor role of this podcast show. A fan of "Serenity" the pilot episode.

Steve Kaszycki joined the Signal crew as a writer for Season 7, in December, 2010. He became a Browncoat on his second viewing of Serenity, and subsequently watched the episodes of Firefly (multiple times each). In his non-Browncoat existence, he is a Phd student in political science. He believes that he has the distinction of being the only person to submit an essay dealing extensively with Serenity in the analytical writing section of the GRE.

Craig Kurumada became a Browncoat after seeing Firefly on a recommendation from a local, independent video store. Already a Buffy/Angel fan, it took no time at all to become quite obsessed with the 'Verse. Over several years, he has rallied the Browncoats in the rural Redwood Coast of Northern California, based in Arcata, Humboldt County (yes, THAT Humboldt County), California.

Craig has two B.A.s in German and Linguistics and loves to geek out in all manner of things linguistical, historical, musical and anthropological. He is doing his best to show Browncoats how easy it is to pronounce Mandarin.

Oh, the clarinet picture? He plays in an international band called "[Chubritza]," playing the Bulgarian and Macedonian bagpipes, Croatian prim tamburitza, Romanian tsimbl mic and singing in quite a few languages.

He is very happy and proud to join the Signal crew.

Paul has joined the Signal in 2011 and plans on taking the role of editor in his free time, limited by his current studies of civil engineering in Lima, his homecity. He is very enthusiastic about being a part of the Signal's crew now.

He first got to know Firefly after watching Summer's remarkable performance in the Terminator series. After being hooked, he explored the Firefly & Serenity universe and became an avid browncoat. On the southern side of the hemisphere it's difficult to find many browncoats, but Paul manages to watch the Firefly DVD's with as many friends as possible, although sometimes Serenity (the BDM) is more appropriate to lure people into the 'verse.

Kari grew up as a typical Army brat - born in Utah and spending the next sixteen years of her life in Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The bug to move every three to four years has become an ingrained personality trait and since graduating from college, she has lived in Mississippi, again in Colorado, Oregon, California, and finally back to Oregon. She currently works as a lab rat for a large-ish biotech company in Eugene, Oregon. In her spare time, she enjoys computer and board games, reading, sewing, hanging out on the beach, watching movies, and yoga.

Kari became aware of Firefly through a couple of co-workers who were HUGE Buffy and Angel fans. Unfortunately, due to the Fox Network's creative scheduling, she managed to miss every single episode. Several years later, while hanging out with some friends, she was introduced to the phenomenon that is Firefly . Instantly hooked, she borrowed her friend’s DVDs, watched the remainder of the episodes, returned the DVDs and bought her own.

Kari’s involvement with The Signal began just before the release of the first show. Having been friends with Les for a year or two (it’s kinda fuzzy), she instantly volunteered to help in any way she possibly could as soon as she found out what was going on. Somehow, she became a host and has been loving every minute of the process.

Sam, an engineering student, migrates between University in the frozen South, Michigan, and his Home in the frozen North, Alaska. No power has ever stopped him from taking pen to paper, dice to table, or brain to sci-fi.

Though he saw Heart of Gold when it aired, Firefly went by without notice. After Years of seeing clips from Serenity on television, repeated viewings of the series made him an avid Browncoat in 2010.

Andy, (aka verseandy), lives with his family in the UK and works in IT for a large American car company, the one with a fondness for blue ovals...

He missed Firefly and then Serenity the first time around but following a recommendation, a review on Amazon and a whim, purchased the box set and BDM and watched them as quickly as life permitted. He was hooked. He finally got to see the BDM on the big screen at a CSTS screening in Warwick in 2008 where he met Nick and the Sending a Wave crew.

Away from The Signal Andy is the Assistant Producer for Upside Down and Halfway to Happyland, co-host for an internal work podcast, and member of the SFX crew on Buffy and Angel Between the Lines, BBtLS, ABtLS. He also does occasionally voice work on various different podcasts.

Andy also produces and co-hosts the Being Human Cast, a podcast all about the TV show Being Human.

Andy, listens to many different podcasts on his daily commute, and enjoys most sci-fi genre shows; some still on air others on DVD. Some of his favourites including Babylon 5, BSG, Red Dwarf, Being Human, Dr Who, and obviously the works of Joss Whedon...

John Anthony is a writer and philosopher interested in all things Firefly/Serenity. John has pursued degrees in music, classical studies, film, religion, and philosophy at the University of Miami and is currently working on completing a Master's degree in Literature and Humanities there. John also has an interest in languages (especially Latin), classical literature, physics and cosmology. Besides Firefly, The Lord of the Rings remains his favorite work of fiction to date. He also collects antiquarian books as a hobby.

John first discovered Firefly by chance while working at a retail store in 2005, after re-stocking the Firefly DVD set on the shelf as a trailer for the movie Serenity happened to play on one of the display TV's nearby. Seizing the moment, he put one back in the cart for himself and the rest is, as they say, history. Some may call it fate, some may call it divine intervention, some may call it coincidence. John simply calls it happiness.

John is excited to have joined the crew for the Eighth season of The Signal, and appreciates constructive feedback on anything he writes. He currently lives with his wife and 2 daughters in Miami, FL; his eldest daughter's name is Inara.

Jutta was born 1971 in Germany. After the usual ... kindergarden, school, being an annoying teenager ... she went on to university to study English and History but later dropped out to do more interesting stuff. She worked as software developer, as shopkeeper, as farm helper, as translator, as bike courier and is currently working as a shop assistant in an organic foodstore and as tutor for students (someone has to teach them to misbehave, after all). She also works as freelance writer and has published several short stories in German magazines. Currently she is working on a sciene fiction novel for young adults. Jutta lives in a house sharing community with six other adults, a place that has become her Serenity.

She has been a Browncoat ever since she bought the Firefly DVD set more or less spontaniously after seeing a fanmade Firefly music video on the internet.

Jill Arroway grew up on the Scottish island of Stornaway, where she made a meagre living sewing lobsters onto the chief fishmonger's buttocks. Believing this was not the life for her, she left in search of wild adventure and screaming. She spent several years in Transylvania trying to get bitten by a vampire, an ambition which she sadly failed to achieve at the time, although ironically she did achieve it many years later, after she'd moved back to England and started eating garlic pizzas. Her favourite hobbies include computer science, experimental mathematics, and dressing up as a mermaid and luring sailors to their deaths.

Jill is the editor and primary architect of the Signal, and once upon a time was the captain of this crew. She is also an author, classical composer and has been known to write and perform in a prog rock band. For a long time, her home was a disguised as a vending machine in Victoria coach station, England. Then - disaster - a freak tornado rendered the gyroscopic stabiliser unusable. Stranded in what at the time seemed to be the twentieth century, although it later turned out to have been the twenty first, she had no choice but to settle down and try to take over the world.

Oh, and here's some of my music: [Dreams of the Seventh Star] [Merci, Mon Amie] [Entelechy]

Miranda is living the high life in the northern part of Kentucky. Yes, she wears shoes and no, she doesn't have a southern twang. Though she does admit to saying y'all when the mood strikes.

Never a Buffy or Angel fan, Miranda came to love Firefly before she knew it was a Joss Whedon creation, even before it aired for the first time. After picking up her Fall Preview guide, as she does every year, this futuristic western style show caught her eye. That plus the fact that it was to air just before a show that she would be taping anyway, made her one of the fans who could honestly say they were there from the very beginning.

Miranda spends her limited free time reading fiction novels and waiting impatiently for the newest installments of her favorite television shows (Bones, LOST, & Chuck). She is extremely grateful to have been included in podcast production and to be a part of the fantastic Browncoat community.

Helen is originally from Devon in the UK, but lives in Tanzania, where she is a linguist in a Bible translation and language development project. As a Christian with degrees in linguistics, this means that she is pretty much doing her dream job. (If you want to know what it involves, check out her website.)

Firefly initially passed Helen by entirely, as she was living in a remote Tanzanian village without a phone or mains electricity when the show first aired. But a chance meeting with a Browncoat at a linguistics conference in Austria a couple of years later led her to the 'verse and she hasn't looked back since. Keeping up with the fandom from Tanzania isn’t easy, but thanks to the internet, The Signal really does go everywhere.

As well as Firefly, Helen is a big fan of Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who, and probably would be an avid watcher of many more television shows if she actually had a television. But DVDs keep her sane and while waiting for them to come out, she relies on books for her science fiction fix. She enjoys all kinds of science fiction, just so long as it makes her think or laugh, or, ideally, both at the same time. Her favourite writers include C.S. Lewis, Douglas Adams and, of course, Joss Whedon.