a giantess & a micronaut

Acting

The Best Steve Jobs Grief Counselor in Town

by Casey McKinnon on May 22nd, 2012

I forgot to post this episode of Geek Therapy that I guest starred in earlier this year as “The Best Steve Jobs Grief Counselor in Town!” It was great to work with America Young and Taryn O’Neill again, they are both good friends and fun actresses to work with.

RIP Steve.

I played “Vampira” on a faux daytime talk show…

by Casey McKinnon on December 18th, 2011
Vampira

I was back in Vancouver earlier this year and my good friend Nicholas Humphries asked me to be in a video he was making with his students at the Vancouver Film School. I’ve been wanting to do something with Nick for a long time, so without hesitation I said something along the lines of “F*CK YEAH!” In the video I play a character named “Vampira”, the trashy gothic trophy-wife of a mad scientist, who is obviously having marital problems with her husband. I realized I forgot to blog about it when it came out back in September, so here it is now!

I had lots of fun filming this with them, so I hope you have fun checking it out.

ELF SABERS: Two elves enter, one elf leaves!

by Casey McKinnon on December 5th, 2011

Last month I had lunch with my friend Teal Sherer and she said she wanted to make a lightsaber battle video. She asked if I was interested in doing it with her, and I said something along the lines of “HELL yes!!!” Thanks to the fight coordination and direction of America Young, the idea took shape very quickly… and I’m so happy that I can finally show you “ELF SABERS“!

Be sure to check out Comediva for other wonderfully funny videos, and some behind the scenes photos of our ELF SABERS shoot. And, happy holidays, everyone!!!

ElfQuest: A Fan Imagining now online!

by Casey McKinnon on April 7th, 2011

After producers Paula Rhodes and Stephanie Thorpe showed a teaser at Wondercon last week, we’ve got a lot of great coverage everywhere from io9 to BoingBoing! In fact, Attack of the Show will be doing a segment about it today on G4!!!

I hope you enjoy the above “trailer” we all made with lots of love and respect to the ElfQuest comic series. We had an amazing time making it and would do it again in a heartbeat. Thanks to Paula and Stephanie for all their hard work… I still can’t believe Paula made most of those costumes BY HAND!!!

Please share and enjoy! ;)

Becoming Brownberry

by Casey McKinnon on April 1st, 2011

Our ElfQuest fan trailer should be coming out really soon, so I thought I would post a few behind the scenes photos of my transformation from Casey McKinnon to Brownberry!

Above: Custom made elf ears to look like those drawn in the ElfQuest comics. These babies were tough to apply because it was so cold in the hair/makeup cabin! They ended up having to use a hairdryer to make it stick. This photo was taken right after application, so they hadn’t applied makeup yet (hence the shininess). Also, that’s tape holding my hair away from my ears… we didn’t want to glue my hair to them!

Above: A shot of Amelia Earhart… I mean, me… sitting in the makeup chair after getting my hair pinned up in curls.

Above: Getting my last hair and makeup touches done before getting changed in my costume and heading to set. At this point, the weather was heating up so they decided to work outside in the sunshine.

Above: The finished product! Brownberry, Wolfrider!!! :D

Thanks to all the hard work of Jamie Blair (makeup), Genevieve Garner (hair), Paula Rhodes (costume), and Cathy Baron (jewelry) for making this all possible. XOXO

ElfQuest teaser to tease Wondercon attendees!

by Casey McKinnon on March 30th, 2011

Good news, ElfQuest fans! If you plan to attend Wondercon in San Francisco this week, be sure to check out the ElfQuest panel. Not only will the legendary Pinis be speaking about their recent exploits, but ElfQuest fan film co-producers Paula Rhodes and Stephanie Thorpe will also be there showing an exclusive teaser!

Yes, I just said exclusive teaser… so go check it out on Friday, April 1st!

Panel details:

6:30-7:30 Let’s Do the WaRP Time Again: Wendy Pini and Richard Pini— Wendy Pini (Elfquest, Masque of the Red Death) and Richard Pini (Elfquest) are the W and R in WaRP Graphics. Join them for an unscripted progress report on Elfquest: The Final Quest, the Masque of the Red Death graphic novel (and musical), and last but not least, the Elfquest movie. Room 220

Stepping Into (the) Elevator

by Casey McKinnon on March 11th, 2011

Back in early November, Elevator creator Woody Tondorf invited me to take part in the final season of his hit web series. I was asked to write a script and show up with whatever clothes/props I need. I said something along the lines of “HELLZ YEAH!” and racked my brain to come up with an awesome script.

While on set, I was told that an actress didn’t show up and they needed someone to play the role of Lucy in the episode entitled Harold the Janitor’s Dad. Again, “HELLZ YEAH!” was probably uttered. After some last minute memorization, here’s the result:

Stay tuned for the episode I wrote and starred in called Future Kate. I hope it comes out soon, but I know it takes a little more editing than most Elevator episodes, so keep your fingers crossed or tweet @WoodyTondorf to put the pressure on! ;)

The Elfpocalypse will be Web-Televised

by Casey McKinnon on March 8th, 2011

Remember when vampires and zombies were the big thing and everyone was wondering what’s next? A lot of people thought werewolves would get big, and some even jokingly predicted mummies, but a couple of weeks ago we wrapped on our ElfQuest fan trailer shoot and a few days later my friend Felicia Day announced her next web series, Dragon Age: Redemption, in which she plays a badass knife-wielding elf!

I was never a huge elf enthusiast, but as a former Pixie (a Brownie in the Girl Guides, to be precise), and a girl obsessed with fairies after reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream in grade 8, I have to say that I’m pretty excited about the whole thing.

Our ElfQuest fan trailer should be online in early April, so until then be sure to check out all the great behind the scenes photos on Facebook and Flickr. I’ve also heard that G4TV‘s Attack of the Show will be showing some behind the scenes footage and interviews on an upcoming show, so I’ll try to keep you updated on that.

And for other elven awesomeness, check out Felicia’s Dragon Age: Redemption photos on Flickr and her behind the scenes interview that aired on X-Play last week. The web series is set to launch in August.

So, whether it’s our upward pointing ElfQuest ears, or Felicia’s backfacing Dragon Age ears, prepare yourself for the impending Elfpocalypse!

Damn it, Jim! I’m an actor, not a social media guru!

by Casey McKinnon on February 1st, 2011

This past week my Twitter follower count crossed the 8000 mark (W00T!). It’s truly amazing to have such a big nerdy audience to share my geek references and get entertaining replies in return. I’m proud that my hobbies and my work has garnered such an awesome audience… and although I understand social media more than a lot of people in the entertainment industry, I am not a social media guru.

Every week I get emails and tweets asking me to link to someone’s online project, usually a web series or web comic. I don’t mind getting emails asking me to check something out, but asking me to link to it puts pressure on me to take action, even if I hardly know the people asking. After getting way too many of these requests, the straw has finally broken the camel’s back… and I feel it’s important for me to outline that there are really only three instances when I would consider linking to someone’s work:

  1. I have a prominent role in the work as an actor.
  2. A good friend has sent me a personal request, and I know that they would do the same for me.
  3. I happened upon something on my own and truly believe in it.

The best way to get me to link to your project is to involve me in it. I have built my audience with my passion, intelligence and hard work, and that audience, whether it be the 3000+ subscribers that read this blog, the 1100+ “Like”rs on Facebook, or the 8000+ followers on Twitter, is something valuable to me that I would never take for granted. So, if you really want to tap into that audience, hire me as an actor… the marketing will follow.

Stuff I’m in that came out today…

by Casey McKinnon on November 17th, 2010

A bunch of cool stuff I did came out today, so be sure to check it all out! In point form and embedded for your convenience…

1. The Bumps in the Night season two finale: Special guest star appearances from me, Paula Rhodes, Woody Tondorf and Ben Pace. I play Bunny, an emo/punk/goth chick and groupie to the leader of ghost hunting group Wolf Paranormal.

2. Girlhack Girltalk Episode 7: I’m interviewed about how I balance my girlie and geekiness, and talk about my background as a nerd… especially as a young Trekkie!

3. Wire Hangers TPB: Available in comic stores and online today is the trade paperback of Wire Hangers by rock star turned comic creator Alan Robert. Inside you’ll find a printed interview I did with him in one of the single issues that was published earlier this year by IDW.

C’est tout! For today anyway… ;)