About

What is Nerd Reactor? It’s THE place nerds dream about. A dream that takes them to a far away place where Indiana Jones and Darth Vader give nerds a happy ending. It’s a place where Princess Leia and Princess Peach make passionate love after getting piss drunk. It’s also a place where nerds wet their pants after witnessing the birth of Stan Lee.

Nerd Reactor was formed in 2010 in a hot sweaty room. The site would be a place for nerds to talk about what they love and a place for geek entertainment news and features. We get you the latest news and scoops on movies, video games, anime, comics, and everything that’s approved by Jeff Goldblum.

Our Nerd Reactor team are geeks at heart. Each writer had to be tested for endurance by being locked up in a room for 40 days straight while watching Uwe Boll films and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, with only one bar of soap. We do all this for you.

The Nerd Reactor Team

John “Spartan” Nguyen – Editor-in-Chief
Mike Villarreal – Community Manager/Editor
Narvin Seegoolam – Managing Editor
Chris Del Castillo – Senior Editor
Ryan Southard – Editor
Steve Ahmad – Writer
Michael Pao – Writer/Photographer
Jose “BoodaLuvr” Gutierrez III – Writer
Adam “Kharakov” Kharat – Writer

 

Jess Tompkins – Contributing Writer
Genevieve LeBlanc – Contributing Writer
Michael Revis – Contributing Writer
Steve Nguyen – Contributing Writer
Hokan “Kansta” Lo – Contributing Writer
JR Cajigas – Contributing Tech Writer
James Hong – Contributing Writer
Rocky Khamken – Contributing Writer
Fernando Caire – Contributing Writer
Jonathan Ofalla – Contributing Writer
Mark Marquez – Contributing Writer
Kenny Kong – Contributing Writer

 

The CosCast Team
Joey Rassool – The CosCast Producer/Host
Jordan Brown – The CosCast Host/Contributing Writer
Matthew Lewis – The CosCast Host
Tara Strand – The CosCast Host

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John “Spartan” Nguyen

Editor-in-Chief

Since he was a kid, John loved the arts. His first painting that he can remember was a car. Very basic in shapes and lines, but it was that painting that sparked his passion and imagination into the realm of fantasy and all things nerdy. His love for movies had him working as a projectionist at the local AMC theater, splicing inappropriate scenes like Tyler Durden in “Fight Club”. John graduated as a graphic designer and illustrator and now works as a designer full-time. His works have appeared in magazines like PSM and on Drugstores all over Southern California. He loves video games, movies, and super heroes wearing tight spandex.

Favorite Comic Artists: Jim Lee, Michael Turner, J. Scott Campbell
Favorite Movies: Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future, Batman Begins, Dark Knight, Pixar movies, early 90s Disney movies
Favorite Video Games: Heavy Rain, Metal Gear Solid, Mass Effect, Ocarina of Time, Uncharted 2, Red Dead Redemption, Super Street Fighter IV
Favorite Animes: Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Escaflowne, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Princess Mononoke
Favorite Musicians: Yoko Kanno, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, Belanova, LMFAO, Daft Punk, Alan Menken, DEV, Frou Frou

Email: Jnguyen AT nerdreactor DOT com
Deviant Art Page
Facebook Page

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Mike Villarreal

Community Manager/Editor

Mike Villarreal has lived all over Southern California. When he was young, the first script he ever wrote was “JAWS vs GODZILLA”. Encouraged by his aunt, he wrote a letter to Steven Spielberg to pitch his script. In High School, Mike played football freshman year until he decided to make the jump to the “Nerd Side” and joined the “RUNNING WITH SPEAKERS” AV Club. Mike was part of RWS for three years and for two of those years, he served as Vice President. Mike Villarreal has worked on two independent films and even has a profile on IMDB. In his spare time, Mike likes to play Modern Warfare 2 and mess around with Photoshop.

Favorite Movies: Memento, Snatched, City of God, Finding Nemo, Life is Beautiful, Pulp Fiction
Favorite Video Games: Mike Tyson’s PUNCH-OUT, ROAD RASH, Mario Kart: Double Dash, Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout, Shadow of the Colossus, and GTA: San Andreas.
Favorite Bands: Dir en grey, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Sublime, and The Clash.

Xbox Live Gamertag: Reservoired Dog
Deviantart: ReservoiredWolf
Email: Mvillarreal AT nerdreactor DOT com
Twitter: @MikeREACTOR

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Narvin Seegoolam

Managing Editor

Narvin has been an avid gamer since the original Castlevania. FPS is his favorite genre, with Racing second and everything else third. He can be quite competitive as he has competed in many LAN Tournaments as well as Game Battles with Halo 2 & 3, America’s Army, Rainbow Six Vegas and Modern Warfare. Along with games, Narvin is a huge movie buff, music lover and anime fan too. He is a Halo and Star Wars fanatic and is fairly proficient in both universes. Narvin is currently in the process of completing his bachelors degree in Networking Administration.

Favorite Movies: Anything Guy Ritchie (minus Madonna), Star Wars, The Boondock Saints, The Three Musketeers (the one with Kiefer Sutherland), Dark Knight, Batman Begins….there are too many to name…
Favorite Video Games: Halo series, God of War series, Bad Company 1 & 2, Modern Warfare 1 & 2, Forza series, Mass Effect series, Arkham Asylum…this is just a few
Favorite Animes: Gundam Wing, Last Exile, Gun X Sword, Ninja Scroll, Karas
Favorite Bands: Deftones, Static X, Rage Against the Machine, Linkin Park, System of a Down, U2, Anberlin, Chevelle, Pearl Jam, Sevendust

Email: Nseegoolam AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Chris Del Castillo

Senior Editor

Being an Anime and Game fan, Chris really enjoys JRPGS and moonlight strolls on the beach. He enjoys talking about anime and games to his friends. He’s also down for random activities, like teaching someone to cook. He is just mysterious that way, maybe too mysterious to the point where random isn’t so random anymore.

Favorite Movie: Clerks
Favorite Game: Xenogears
Music: Alternative, Rock and J rock
Favorite Anime: Great Teacher Onizuka….Yoroshiku !!

Email: Cdelcastillo AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Ryan Southard

Video Games Editor

Ryan was a nerd from the start. That picture of a fetus holding a game controller? Yeah, that’s him. He began in the nerd world with video games and continued entrenching himself in it by picking up the ability to like Anime, Manga, Sci-Fi, and other nerdy things. He played the Atari 2600 and 5200 at a very young age. Whether he was supposed to or not, Ryan thought it was hilarious to kill his brothers in the original Mario Bros. and Joust; maybe he was too young to understand the word “coop”. He loves Sci-Fi, and pieces of media that make him think in different ways about the world. He is a self-titled video game connoisseur, and can be very particular about his vidya’ games. Television like “Deal or no Deal” makes him cringe with pain, because it’s all about guessing, and is such a waste of time and brain power. Ryan is currently enrolled at CSULB as a Japanese major and will be graduating in spring 2011.

Favorite Video Games: Super Mario World 1&2, Super Metroid, Metroid: Zero Mission, Any non-nes Castlevanias, SMGalaxy 1&2, Fallout 3, Oblivion series, Mass Effect series, Warcraft 3, Zelda series, Dead Space
Favorite Movies: Matrix, Braveheart, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Princess Mononoke, and just about anything good in the Sci-Fi genre
Favorite TV Shows: Seinfeld, Frasier, Law and Order (yeah, yeah, don’t give me too much grief), Star Trek: The Next Generation
Favorite Animes: Kino’s Journey, Escaflowne
Favorite Mangas/Comics: Battle Angel, Batman
Favorite Musicians/Bands: Tokyo Jihen, Shiina Ringo, Capsule, Red Hot Chile Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, RATM, 311, U2, Aikawa Nanase, Asian Kung fu Generation

Xbox Live Tag: Rabbitbbq
Email: Rsouthard AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Steve Ahmad

Writer

Aside from his candid attitude at times, Steve is a warmhearted nerd. When he is not studying for new Civil Engineering standards the only other thing on his mind is everything nerdy. He grew up with older brothers who used him as a WWF rag doll or as a G.I. Joe training dummy. As he grew older and tougher he began to find interest in computer technology, video games, and music. Among other things, the one aspect of his passion would be interviewing and bringing what was said to the world of Nerd Reactor.

Favorite Movies: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Zardoz, Revenge of The Nerds, October Sky, and all 007 films.
Favorite Music: Daft Punk, The Muse, System of a Down, Garth Brooks, N.E.R.D and anything eclectic.
Favorite Video Games: Anything Wii (Don’t Hate!), World of Warcraft, StarCraft, UFC Undisputed, GoldenEye
Favorite Comics: Ricky The Raindrop
Favorite Animation: Final Fantasy, X-Men (90′s) and Starship Troopers: Roughnecks

Email: Sahmad AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Michael Pao

Writer/Photographer

Photographer, writer, culinary artist, costumer, prop maker, card carrying member of the Avengers, masked wrestler, bearer of the green lantern ring, submarine captain, mercenary, and mad man are just some of the titles the legend known as Michael Pao carries upon his shoulders.  Michael is pretty much a familiar sight in the LA geek culture scene, you most likely seen him out and about at conventions or events wearing his trademark cowboy boots and wielding his camera.

Quite a busy fella Michael is also the founder of Los Angeles’ largest steampunk community the Manticore Society and a member of the third largest Lucas Films approved costuming group the Mandalorian Mercs.  Michael is starting to become the nerdy version of six degrees of Kiefer Sutherland of LA where if you’re a nerd or geek in Los Angeles you’re likely to be six degrees from him in some way.  Instead of focusing on one or two fandoms like most people Michael is eclectic in the way that he seems to collect hobbies.  Which could range anywhere from comic books and action figures to kitchen utensils and odd energy drinks.

Email: Mpao AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Jose “BoodaLuvr” Gutierrez III

Writer

Jose, Booda to his close friends and family, is 1/4 Geek, 1/4 Nerd, 1/4 Dork, and 1/4 Sports Nut/Fantasy Player; but 100% Pinoy. Born in the Philippines and went to America when he was 8, he got into anime and such through friends and family. He was given his first computer at age 15. From taking apart that computer, he took that and turned it into a living. He is currently working as an IT Consultant/Tech. Even though he is a nerd, geek, and dork, he loves sports and is a hardcore NFL/NBA and MMA fan. He has been a sports fan ever since he came to America and saw the LA Raiders, LA Lakers, Chicago Bulls w/ Jordan, and a UFC fan too(when there were no rules and weight classes). He is still a Raiders fan (Win, Lose or Tie. Raiders Fan till he dies) and an even bigger Lakers Fan. Booda’s all time loves are Spawn Comics, Ghost In The Shell, Raiders, Lakers, and anything that catches his interest. He is chill and laid back. But will step up if his friends are in need of help.

Email: Jgutierrez AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Adam Kharakov

Writer

Adam’s profile coming soon.

Favorite Movies: Coming Soon
Favorite Games: Star Wars: The Old Republic, Skyrim
Favorite TV Shows: Coming Soon
Favorite Anime: Coming Soon

Email: AKharakov AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Jess Tompkins

Contributing Writer

Jess is gamer, cosplayer, convention-lover, and all-round nerd. Her numerous interests include Star Wars (don’t mess with the Fett), sci-fi/action-adventure/survival-horror games, and writing. Her console of choice is the PS3.

Favorite Movies: Star Wars, Labyrinth, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Galaxy Quest, Kick Ass, Lord of the Rings, Dogma, Repo! The Genetic Opera
Favorite Games: Resident Evil, Dead Space, BioShock, Mass Effect, Dynasty Warriors, Uncharted
Favorite TV Shows: The Walking Dead, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Supernatural
Favorite Anime: Anything by Miyazaki

Email: JTompkins AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Genevieve LeBlanc

Contributing Writer

Genevieve LeBlanc is one of those exotic creatures known as a “Canadian.” Raised on a steady diet of Dragonball Z, Genevieve is currently a full-time psychology student and even fuller-time nerd. Her favourite video game series are Silent Hill and Resident Evil, favourite anime is Higurashi no Naku koro ni, and Batman is her preferred caped crusader. She lives in Ontario with her many pets and cosplays, playing video games and planning a return trip to Tokyo. One day, she hopes to be the geekiest person with a PhD and she will rule her practise with a Power Gloved fist.

Email: GLeblanc AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Michael Revis

Contributing Writer

A gamer at heart, Michael has been a part of the nerd culture since he was but a wee lad. While figuring out just what the hell he should do after college, he decided that if he was going to be spending the majority of his time playing video games, he might as well make a career out of it. After discovering his second love of writing, being a gaming journalist seemed to make perfect sense, and he went on to graduate with a BA in Journalism. He still has his backup plans for world domination in case things don’t go the way he wants them to, but, for the moment at least, he’s content with spending his days staring at a television screen instead of forcing minions to build him a doomsday device.

Favorite Movies: Kung-fu Hustle, Ace Ventura, Who Framed Roger Rabbit,
Favorite Video Games: Guilty Gear, Megaman X, Final Fantasy IX, Legend of Zelda series, Lost Odyssey, way too many others to list.
Favorite Anime: Cromartie High School, Berserk, Cowboy Bebop, Detroit Metal City, Fist of the North Star, Golden Boy
Favorite Bands: Nightwish, Dropkick Murphys, Dir en Grey

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Steve Nguyen

Contributing Writer

Being a jock all his life, he was denying himself of who he really was, an undercover nerd. Now he has the space balls to finally come out of the closet and let everyone know that he loves comic books, video games, anime and action figures (They are not just dolls)!

Favorite Movie: 300, Taken, Resident Evil 1 & 2, Finding Nemo, The Matrix trilogy, Space Balls
Favorite Anime: Devil May Cry, Golden Boy, Ninja Scroll, Samurai X, Wicked City, SpongeBob SquarePants
Favorite Comics: Spawn, Batman & Spawn, Batman vs Predator
Favorite Games: Gear of War, God of War, COD, X-Men, Batman: Arkham Asylum, games that make me go, “BOOM! Head shoot!”

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Hokan “Kansta” Lo

Contributing Writer

At a young age of 6, Hokan “Kansta” Lo received Math Blaster for Christmas. From then on now, he would be doomed to embark on the journey of Geekdom for the rest of his life. You’d never imagine he was born in the state of North Carolina, where he lived out most of his early years. Emigrated to California in 2006, Hokan was flabbergasted at the sight of slant-eye black-hair people talking to him in a strange language. He is an avid player of 2D fighting games, but is completely terrible at them.

Favorite Foods: Fried Chicken, Korean BBQ, Southern Sweet Tea, Pho
Favorite Sports Teams: (NFL) Carolina Panthers, (FA) Arsenal F.C., (NBA) New Orleans Hornets
Favorite Musicians: Perfume, m-flo, nujabes, Sigur Rós, Röyksopp, Yoko Kanno

Email: Hlo AT nerdreactor DOT com

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JR Cajigas

Contributing Tech Writer

If you can somehow catch JR during the off times at the hospital, you will find that he is a lifelong gamer and Anime nut. He has been attending Anime Expo for the last 15 years and is now starting that history with Comic-Con. He has not fully embraced the NERD within, but suffice to say, the transformation is well underway with his continual involvement with NerdReactor.com. In the meantime, he is likely to be found at your local steakhouse enjoying his favorite, the ever-so-juicy rare-cooked bone-in ribeye steak, and don’t forget the fries dipped in ranch. His contributions to NerdReactor.com are as a photographer and technology columnist.

Email: Dcajigas AT nerdreactor DOT com

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James Hong

Contributing Writer

James loves technology, games, and anime. He love technology because he wants to know how it works and make things easy for himself. He loves anime because who doesn’t love cartoons . He love games because he’s been playing them ever since he was a kid. His first console was a NES. His favorite childhood game was Track & Field, because it was his very first game. He played the game so much that his father got a hammer and smashed his NES because he wouldn’t listen.

Favorite Anime: Trigun, Ghost in a Shell, Neon Genesis…
Favorite Game: Earth Bound
Favorite Hobby: Collecting Bottle Caps
Favorite Sport: Swimming and Water Polo

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Rocky Vy

Writer

Rocky isn’t really a gamer, but is a geek by nature, primarily through osmosis. He hails from the South, growing up in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. He first went to school for engineering, but for some reason decided an art degree in advertising was much a better fit. Now living in beautiful Long Beach, CA, he currently does marketing for small businesses, cosplay as Sexy Pikachu, and be a social butterfly. He also hopes to start a not-for-profit soon, helping those who face discrimination learn to make their lives better.
Favorite Movies: Kill Bill, Anchorman, Bridesmaids
Games: Smash Brothers, Mortal Kombat
Anime: Naruto
Food: Sushi, Thai, Hamburgers
Artist: Takashi Murakami
Writer: Paulo Coelho
Musicians: Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Adele, LMFAO, Chromeo, Basement Jaxx, Afrojack
Email: RKhamken AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Fernando Caire

Contributing Writer

Fernando Caire is a cosplayer, an artist, an aspiring Video editor, a prop builder, a writer, and a cinephile, with a PHD in awesome. He loves cinema, both good and bad. You will catch him once a month with a group of like minded masochists who endure 8 hours of the worst movies in cinematic history…for fun. He loves video games (shows off his “team Ps3″ shirt) and loves writing about these when he gets the chance (though the only ones he ever received for review have been bad).

The San Diego Comic Con is what he considers to be his once a year vacation. You will find him in line for Hall H bright and early and if you are between him and any kind of free swag…God help you.

Favorite Movie: Ghostbusters, The Monster Squad, Labyrinth, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original), any Godzilla film minus the 1998 remake, Dawn of the Dead, Interview with a vampire, and Aliens… just to name a few since I love way too many.
Favorite Video Game: Final Fantasy VII, Gears of War, Halo,
Favorite Anime: Akira, Howl’s Moving Castle, Bleach, Naruto
Favorite Shows: Doctor Who, Supernatural, True Blood, Game of Thrones
Favorite Comics: Green Lantern, Sandman, Batman, The Punisher

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Jonathan Ofalla

Contributing Writer

Jonathan is a fan of anime and loves all things electronic. He’s drawn to Japanese pop culture including Jpop music and Jdrama. In his spare time, he likes to DJ and learn BJJ.

Email: Jofalla AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Mark Marquez

Contributing Writer

Mark is and always has been a gamer. His earliest memories are of Street Fighter 2 and Resident Evil (Yes, he was peculiar child). Currently in college studying English to teach abroad, he squanders what ever time he has left over not on friends or family or meaningful relationships, but on video games and TV. A horrible Hazama and Cody player, he eagerly anticipates all the big fighters, and has lined up more than once for a midnight launch…alone.

Favorite Games: Blazblue Continuum Shift, Super Street Fighter 4, Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted franchise, Tekken, Dead Space, Dead Rising.
Favorite Movies: Zombie movies, The Hangover, Star Wars, 300, Doubt.
Favorite Anime: High School of the Dead, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, TTGL.

Email: Mmarquez AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Kenny Kong

Contributing Writer

Kenny is a full-blown otaku. He loves gaming and watching anime pretty much most of his life since coming here from Hong Kong. Kenny Kong from Hong Kong (don’t laugh). He was once the quiet shy guy of the group and non-nerdy until he was actually exposed to anime and games. He likes to nitpick on things that aren’t portrayed correctly in movies and is also a really huge wrestling fan.

Favorite Anime: Code Geass
Favorite Movies: Toy Story Franchise
Favorite Games: JRPGs, Halo
Favorite Quote: “You can take your little CD, shine it up real nice. Turn that sonuvabitch side ways and stick it straight up your candy ass!” – The Rock

Email: Kkong AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Joey Rassool

The CosCast Producer/Host

Joey is a cosplayer and has been ever since his days working for Warner Bros. and Universal. Since then, he has produced an array of successful internet videos, as well as worked in and out of the film industry. Joey conducts most professional meetings via “Halo: Reach” and produces “The CosCast” every week.

Email: CosCast AT nerdreactor DOT com

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Jordan Brown

The CosCast Host/Contributing Writer

Photo by Gengphoto.com

Jordan Brown is an avid gamer and cosplayer. He has dabbled in the art of Special Effects production for films such as Batman: Death Wish and the short film Obscurita and has acted in a few short films around the web. He brings with him his sporadic energy and his tactful wit that he uses in earnest on “The CosCast”.

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Matthew Lewis

The CosCast Host

Photo by Keneden.com

Matthew Lewis’ bio coming soon

Favorite Anime: Coming Soon

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Tara Strand

The CosCast Host

Tara considers herself a dilettante nerd. As far back as she can remember, if she’s had at least a passing interest in a thing, odds are it was a thing on the geeky tip. She was that gothy girl in the Disney’s Hunchback t-shirt who has the Xena poster on her wall, was busy hunting the web for Dragon Ball Z fansubs while playing Batman: The Animated Series in the background, and has a half-finished renaissance fair costume in the corner that’s sitting on top of her Marx Brothers biography next to her drum kit and juggling balls.

With tickets to see the re-release of Star Wars that night. As co-founder of the renowned Batman group Gotham Public Works, best known for her cosplay as Harley Quinn, she continues to work on related photo and video projects. She considers one of her greatest geek achievements pulling off a (classy!) Batman-themed wedding with her husband, GPW’s Joker. Tara works in visual communications and is an actress and live performer who loves to critique questionable graphic design, never sees a new Harry Potter film without her Gryffindor sweater and tie, and loves to belt out her intensely annoying rendition of the Doctor Who theme song at home.

Tumblr Site: www.tumblr.com/tagged/tara+strand