Jon Peterson studies the history of games, especially tabletop role-playing games and wargames. His first book, "Playing at the World," was called "the first serious history of the development of Dungeons & Dragons" by the Village Voice. More recently, he wrote the MIT Press Game Histories series books "The Elusive Shift" and "Game Wizards." He is also co-author of the Hugo Award finalist "Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana," the New York Times bestselling official Dungeons & Dragons cookbook "Heroes' Feast," and worked on the "Trivial Pursuit: Dungeons & Dragons Ultimate Edition." He has contributed to numerous academic anthologies and popular culture websites including Polygon, Wired, and BoingBoing.

Kyle Newman is a Hugo Award-nominated, New York Times Bestselling author and award-winning filmmaker whose directorial work encompasses multiple feature films including, 'Fanboys,' the Star Wars-fueled comedy starring Kristen Bell and Seth Rogen, the action-comedy 'Barely Lethal' starring Hailee Steinfeld and Samuel L. Jackson for A24 Films, the esports comedy '1UP,' starring Ruby Rose for Lionsgate and Amazon, and upcoming 'Dungeons & Dragons Documentary' (as co-director) exploring the fifty-year history of the iconic game for Entertainment One, Ltd. and Hasbro which he is also executive producing.

He has directed the music industry’s biggest artists including Taylor Swift (“Style”, “Clean” and content for Taylor’s 1989 World Tour featuring Selena Gomez, Haim and more) Lana Del Rey (“Summertime Sadness”) and Cyn (“Losing Sleep” and “House With A View” guest starring Katy Perry) with his work garnering billions of views.

Newman produced the acclaimed documentaries 'Raiders: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made,' about three teenagers who set out to recreate Steven Spielberg’s classic Raiders of the Lost Ark shot-for-shot and 'A Disturbance in the Force' which explores the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special (an official 2023 SXSW Film Festival Selection). He also crafted the story for the hit Netflix Original animated feature 'Gnome Alone.'.

He is a bestselling author known for his work on the Hugo Award and Locus Award-nominated 'Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana,' a history of the world’s greatest roleplaying game as well as 'Heroes’ Feast: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cookbook,' which debuted on all major bestseller lists including The Wall Street Journal, The NY Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly. His two new books -- 'Heroes’ Feast: Flavors of the Multiverse' and 'Lore & Legends,' which chronicles D&D’s improbable resurgence -- hit shelves in Fall of 2023. He also serves as a consulting producer on 'Heroes Feast,' the official cooking show based on the book series.

Newman, an honors graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of Film/TV and the recipient of the esteemed ‘Martin Scorsese Award for Excellence in Directing’, has written and/or directed for clients including A24 Films, The Microsoft Corp., Interscope Records, Starz Entertainment, Wizards of the Coast (Hasbro), The Coca-Cola Company, Starwars.com, 20th Century Fox, Capitol Records, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, Big Machine Records, Lionsgate, Endemol Shine, Millennium Films, Pacific Life Insurance, Lucasfilm, Ltd., NECA/WizKids, Games For Windows, Awesomeness TV, Hooters of America, Titan Publishing, Unsub Records, The Saturday Group and Universal Republic Music.

A proud member of the Director’s Guild of America, he resides in Los Angeles with his partner Cyn and three sons James Knight, Leo Thames and Etienne Noel.

SAM WITWER is an American actor and musician with a love of the Fantasy and Science Fiction genres. Perhaps not coincidentally, he is best known for a series of Sci-Fi genre roles spanning a twenty year career. He led SyFy's darkly humorous, and provocative drama series, Being Human playing the down-and-out, vampire-gone-straight, "Aidan Waite". Other credits include conflicted Raptor Pilot "Crashdown" in the Hugo Award winning series Battlestar Galactica, Superman-Killing "Doomsday" in CW's Smallville, misunderstood "Mr Hyde" in ABC's Once Upon a Time, along with supporting roles in Showtime's Dexter, Amazon's Electric Dreams, and Stephen King's / Frank Darabont's cult classic horror film, The Mist. Sam is also well known for his continuing work for the "Star Wars" Saga, bringing various characters to life in video games, film, and television, starting in 2008 as Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice "Starkiller" in Star Wars : The Force Unleashed, and culminating, most recently, in a multi-year Emmy nominated run voicing the villainous Ex-Sith Lord "Darth Maul". He is a longtime and avid player of both electronic and pen-and-paper roleplaying games, and he hosts a regular Twitch broadcast where his gaming chops are on display.

MICHAEL WITWER is a New York Times bestselling author known for his work on the Hugo-nominated Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, the critically acclaimed Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons, and the bestselling Heroes' Feast: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cookbook. He holds degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago and has a diverse professional background that has ranged from his current position as head of communications of a national healthcare benefits company to significant work in the gaming market. His most recent works include Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Visual Dictionary, Dungeons & Dragons: Lore & Legends, and his debut novel, Vivian Van Tassel and the Secret of Midnight Lake. His books have won many honors, including being selected as a Hugo Award finalist, a national bestseller (New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly), an Amazon "Best Book of the Month," a Diana Jones Award nominee, a Locus Award finalist, and a GeekDad "Best Book of the Year," and when he's not writing books about games, he loves playing them! Michael resides in Chicago, Illinois, with his wife, two daughters and two sons.