Special Guests

Below are some of the special guests that will be in attendance at this year’s OzCon International. This list will be updated often as we continue to make announcements.

TARA TAGLIAFERRO & EMKAY SHRADER

We couldn’t be happier to let the joyous news be spread, Tara Tagliaferro & EmKay Shrader of Down the Yellow Brick Pod are joining OzCon as our Sparkling Emcees (or Good Witches of Ceremony, if you will) this June! As the official recommended podcast of OzCon, DTYBP takes listeners on a magical journey through all things Oz—from L. Frank Baum’s Oz books to Disney’s Return to Oz and the world of Wicked. Don’t miss a moment of their Oz-some insights—subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, follow them on Instagram @downtheyellowbrickpod, and join their enchanting Patreon community!

Down the Yellow Brick Pod is an Oz pop culture and historical preservation podcast hosted by besties Emily Kay Shrader and Tara Tagliaferro somewhere over the rainbow! Since 2020, Down the YBP has been peeling behind the curtain on Oz property after Oz property, mining for emeralds in each discussion, exploring the gray, and building a found fam off mic via their Patreon. Past seasons include the original Baum books, the MGM classic, the original Broadway production, film, and 2024 revival of The Wiz, Disney’s Return to Oz, Wicked from page to stage to films, and many other niche deep dives in between. Past guests of the pod include Judy Garland’s celebrated daughter Lorna Luft, Shanice Williams of NBC’s The Wiz Live!, Todrick Hall on Straight Out of Oz, Tony and Grammy Award Winning good witch Dee Dee Bridgewater of the original The Wiz, RuPaul Drag Race’s Ginger Minj, The Wiz 2024 Revival cast members, Wicked musical and movie cast members, and the one and only Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked.

In addition to their seasons thus far, EmKay and Tara have developed an Oz song catalog performing live from the historic Stonewall Inn to the Land of Oz Theme Park in NC, hosting an annual retreat there in tandem. In 2024, they made their documentary debut in Mysteries of Oz and held the ruby slippers that went for 28 million dollars, two dreams that they dared to dream that HOLY MOLY came true. Tara and EmKay have had Oz in their DNA since before they could remember, meeting as nuns on the run on the Broadway National Tour of Sister Act a decade ago and living together during the pandemic in Queens, NY. They couldn’t be happier to be your OzCon hosts!

MICHAEL BOWLING

Michael Bowling is a Disney historian for the DIS Unlimited and the host of the Connecting with Walt podcast, where he explores the life and legacy of Walt Disney. He is featured in the documentary Walt Disney: Behind the Magic and has shared his expertise at the Walt Disney Family Museum with his presentation Go North Young Mouse: Walt Disney’s Adventures in Northern California.

At OzCon International, he will present Walt Disney’s Rainbow Road to Oz, an in-depth look at the ambitious but never-produced Oz project that once promised to bring L. Frank Baum’s world to life through the magic of Disney.

CRAIG MILLER

We’re over the moon to announce that Craig Miller— Publicity Executive and Marketing Consultant for Return to Oz and Star Wars—will be joining us as a special guest speaker at OzCon International!

Though his official title on Return to Oz may sound modest, Craig played a key role behind the scenes: personally brought on board by Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz, he dove into the Disney archives with legendary archivist Dave Smith, spent time on set with the cast and crew at Elstree Studios in England and the Will Vinton ‘Claymation’ Studio in Portland, Oregon, and helped launch a spectacular, show-stopping Return to Oz display at WorldCon.

You won’t want to miss his insider stories and rare glimpse behind the emerald curtain!

Craig Miller started his career in Hollywood as a publicity executive, working as a consultant for Lucasfilm, Warner Bros., Disney, Universal, etc. on such films as Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, The Dark Crystal, Altered States, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Splash, Return to Oz, The Thing, The Muppets Take Manhattan, The Wicker Man, Excalibur, and others, working directly with George Lucas, Jim Henson, and other creative powerhouses. After switching careers to something more directly creative, he’s been writing, developing, and producing television. He has well over 300 TV credits in all areas, from Showtime’s horror anthology series The Hunger to the Emmy-winning PBS series Curious George. He spends much of his time writing and developing projects for studios, channels, and production companies around the world. He’s done shows for China, Australia, France, Italy, Dubai, etc. He currently has two books out: Star Wars Memories tells about his time at Lucasfilm working on Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back and More Movie Memories continues with more tales about working on Star Wars, stories about the dozens of other movies he worked on in the 1980s, and the last third about his career writing and producing television.

SCOTT BROGAN

Scott Brogan will be joining us to discuss and sign copies of his brand new book Judy Garland The Voice of MGM, which will be released on June 18th. Scott will have limited copies on hand so we encourage you to preorder and bring your own copy to the event if possible.

Scott Brogan is the webmaster and author of the world-famous Judy Room website, which includes the largest and most detailed Garland discography ever compiled. He is also the author and webmaster of the Judy Garland News & Events blog, which features the “On This Day” series that presents thousands of images and details about Garland’s life and career for each day of the year. For eight years he was the designer and webmaster of Liza Minnelli’s official website. He is world renowned for the design and content of these sites and is a respected expert on Garland’s career, having been a major contributor to books about Garland and/or her films, as well as books about the MGM Studios, in addition to podcasts, live stream events, and radio programs. For four years, Brogan worked as a researcher and author for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. His program essays have been cataloged by the Library of Congress and translated into several languages. He was also a community columnist for the San Francisco Bay Area Reporter for many years. He recently co-produced and wrote the liner notes for the successful Judy at 100 – 26 Classics in Stereo CD release; he has written several other CD liner notes and been involved in the production of many others. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

GREGORY HALL & VINCENT MYRAND

Composer Gregory Hall has been passionate about Oz ever since the 1960s, when only being able to see the 1939 movie once a year made it even more special, and especially since he experienced the amazing conclusion to The Marvelous Land of Oz when only nine years old. He holds a B.A. degree in Music from the University of California Santa Barbara (1982), and a Diploma degree from the Curtis Institute of Music (1986), where he studied with Ned Rorem. He is an elected member of the American Composers Alliance, and a Fellow of the Ucross Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
He has participated in festivals and concerts by the American Composers Alliance, Music Teachers National Association, Society of Composers Inc., Maine Composers Forum, Maine Arts, Gamper Festival, Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival, and the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States.
In 2024, soprano Merissa Beddows was awarded a $5,000 Young Alumni Grant from the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA, to produce and star in Gregory’s “Musical Opera” Marvelous. In 2023 Marvelous was a finalist for the American Prize in Composition, Opera/Theater division. He has received many other commissions and grants since the 1990’s.
Mr. Hall’s commercial recordings and works have been reviewed numerous times: in the New Music Connoisseur, the New York Times, The American Record Guide, MusicWeb International, as well as the Portland (Maine) Press-Herald.
His fascination with songwriting–and combining contemporary opera and musicals–has resulted in Marvelous, based on Land of Oz, his response to the tale that has haunted him for decades.

Renowned Oz artist Vincent Myrand is a veteran of the Oz scene, and one of its best known visual representatives. He has been passionate about Oz since childhood, and the subject has informed his art in the same way. Vincent’s clients include Emma Ridley (Return to Oz), who has commissioned dozens of portraits of the film’s character Ozma from him, and Christianna Rickard. He has illustrated the books Yookoohoos of Oz by Paul Dana, A Legend in Straw (a memoir of Ray Bolger by his niece Christianna Rickard), and Ziggy Zig-Zags—The Light and Dark Fantastic by Ron Baxley Jr.
Vincent has been a recognized VIP and vendor at numerous Oz events. These include: 2015–OzCon International, San Diego, CA. 2017–Oz-Stravaganza, Chittenango, NY. 2018–OzCon International, Pomona, CA. He has also had residencies at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME, among others, and taught at numerous venues.
Vincent’s current Oz project is his largest to date: he has produced well over 60 canvases for the “Illustrated Musical Opera“ Marvelous, by Gregory Hall and Vincent Myrand. In 2024, soprano Merissa Beddows, semi-finalist for America’s Got Talent 2023, was awarded a $5,000 Young Alumni Grant from the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA, to produce and star in Marvelous. In 2023 Marvelous was a finalist for the American Prize in Composition, Opera/Theater division.
In his illustrations for the opera, which will be displayed prominently during performances, Vincent draws upon the symbolist language of artists like Gustave Moreau and Alphonse Mucha, to find the visual spark that ignites the potential of the overall story.

PETER HANFF

Peter Hanff discovered Oz at age three when his father read the books aloud, sparking a lifelong passion for collecting. Growing up in Los Angeles, he and three junior high friends explored the city’s antiquarian bookshops, deepening his love for rare books. In high school, he wrote an honors paper on L. Frank Baum and was introduced to key figures in the Oz community, including Dick Martin and Justin G. Schiller. As a college sophomore, he won first prize in a book collecting contest for his Baum collection—an achievement that led to his parents hosting the very first Winkie Convention in 1964, the foundation of what is now OzCon International.

Peter went on to a distinguished career in rare books, working at Zeitlin & VerBrugge, the Library of Congress, and the Lilly Library, where he began his scholarly work on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. He spent over 50 years at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, eventually becoming Deputy Director, and co-authored Bibliographia Oziana. A past President of The International Wizard of Oz Club, Peter remains an active and passionate collector in retirement.

DAVID DIKET

David Diket, better known online as the “Louisiana Quadling” on YouTube, has been involved with the greater Oz community for the past decade. He started performing Wizard of Oz piano pieces here at OzCon in 2015, and later recorded them for his YouTube channel, LA Quadling. The YouTube channel mixes live piano performances, collecting Oz memorabilia and commentaries on recent Oz topics.

This year David will be performing a live piano suite of music from familiar Disney Oz films including Return to Oz, Oz the Great and Powerful, and The Rainbow Road to Oz.