Debi Derryberry is one of the most in-demand voiceover actresses in Hollywood. She’s perhaps best known for voicing Jimmy Neutron in both the Academy Award-nominated film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and in the TV series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius. Debi’s also played dozens of memorable characters in features like the original Toy Story in which she’s one of the aliens, The Boy and the Heron, Despicable Me 2, Kiki’s Delivery Service, The Christmas Chronicles and many more. She’s also appeared in well more than 100 TV series, including Monster High, Sharkdog, Bugs Bunny Builders, Pokemon Horizons, and The Loud House.

Debi’s video game work includes Cookie Run Kingdom, Crash Bandicoots, Final Fantasy, Guild Wars 2, Genshin Impact, and World of Warcraft.

For Anime, you can hear Debi in Netflix’s Rising Impact, Zatch Bell, Sailor Moon and Glitter Force.

Debi’s also written and recorded 5 award-winning children’s music albums. Her 2 most recent are: Go to Sleep-Lullaby Album and Gotta Go Green. Debi’s song Baby Banana hit #1 on Sirius/XM Kids. Her music can readily be found on all digital streaming platforms. Look for her new kids single, Compost Bin, with Grammy Award winner Lisa Loeb.

You can also find Debi at debiderryberry.com and on her YouTube channel, Debi Derryberry KIDS! which has animated videos to accompany her children’s music. Her TikTok page has over 1.3 million followers and over 28 million likes!

The highly renowned classical clarinetist, David Singer, has performed many times at Carnegie Hall. He was a principal member and soloist with the Grammy Award-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for 36 years and is featured on many of the group’s 70 CDs on Deutsche Grammophon.

David began with Orpheus when the group was playing for free. He has played with many of the world’s greatest classical musicians, including legends like Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman, Rudolf Serkin, and Yo-Yo Ma among others.

David has also performed at the White House with Music from Marlboro and The Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society for Presidents Carter and Clinton.

David’s recently published memoir, From Cab Driver to Carnegie Hall, is more than a musician's autobiography; its inspiring narrative will resonate with anyone who has faced life's challenges head-on. It’s an ode to the power of never giving up while giving oneself every chance to succeed.

I’ve read David’s book and found it to be a fascinating, uplifting reflection of a life in music that’s been full of challenges, triumphs, and the transformative power of music. If you enjoy stories about artists succeeding despite difficult obstacles, I highly urge you to read David’s entertaining memoir.

Mark Mangini is a six-time Oscar-nominated, two-time Oscar-winning Sound Designer. He won his Oscars for Dune and Mad Max Fury Road. Mark’s also well known for designing sound for numerous films, including: Blade Runner 2049, Star Treks I, IV and V, Beauty and the Beast, TheFifthElement, Space Jam, Poltergeist,Gremlins, Aladdin, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, among many more.

Mark has spent his 49-year career in Hollywood imagining and composing altered sonic realities for motion pictures. He’s a frequent lecturer, an outspoken proponent for sound as art, and a guitarist/songwriter with compositions that can be heard in sex, lies and videotape, Star Trek IV, and more.

Mark believes that all organized sound is music. He sees his work in movies as every bit a composition as those of Beethoven and the Beatles. He just happens to use dissonance, melodic content and arrhythmia to its fullest advantage. His work is no less considered, designed, created or manipulated. It just isn’t usually what we think of as hummable.

His first job in the entertainment industry was at the age of 19 in the sound department of Hanna Barbera Studios making funny noises for children’s cartoons. His ears have been keenly trained by years of language study and playing guitar, which suited him well for a career of critical listening and creating unimagined aural worlds and fabricating sonic realities for motion pictures.

Mark founded and ran the successful post-production sound company, Weddington Productions, for 25 years. Today he works at Formosa Group in Hollywood, continuing his work as a Supervising Sound Editor, Sound Designer and Re-recording mixer.

Christopher Fryer is the co-author of the books Jack Nicholson: The Early Years; Bruce Dern: Things I Said, but Probably Shouldn’t Have, and Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father’s Unsolved Murder.

Chris’s non-fiction work has also appeared in Conde-Nast Traveler, Playboy, and the New York Times.

I’ve read Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father’s Unsolved Murder, and have chatted about it once before on StoryBeat with Chris’s writing partner, the outstanding author, Robert Crane. I’ve also read Chris’s short story, Hunting License, which is a very entertaining tale about a hunter who doesn’t like to kill. You’ll need to read it to see how it twists in an unexpected way. Hunting License is the first tale in the wonderful short story collection, Beyond Where the Buses Run, which was edited by another terrific StoryBeat guest, Theresa Griffin Kennedy.

Joe Wos is the 6-time Emmy Award-winning creator and host of “Cartoon Academy” as seen on PBS affiliates nationwide.

Joe’s been a professional cartoonist since the age of 14. Over the past 35 years, as he’s sought new and innovative ways to pursue his passion for the cartoon arts, his career path has taken as many twists and turns as one of his wonderful mazes. For example, he spent 30 years touring the U.S. as a performer, illustrating stories live as he told them. He founded and ran a cartoon art museum here in Pittsburgh called the Toonseum. He illustrated symphony performances live with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. And he’s exhibited his art in museums worldwide. Beyond all that, Joe’s been the visiting resident cartoonist of the Charles M. Schulz Museum for over 23 years.

With MazeToons — his unique hybrid illustration that is part cartoon and part puzzle — Joe has fulfilled a lifelong dream to appear in the funny pages.

He’s the author and illustrator of a dozen books, including “A-Maze-Ing Peanuts”, “Mega Maze Challenge,” “Our A-Maze-Ing National Parks,” “A-Maze-Ing America,” “A-Maze-Ing Animals,” “The Exploding Kittens Activity Book,” and many more. Joe’s also the Brand Character Integrity Consultant and artist for Charlie the Tuna of StarKist fame.

Joe won the 2020 Divisional Reuben Award for the Variety Category as presented by the National Cartoonists Society.

For the record, Joe and I have known one another for more than a decade, from his days running the Toonseum here in Pittsburgh.

The award-winning author, TEDx speaker, screenwriter, Gestalt practitioner, and patient advocate, Risa August, has been living with a pituitary tumor and the rare disease acromegaly for over a decade. From being a girl with sparkles in her hair to an Ironman athlete, Risa still has a passion for her bike and barbells. With genuine curiosity and a love for trying new (and old) things, you may find Risa taking Bollywood or Hip-Hop dance lessons, trying out aerial silks, a boxing class, going indoor skydiving, or guiding inspirational workshops in creativity.

Through her personal transformation, Risa has learned and practiced removing limiting beliefs, shifting her perspective, and embracing an expansive life unleashed. Risa shares her insights and perspectives on stage, offering words of inspiration to audiences. Additionally, Risa works one-on-one with clients, guiding them through the many roadblocks of life and toward living in a more fully inspired way.

Recently, Risa published her book, The Road Unpaved: Border to Border with a Brain Tumor and a Bike. I’ve read The Road Unpaved and can tell you I was deeply moved and awestruck by Risa’s struggles to overcome the strains of a grueling 1000+ mile bike ride along the U.S. Pacific Coast while contending with her tumor and acromegaly. If you’re interested in stories about people engaging in their deepest will power to triumph over extreme challenges, then I highly urge you to check out The Road Unpaved.

The rock and roll legend, Billy J. Kramer, grew up in Bootle, a Liverpool suburb. Upon leaving school, he became a trainee engineer by day and aspiring singer by night, performing under the stage name Billy Kramer. Billy’s performances at local rock clubs around Liverpool soon brought him to the attention of the one and only John Lennon. John urged Brian Epstein to sign Billy to an exclusive management contract. Billy jumped at the opportunity to become a full-time entertainer.

Soon after, Billy was summoned to Brian’s office to find John there waiting for him with the suggestion that he add the “J” to his name to give it a “rock and roll edge”. From that day forward, Billy has been known as Billy J. Kramer.

In March of 1963, Billy was the first person to have a hit record with a Lennon-McCartney song, “Do You Want To Know A Secret,” which was written specially for him by John and Paul and produced by George Martin at Abbey Road Studios even before The Beatles recorded it.

Billy toured extensively throughout the UK as the opening act for The Beatles both before and during Beatlemania. Billy also headlined tours with such greats as Del Shannon, Gene Pitney, and The Everly Brothers.

Billy’s recordings of the Lennon-McCartney compositions, “Bad To Me” along with “I’ll Keep You Satisfied”, “From A Window”, and “I Call Your Name” all became international million sellers. He also had a smash hit with the Mort Shuman/John Leslie McFarland song, Little Children.

Released as a double sided single, Bad To Me and Little Children have the unique distinction of being the highest entry into the Billboard charts at #8. That accomplishment has never been equalled.

Billy’s appearances on the Ed Sullivan show, Shindig, and Hullaballoo secured his place in rock ‘n roll history. In 1964, Billy performed as part of the legendary T.A.M.I. show along with such artists as James Brown, Chuck Berry, The Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes , Smokey Robinson, The Rolling Stones and many others.

To commemorate his 50th anniversary in the music business, Billy recorded and released new material entitled “I Won The Fight”.

Billy recently released his autobiography, “Do You Want To Know A Secret.”

Billy continues to record, perform and promote his Storytellers show to international audiences.

Please stick around at the end of the show for a really fantastic treat. Billy has lent us his brand new Christmas song, “Christmas Kinda Feeling…”

Charlie Adlard has been a veteran of the comics industry for over 25 years. From 2003 to 2019 he spent the majority of his time drawing The Walking Dead through the conclusion of its run as a comic book series. He received many industry awards for his work on the series, culminating in winning the 2019 Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art.

In his time as a cartoonist, Charlie has worked on many other projects as far-reaching as Mars Attacks, the X-Files, Judge Dredd, Savage, Batman, X-Men, and Superman.

He’s also drawn many creator-owned projects closer to his heart, like Astronauts In Trouble, Breath Of The Wendigo, Codeflesh, Rock Bottom, Vampire State Building, White Death, Damn Them All, Heretic, and Altamont.