NY ANIME Festival, NYAV Post, and TripWire Productions Announce Voice Acting Contest

Norwalk, CT, November 15, 2007: The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced Who Wants To Be A Voice Actor?, a voice acting contest produced by leading New York City studios NYAV Post and TripWire Productions. Who Wants To Be A Voice Actor? will take place at 12:30 PM on Sunday, December 9 at the inaugural New York Anime Festival at the Jacob Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan. Hosted by NYAV Post founder Michael Sinterniklaas and TripWire Productions founder Tom Wayland, the event will give NYAF attendees the chance to fulfill their dreams of becoming a professional voice actor or actress. The Grand Prize is a paid voice acting role in an upcoming NYAV Post and/or TripWire Productions project.

Sinterniklaas and Wayland will put attendees through a series of contests, testing their vocal skills and range, narrowing the voice actor hopefuls down until only one remains. The contest will consist of three rounds: Prepared Material, Versatility, and Automatic Dialogue Replacement.

"We're honored to work with Mr. Sinterniklaas and Mr. Wayland, two of the top names in the anime dubbing industry, and we are very excited to be offering a fan a chance to become a professional voice actor -- something that is very literally a dream come true," NYAF Show Manager John McGeary said.

Anime fans interested in entering can find full details and Official Entry Forms online at http://www.nyanimefestival.com/en-us/493.cfm. Entrants must drop off completed forms in the New York Anime Festival Show Office anytime before 11:30 AM on Sunday, December 9 to be eligible for this competition.

The New York Anime Festival is organized by the creators of New York Comic Con, which sold out of Weekend and Saturday passes at its 2007 event earlier this year. Thus, NYAF officials highly recommend that attendees purchase their tickets now from newyorkanimefestival.com or at one of its Official Ticket Vendors (Forbidden Planet, Image Anime, Jim Hanley's Universe, Kinokuniya, and St. Mark's Comics) to ensure entrance in December.

ABOUT MICHAEL SINTERNIKLAAS:

Michael Sinterniklaas is a voice actor, dubbing director, and founder of NYAV Post, a dubbing studio in New York City. He was born in the Netherlands and moved to the United States at 10-years-old. Sinterniklaas graduated from the High School of the Performing Arts in New York City and attended college in North Carolina where he did work at both Southwynde and Coastal Carolina Studios. He's currently the voice of Dean Venture (and other parts) in Adult Swim's The Venture Bros., Mikey Simon in the Nicktoons Network series Kappa Mikey, Leonardo in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mahad in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Leo in Fullmetal Alchemist. Sinterniklaas has dubbed such shows as Twin Signal, Weiss Kreuz, Magic User's Club, and Berserk.

ABOUT TOM WAYLAND:

Tom Wayland is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Acting. He got his start performing in various theatrical productions ranging from Hamlet to Jesus Christ Superstar to Stomp. After a stint as a rock star roaming the East Coast's rock clubs, Tom ran out of money and had to get a job -- so he started work at anime company Central Park Media. In his more than four years at CPM, Tom produced more than 200 different anime titles before moving onto voice directing on such animations as Alien Nine, The World of Narue, Shootfighter Tekken and Ichi the Killer: Episode Zero. In 2004, Wayland founded TripWire Productions and has since directed the dubs of series including Mew Mew Power and Magical Do Re Mi. Tom has also become much more active as an actor, landing recurring roles in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as Jammerhead, GI Joe: Sigma 6 as Stormshadow, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX as Abidos and Chumley, Viva Pinata as Wilson Whirlm, and Chaotic as Cerbie and Mipedian. He's also featured in Magical Do Re Mi, One Piece, Mew Mew Power, Weiss Kreuz, Gokusen, and Shura no Toki. Tom is also currently voicing several audiobook projects for Audible.com.

ABOUT NYAV POST:

NYAV Post is a state-of-the-art audio visual post production house boasting four recording studios as well as bicoastal facilities. One of New York's leading recording studios for English localization, original animation programs, commercials, and feature films, NYAV Post is currently recording Cartoon Network's The Venture Bros. and Nickelodeon's Kappa Mikey. Learn more at nyavpost.com.

ABOUT TRIPWIRE PRODUCTIONS:

Founded in 2004, TripWire Productions is a full service Audio Post Production company specializing in ADR for animation and Sound Design for film and television. TripWire's President and founder, Tom Wayland, is a veteran of the industry having produced and/or directed well over 200 animated programs and numerous live-action titles ranging from Saturday morning children's shows to fast-paced martial arts action to emotionally-charged dramatic series to wacky, lowbrow comedy.

ABOUT THE NEW YORK ANIME FESTIVAL:

The New York Anime Festival takes place December 7-9, 2007 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan and is organized by Reed Exhibitions, the creators of New York Comic Con. The New York Anime Festival will showcase the best of anime pop culture, including the latest anime, manga, Japanese cinema, music, and games, and anime-influenced comics, animation, and films from around the world. The festival will feature exclusive and extensive screenings, a gala cosplay masquerade, sessions with the some of the biggest names in anime from Japan, Asia, and America, and explore the Japanese cultural experience with displays of both traditional and cutting-edge Japanese life.

The New York Anime Festival is sponsored by ADV Films, Anime Innovation Tokyo, Anime Insider, Anime Network, Anime News Network, AnimeNEXT, BookExpo America, Diamond Book Distributors, Entertainment Consumers Association, FUNimation Entertainment, ICv2, ImaginAsian, Kinokuniya Bookstores, License! Global, Manga Video, New York Comic Con, NEW YORK - TOKYO, Newtype USA, Publishers Weekly, Starz Media, THINK Corp, TOKYOPOP, Video Business, VIZ Media, Wedge Holdings, Wizards of the Coast, and the World Cosplay Summit.

The New York Anime Festival's Guests of Honor include Peter Fernandez, Corinne Orr, Kobun Shizuno, and Aimee Major Steinberger. The New York Anime Festival's musical guests include HAPPYFUNSMILE, UNICORN TABLE, and Voltaire.

Further information and tickets can be found at www.newyorkanimefestival.com.

ABOUT REED EXHIBITIONS:

The New York Anime Festival is operated by Reed Exhibitions, the world's leading events organizer. In 2006, Reed brought together over six million industry professionals from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today, Reed events are held in 34 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and organized by 37 fully staffed offices.

Reed organizes a wide range of events, including exhibitions, conferences, congresses, and meetings. Its portfolio of over 460 events serves 52 industry sectors, including aerospace and defense, building and construction, design, electronics, energy, oil and gas, entertainment, food and hospitality, gifts, healthcare, IT/telecoms, jewelry, manufacturing, marketing and business services, pharmaceuticals, property, publishing, security, sport and recreation, transport and logistics, and travel.

Working closely with professional bodies, trade associations, and government departments, Reed ensures that each and every event is targeted and relevant to industry needs. As a result, many Reed events are market leaders in their field.

Reed Exhibitions is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, a FTSE-100 company and world-leading publisher and information provider. In 2005, Reed Elsevier made adjusted profit before taxation of £1,002 million on turnover of £5,166 million.