From the press release:

Officials at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) have announced more notable guests from the world of entertainment who will participate in the show and take part in panels. Eliza Dushku, the star of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse will be at C2E2 on both Saturday, March 19 and Sunday, March 20 where she’ll be signing both days and speaking with Dollhouse co-star and previously announced guest of C2E2, Tahmoh Penikett, in a Q & A session on Saturday afternoon. In addition, famed Chef, award-winning author, and popular television personality Rick Bayless will participate in a panel with C.B. Cebulski, writer and talent scout for Marvel, and moderated by Ron Richards of iFanboy and A Taste of Comics. The unique panel, which itself illustrates the broad reach and expansive role of pop culture in the world today, will center on the connections between food and comics on a creative level. Cooking is creativity. Food is art. And that’s the connection to comics. A chef’s knife is the equivalent of an artist’s pencil or brush!

Other guests who have recently been confirmed to appear at C2E2 include Sam Trammell, Kristin Bauer, and Brit Morgan from the cast of the popular HBO series True Blood. Sam, Kristin and Brit will be signing as well as participating in a Q & A spotlight panel on Saturday, March 19. As noted, Tahmoh Penikett was recently announced as a guest at C2E2, along with Jonathan Bernthal, Laurie Holden and Mark Sheppard, who will all be appearing on panels at the show. Other writers, artists, and creators appearing at C2E2 include Brian Michael Bendis, China Miéville, Garth Ennis, and Joe Quesada, among many others. Over 250 artists will be on hand participating in C2E2’s Artist Alley.

C2E2 will take place March 18 – 20 in the South Hall of the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago. Autograph tickets are now available at www.c2e2.com.

“Our guests are incredibly talented and they are outstanding in their own fields of endeavor,” notes Lance Fensterman, Group Vice President for ReedPOP and Show Manager for C2E2. “This is what makes the pop culture world so unique. Eliza Dushku and Rick Bayless can both successfully appear at C2E2 because we can provide them with legions of fans. Our strength is in our diversity and we are grateful to our guests as well as our fans for supporting C2E2 and making it as rich and varied as it is!”

Kristin Bauer: Kristin Bauer is best known for her role as Pam on the HBO show True Blood, you might also know her as the voice of Mera in the Justice League TV series, Lt. Laneth on Star Trek Enterprise, Lydia Meyerson on Dark Angel and as Gillian in the Bizarro Jerry Episode of Seinfeld.

Kristin grew up in Wisconsin playing sports, riding horses, and shooting guns. Her father was an avid horseman and gun collector and her mother a housewife involved in charities. Kristin moved to LA and began acting in 1994 after studying fine arts in St. Louis, Boston and New York. She still studies drawing and painting to this day and does commissioned portraits in between shooting and working to better the treatment of animals and God’s greatest artistic creation - “this spaceship we live on called Earth.” She lives in LA with her many rescued animals and her South African husband, Abri van Straten, a singer, song writer, classical guitar player of the band The Lemmings, who is also releasing a solo record in 2009.

Rick Bayless: Most people know him from winning the title of Bravo’s Top Chef Master beating out the French and Italian with his authentic Mexican cuisine. His highly rated on-going Public Television Series, Mexico—One Plate at a Time can be found on television sets coast to coast, and his award-winning, six cookbooks. Rick’s second book, Mexican Kitchen, won the Julia Childs IACP cookbook of the year award in 1996, and his fourth book, Mexico—One Plate at a Time won James Beard Best International Cookbook of the Year award in 2001.

Bayless’s side by side award-winning restaurants in Chicago were founded in 1987. The casual Frontera Grill and the 4-star Topolobampo. In 2007, Frontera Grill won for Outstanding Restaurant by the James Beard Organization. His award-winning Frontera line of salsas, grilling sauces and organic chips can be found coast to coast. On the local front, Rick and his staff began the Frontera Farmer Foundation in 2003 to attract support for small Midwestern farms. Each year, grants are given to our local farmers for capital improvements to their family farms. In 2007 he was awarded the Humanitarian of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals for his work with our local farmers. In 2007, Bayless and his team launched the Frontera Scholarship: a full tuition scholarship that will send a Mexican-American student to Kendall Culinary College to study the culinary arts.

Rick Bayless has won James Beard awards for: Midwest Chef of the Year, National Chef of the Year and Humanitarian of the Year. His cookbook with his now 19 year old daughter, Lanie, titled Rick and Lanie’s Excellent Kitchen Adventures was nominated for a James Beard Award as well as Rick’s latest book Mexican Everyday. Mexico One Plate at a Time is currently in its seventh season on PBS. Bayless recently opened his third restaurant: XOCO—a quick serve LEED certified restaurant featuring house-ground chocolate and wood grilled tortas.

Rick’s latest book, Fiesta at Rick’s (WW. Norton) is currently on the New York Times Best seller list.

Eliza Dushku: Eliza Dushku continues to maintain her leading lady status in Hollywood with roles in a number of prominent film and television projects. She recently was seen starring in Fox’s “Dollhouse,” a series created by Joss Whedon on which Dushku also served as a Producer. Dushku also wrapped production on the psychological thriller Locked In opposite Ben Barnes, Sarah Roemer and Brenda Fricker, in which she plays a former co-worker of Barnes’ character with whom she has an affair.

Dushku’s talents extend far beyond acting. She is currently producing a biopic through her production company Boston Diva Productions. The film titled The Perfect Moment, is based on the life of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and his rise to fame in the 1970s to his untimely death in 1989. She has brought on two-time Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, Ondi Timoner to direct and produce alongside her.

Dushku also co-starred with Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman in Bottle Shock, a drama about the birth of the Napa Valley wine country. Additional past film credits include The Alphabet Killer, in which she also served as an Associate Producer, Nobel Son, Wrong Turn, City by the Sea opposite Robert De Niro and Frances McDormand, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and the hit cheerleading film Bring it On opposite Kirsten Dunst, among others.

Dushku has also had a very successful television career, starring in a number of hit series with cult-like followings. She first starred as Faith Lehane on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a slayer much more troubled than the main character Buffy. Though initially planned as a five-episode role, the character became so popular that Dushku stayed on for the entire third season and returned for a two-part appearance the following season. The remainder of her original story arc was played out in the first season of the spin-off Angel. Repentant and rededicated, Faith returned in a number of later episodes of Angel and Buffy. Following these roles Dushku starred in the series, Tru Calling in which she played Tru Davies in yet another powerful female role. Additional television credits include guest starring roles on That 70’s Show and Ugly Betty.

The daughter of an Albanian-American administrator father and Danish-American professor mother, Dushku was raised with ambition in her blood. At the early age of 10, Dushku was discovered by casting agents for the lead role of Alice in the film That Night. In 1993, Dushku landed the role of Pearl alongside Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in This Boy’s Life, a role that caught the attention of many in the industry. The following year, she starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies, opposite Paul Reiser in Bye Bye, Love and alongside Halle Berry in Race the Sun.

In addition to acting and producing, Dushku is involved with a number of charities, including Camp Hale in Boston and 10,000 Girls School in Kaolack, Senegal. Earlier this year, she traveled to Uganda helping bring awareness to the country. Dushku lives a very active lifestyle and recently completed her first triathlon finishing with a Bronze medal.

Brit Morgan Brit Morgan stars as Debbie Pelt in season 3 and 4 of the hit HBO show True Blood. Brit got her big break as Lacey Thornfield on the TV show The Middleman.

She is an upcoming young actress. Her acting career began when she left her hometown of New Jersey and drove to Hollywood in her pick up truck after turning 18. She then landed guest spots on CSI:NY and Greek before landing a role on The Middleman. She is also set to star in Beer for My Horses.

Sam Trammell Sam Trammell is best known for his role as Sam Merlotte on the HBO Show True Blood, Matt Chambers in the 2nd episode of Dexter and as Tim in the movie AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem.

An intelligent, highly-capable actor, Sam Trammell made inroads on the New York stage while building an intriguing career in mostly independent features. The West Virginia native attended Brown University where he gravitated to acting in his senior year. Trammell made his film debut as an intern at a tabloid TV talk show in the little-seen The Hotel Manor (1994) and kept busy with auditioned and day-player roles on daytime serials. He made his primetime debut with a featured role in the 1996 CBS/Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation Harvest of Fire and won some attention as a man who has an affair with the mother of a friend in Childhood’s End (1996). Returning to NYC, Trammell garnered attention and good reviews for a trio of stage performances. He was compulsive gambler in his Off-Broadway debut Dealer’s Choice, a gay man in My Night With Reg and earned a Tony nomination as the authorial stand-in in the Broadway revival of Eugene O’Neill’s comedy Ah, Wilderness! in 1998. Within months of capturing NYC audiences, the actor reached a wider constituency as the fast-talking ex-con Sonny Dupree in the quirky ABC comedy-drama Maximum Bob. Later that year, Trammell was briefly seen as the youngest son in a large Irish Catholic family in Trinity (NBC). Trammell returned to the stage in 1999, playing the troubled offspring of an award-winning TV actress (essayed by Elizabeth Ashley) in the unsuccessful drama If Memory Serves. 2000, though, proved a better year as the actor had a supporting role as a male hustler in the Sundance-screened Beat, saw the release of Followers, an affecting drama in which he played a would-be pledge to a fraternity who makes several decisions with tragic repercussions, and portrayed twins in the dramatic road movie Fear of Fiction. Trammell rounded out the year garnering rave reviews for his turn as the title character’s male lover in the Off-Broadway play Kit Marlowe, about the Elizabethan playwright.

Tickets for the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo may be purchased at www.c2e2.com. Other information about the show, as well as news about ReedPOP, which also organizes New York Comic Con (NYCC) is available at Lance Fensterman’s blog, www.mediumatlarge.net.

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