Monster Girls

Joe Gottli is the man who made monstergirlmedia.net the gorgeous green machine that it is today. Armed with an Honours BBA in Marketing, a sketchbook library of his own illustration work, and years of e-commerce experience, he can easily take on the role of designer and programmer at the bat of an eyelash. He practically turns scripts into scripture. In his free time, Joe usually impresses everyone with his magnitude of encyclopedia-like knowledge on Canadian History, curling, and Phil Collins.

If you have any questions or comments about the site, are looking for someone to do some design/site work, or just want to share CSS secrets, drop him a line at site@monstergirlmedia.net

Kate Gottli (aka Mini Monster Girl) is the workaholic manageress of Monster Girl Media. When she’s not desperately working on site content, organizing reminders in her calendars, or reading textbooks on book publicity, you can probably find her roaming the streets of Canada with her little pug Oliver. Kate graduated from Brock University in 2007 with an Honours degree in English Literature & Professional Writing and has since worked as a technical writer and researcher. She is also currently pursuing a CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) credential so she can become even more organized and be able to keep track of the Monster Girl Mainframe in her sleep.

You can keep track of Monster Girl Media through her Mini Monster Girl blog and say hello in the comments, sign up for the email list for Monster Girl Mailings, follow her on twitter @minimonstergirl or email her directly at kate@monstergirlmedia.net

James. Born in Seattle. Grew up in Texas—jumping BMX bikes, riding dirt bikes, driving pickup trucks, playing guitar in a heavy metal garage band, playing football, reading lots of books, and generally having a good time. Except when I wasn’t having a good time, but us former Texan/Viking types are too stoic to go into that sort of thing. Then I spent the 90s in Colorado. Took up rock climbing, snow boarding, and did lots of mountain biking. Got a degree in engineering. Half-heartedly started a career which appears to be pretty much over now. Moved to San Francisco somewhere between the Great Computer Crash of 2000 That Didn’t Happen and 9/11. Now I spend lots of time building bicycles and riding them. Recently started paddling a giant surfboard with a long canoe paddle around in the Bay. And when I’m not doing that sort of thing, I spend lots of time thinking about the Big Picture. (After much analysis, I have reached the conclusion that we are royally screwed).

Jeffrey Hicken, a graphic designer living somewhere between New York and Philadelphia, grew up feral. Bare footed with sunburned shoulders he wandered the beaches of Southern California under the care of northeastern expatriate parents. Despite their urbanity and tasty oatmeal raisin cookies, he left as a teen to find his own way in the world. Uninterested in all things reasonable, he enrolled in art school. Seven years later he was getting to old to work at record stores so he explored the lucrative field of advertising. His passion and zeal made him a star as well as a pariah. The corporate world had to many rules (and no sense of humor), so his feral nature led him to seek the one employer that truly understood his nature, himself.

Although he still occasionally dabbles in the corporate world, he keeps it at an arms length and when the florescent glare becomes too much, he retreats to the woods of New Jersey to listen to the call of the devils and collaborates with insane writers, artists and other freak show denizens.

When not conceptualizing, he tinkers with vintage Volkswagens and tours the country on motorcycles. He’s now married to a lovely Italian woman, who has the patience of a saint, and nurtures his beastly nature.

See Jeffrey's design work at http://www.graphickontent.com. If you like what you see, email him at jeffrey@graphickontent.com and tell him so!

Bianca I. Laureano is a fierce-haried, first generation Puerto Rican sexologist glamazon living in NYC. Raised in the Washington, DC area in an activist environment, Bianca is the daughter of an artist and educator and a product of the public school system. In the field of sexuality for over a decade, Bianca has worked with and taught youth of Color, working class communities, national and international organizations advocating sex-positive social justice agendas. She has presented both locally and internationally on various topics concerning activism, Latino sexual health, feminisms, youth and hip-hop culture, Latinos and race, curriculum development, and teaching.

Bianca is professor at at private Catholic college in the Bronx in the Department of Sociology where she teaches introductory women’s studies and sexuality courses. She’s also a freelance writer and her work can be found at her weekly Media Justice column, VivirLatino.com and Love Isn’t Enough.com (formally Anti-Racist Parent.com) She hosts the website LatinoSexuality.com and identifies as a LatiNegra, media maker, radical woman of Color, activist, sex-positive, pro-choice femme.

Find out more about Bianca by visiting her website at BiancaLaureano.com, emailing her at bianca@monstergirlmedia.net or following her on twitter @BiancaLaureano. 

Erika Lopez wrote books like Flaming Iguanas for Simon & Schuster before she hit the skids and ended up on welfare. Some say it’s because she’s mean. Some say it’s because she’s loud. Some say it’s because she told people to get her books at the library. Regardless, she’s back and taking her rightful place at the head of the rickety kid’s table with the prettiest little brick of a book she’s ever made. Its existence is a metaphor for coming out of hell clutching a handful of flowers. It’s about white knuckling it through a seemingly endless tour of The Abyss, and realizing that whatever doesn’t kill you, will eventually turn you on.

You can read (and see!) more about Erika on her clog at http://clog.erikalopez.com, email her at erika@monstergirlmedia.net, or follow her on twitter @ErikaLopez

Kamala Lopez is an actress, screenwriter, director and producer. Born in New York City to an Indian mother and a Venezuelan father, Lopez lived with her parents in Caracas until age 14 when the family returned to the United States. While still in high school in Brooklyn, she was cast on Sesame Street as Mercedes, Maria’s cousin, a role she portrayed for two seasons before being accepted to Yale University where she double majored in Philosophy and Theatre Studies.

In 1995 Lopez formed production company Heroica Films with the mission to write, direct and produce media for women, about women and utilizing women both in front and behind the camera. Since then Lopez and Heroica Films have produced, directed and written many short films, several features, film festivals, podcasts and virtual internet media campaigns.

Her feature directorial debut, A Single Woman, about the life of first Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin won the 2009 Exceptional Merit in Media Award from the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Lopez is a fellow of Film Independents Director’s Lab as well as their Writer’s Lab. She sits on the Jury and Advisory Board of The Women’s International Film and TV Showcase, and is the National Program Director of Global Girl Media, which nurtures the voices and self-expression of young girls internationally and empowers them to speak out about the issues that affect them most. She is one of the Executive Directors of ERA Today and is presently producing the new national media campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. She was on the Board of Young Artists United and has worked with the Mayors Office in his Parnership for L.A. Schools in South Central Los Angeles as well as working with H.E.A.R.T., the LAUSD’s Gang and Crime Prevention Unit. In 2009 she was given a retrospective at the Museum of Latin American Art. She is an official blogger for the Huffington Post.

Learn more about Kamala by visiting www.aSingleWomanMovie.com