Michael Murray, Charlotte Boss and Nerd in Residence.
So, you may be asking, who am I that you should take your most precious commodity, time, out of your evening to attend this little shindig I’ve brought to the Queen City? Well, it’s a long story, so here’s the highlights; in January 2024 I left my safe, FT, corporate IT Asset Management job to pursue a career in Voice Acting, podcasting, and writing; aiming to combine a compulsion for storytelling and creativity with an academic background in philosophy and the arts. Problem was, there’s a drawback to voiceover work… I was spending half my day in a padded closet recording, and the other half alone at my desk writing and editing. So, I took up bartending again.
Or, perhaps you want the academic bona fides? I have an MA in Ethics and Applied Philosophy from UNC Charlotte. My MA research was a query into the potential for “Meaningful Work” as an Ethical project, following a Critical Theory and Existentialist tradition. Prior to that, I did my undergrad in Art History, at UNCC, graduating Summa Cum Laude with Honors for a thesis on digital art and 3d printing.
Oh, you mean the nerd bona fides? Well, Star Trek, the Wheel of Time, Batman, and Godzilla top my genre list; I’ve been attending Dragon Con since, well, it was only like 20k people; I own four Starfleet uniforms (five if you count my disco-ball inspired cocktail suit), they are all blue; I love D&D, as a player or DM, I’ve logged well over a thousand hours in Skyrim, WoW, and Baldur’s Gate III; I play bass, not particularly well; and… I’m rambling. Just come say hi.