Banshee

Katharine Anderson-Dávila, also known as Banshee, discovered computer games at the tender age of nine while at the skating rink. As a 4th grader with little need for the "Couples' Skate," she instead played Space Invaders, Centipede, Defender, and other arcade classics. She got involved with print journalism through her high school paper in 1984, and added broadcast journalism in 1985 when she worked at a local radio station. In 1988, she won a state award for editorial journalism, and then attended the University of Georgia's "J-School." She moved into television during this period, and worked on an ETV project for Bill Moyers that nobody ever saw because it aired the night the Gulf War broke out.

After changing majors, she also changed careers. Following several years as a webmaster, Banshee returned to her journalism roots by joining up with WomenGamers. She has been an active public speaker for over a decade, and loves to meet other game fans. She and her wonderful husband reside in Georgia with their spoiled cat. When she isn't gaming or running behind on a deadline, Katharine enjoys reading a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction, cooking, and watching things with large story arcs.

Cat91

Cat, also known on various flight sim boards as Cat91, is thirtysomething and originally from southwest Virginia. She is on her second marriage (it's better this time), and is a former state law enforcement officer with two years of active service in the U.S. Army. She is currently a third year student at a well-known southern law school. The Cat always wanted to be a fighter pilot, but in the mid-1980s when she was the right age, women were not allowed to do that, and by the time the Army was allowing us to fly Blackhawks, her eyes were not good enough anymore. One can find the Cat on numerous flight-simulation related forums, as she has flown combat sims since 1996 and is as active as a law student can be in the hobby. Cat was a member of the Falcon 4 public beta team from version 1.04 to version 1.07 and has owned or flown all (yes, folks, all) of the major modern fixed-wing and most of the rotary-wing combat flight titles released since 1996.

Cricket

Born in Toronto, Ontario many years ago. Age: six grandkids old and presently semi-retired. Education: seven years of college. Married 30 years, two children. Raising a 5 year old grandchild. Previous occupations: medical office assistant, library technician, waitress, businesswoman, funeral director (yep, funeral director) Interests: racing, card and puzzle games, crocheting, knitting, music and writing. Favorite sayings: "in the context of eternity..." and "Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup". Volunteer work includes government advisory committees and piano/organist/choir at church.

Irony

Irony remembers the glory days, playing Hunt the Wumpus and Alpine Climber on a Commodore 64 where one giant, blocky pixel could mean the difference between life or death. It wasn't until college, though (Go Blue!), that she started gaming for real, playing Warlords and King's Bounty on the school's state-of-the-art Macintoshes. After a stint with text-based MU*s that cost her one cafeteria job and (almost) a film degree, but made her a lot of great friends, she decided to stick to more sedate, less time-consuming games like Warcraft and X-COM (still the greatest game of all time, in her humble opinion). Escaping the day job doldrums (currently writing for an annuity marketing company), she now exhibits Full Metal Jacket's duality of man principle: the more violent the game, the more she likes it, but she gets choked up when one of her Zoo Tycoon animals dies or a wolf is killed in Heroes of Might & Magic IV.

SailorMur

SailorMur has a long history in gaming journalism, both as author of the weekly column The Mighty Times on pioneering site GameGirlz, as a guest panelist at gaming-related conventions, and as the former Internet Manager for Red Storm Entertainment. She now writes the recurring Offline Gaming column for WomenGamers, as well as the occasional game review. Making her way in life as a freelance writer, Sailor Mur also dabbles in relaxing pursuits like tai chi, gardening and killing as many enemies as possible in Twisted Metal Black.

Seby

Meghan Dombrowski, also known as Seby, is currently a high schooler in Raleigh, North Carolina. When she isn't drawing (or studying Japanese), she's playing games on anyone of her four systems. Her favorite games are RPG's like Chrono Trigger and Lunar Eternal Blue. Seby aspires to become an animator for films or games and has set her sites on attending the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2002. Also in her future, she would like to write and illustrate her own children's books.

During the summer of 2000, Seby not only freelanced for WomenGamers but also worked on Burger King's backstreetproject.com at Random Games.

Contributed Artwork: Action Woman, Adventure/RPG Woman, Classic/Puzzle Woman, Strategy Woman, Simulation Woman, Sports Woman, and Job Woman.

Vansau

Mike Thompson (AKA Vansau to many of his friends) learned literacy by having his parents read Superman and Batman comic books to him when he was growing up in the 1980s. As a result, he's never been terribly grounded in reality.

It wasn't until he was eight that he received his first console system as a present from his parents to keep him quiet during the lengthy drives his family took every other weekend between Los Angeles and San Francisco during the summer of 1989. It was during those long road trips that our intrepid hero developed an addicition... er... a love for gaming that has only intensified over time. His favorite game is still the Duck Tales game on the original NES.

He now attends Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA as a history major and plans to do absolutely nothing with his degree when he graduates in 2006. Instead, he hopes that he can continue working as a staff writer/video game columnist (and actually get paid at that point) for whomever will publish his humble and opinionated writings.

He also wants to be Clark Kent when he grows up.

Brandon

Brandon's first experience with video games was as a small child, when he would watch his family play Frogger and cackle with glee when the dull-thud of the poor pixelated creature meeting his doom would sound. Now, Brandon is supposedly all grown-up but still plays video games. Holding a B.A. in English from Mount Olive College, he enjoys applying principles of literary study to video games, examining how elements such as character development and plotting are handled in games. Brandon also has as interest in the sociological aspect of games, looking at not only gaming culture itself but how games and gaming interact with society and politics at-large.

Currently employed as the Young Adult Librarian at Wayne County Public Library (where he regularly integrates gaming into programs for the public), Brandon is a published writer with aspirations to see his novel in print one day. He asks you (okays, begs you) to visit his gaming blog World of Geekraft ( http://worldgeekraft.blogspot.com ). His favorite games are Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the God of War series, Wii Sports, World of Warcraft, and of course, Frogger.

GeekWoman

Geek Woman is a freelance game journalist and the author of Geek Woman's Game Guide.(link http://www.lulu.com/geekwoman ) She began in gaming with the table top Pac Man in the late :ahem: 70's. It was a love for games like Dragon Riders of Pern on the C64, Zork on PC, and Drakan on PS2 that can be blamed for Geek Woman's leaving behind more sane writing careers. She is  giving a voice to women who play video games to demonstrate to anyone listening that "We are here!" GW loves underdogs like Mac computers, Dr. Pepper, Guild Wars and Caesar Salads. She is dedicated to playing and writing about as many games as humanly possible.  Geek Woman strives to occasionally be serious, persistently be honest, and determinedly be nuking. Her main philosophy is that the best revenge is living well. She lives in new england with her partner, 2 pomeranians, three cats, scores of bitchy seagulls and a weedy garden. "If you are a female gamer with something to say, or if you are a game maker with questions to be answered please feel free to email me.
GW"

Others

If you have contributed three or more articles to this site and wish to get your bio on this page, please e-mail us and we will be happy to put your information up here as well. If you wish to learn more about how to be a contributor, check out this page.