Catrina Dennis (she/they) is a Latine writer, producer, artist, streamer, and performer who loves science fiction and fantasy. When they’re not building communities in the fandom space or theorizing about the next bit of story in the Star Wars universe, Dennis can be found on your favorite tabletop RPG shows, or streaming cozy games on her own Twitch channel.
“Catrina Dennis is one of the hardest workers and dedicated creatives and friends in the business. Whether it is helping launch a new game or creating multiple podcasts, Catrina is constantly bringing joy and creativity to everything that they do. From podcasts to live streams to full campaigns for work, Catrina is always trying to bring their A-game to the world. Including our own podcast together,” says Rachel Leishman, Co-Host of Podro Pascal and Assistant Editor at The Mary Sue
“Catrina is many things. A producer, a storyteller, a social media maven, and above all, a fandom enthusiast! Her work in the nerdy spaces has pushed the bounds for representation and equity for BIPOC and Queer folks.
Through her exploits in Star Wars, Worlds Beyond Number and her many podcasts, more and more people experience the magic of art in new and imaginative ways, and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next,” offers Keshav Kant, Executive Director of Off Colour.
Goldie Chan: Thank you for joining us! How did you get started in the Star Wars fandom?
Catrina Dennis: I was first introduced to it when I was just barely four years old, at a Star Trek convention of all places. I found a pack of Topps Star Wars cards with Han Solo and Chewbacca on the cover, and asked my Dad about who these characters were. As soon as we got home, he sat me down and we watched A New Hope on VHS for the first time, and I was hooked. I was born just in time to be part of the Prequel Generation and saw all of the re-releases of the original trilogy in theaters, including Return of the Jedi in 1997, which came out one week after my 9th birthday. Everything has been starships and lasers since then, and I have both Star Wars and, by proxy, Star Trek to thank for the person I am today. They are my two greatest loves.
As for my start *in* the fandom, my earliest memories include message boards for TheForce.net, and publishing my own Star Wars fanfics, but my first true contributions began in 2012 and 2013, when I first started hosting and producing podcasts. I’ve created a number of shows about Star Wars- and fandom-focused projects, starting with Woman Up! (co-hosted by Sarah Compton, a.k.a. Razor from WOW Superheroes) and Hangin’ with Team Kanan (co-hosted by Johnamarie Macias and Jeremy Konrad) and leading up to my current shows: Podro Pascal, the Podcast about Pedro Pascal (produced by Ashley Newby, with my co-host Rachel Leishman) and the hyperfocus-centric and celebratory What’s Glup? (produced by The Geeky Waffle’s founder Candace) which are both near and dear to my heart. Early on in my fandom content creation days, I was a YouTuber, a zine maker, and a blogger, and all of that tied into the wild ride that has been my career so far.
These days, I still do all of that, including the fanfics and zines. My latest Star Wars pieces are Ventress: Golden, which focuses on a former antagonist and how she begins again after hitting rock bottom, and Roomies of the Resistance, which expands upon the stories of Rose Tico and Lt. Connix by imagining a friendship between them.
Because of all this, I’ve been given multiple opportunities to contribute to the Star Wars universe, the latest of which was consulting on Mike Chen’s incredible novel, Star Wars: Brotherhood. When Mike needed a Ventress expert to iron out the fine details of things like the way her lightsabers locked into her belt, he called on me to help. It was a huge honor, and also very cool to see my hyperfocus on this character turn into something useful for the canon Star Wars universe.
Chan: What has your career path been?
Dennis: It’s felt like a dark ride rollercoaster, like the kind where one twist follows another, but you never know when you’ll be upside down next. I moved to NYC from Miami to attend college and begin a career in journalism, but I wouldn’t land in that field until I moved to Los Angeles about four or five years later and started my work in social media marketing. One of my team’s earliest clients when I started agency work in Los Angeles was Ariana Grande, who was at the time still a fresh new talent bridging from Nickelodeon to pop stardom. I’d been familiar with fandom all my life, but getting to know fans from “the other side” is what really helped me when it came time to build my career back toward my passions. Two agency jobs later, and I found myself lucky enough to join the marketing team at Geek & Sundry, Felicia Day’s first major multimedia empire that would eventually lead to the creation of Critical Role.
Here’s where the rollercoaster loops start to spin: I worked with Geek & Sundry for a few years and that led me to new heights in fandom, which included returning to my journalism roots to join several news teams at places like Syfy, Inverse, and The Wrap. I was featured on two Syfy documentaries as a pop culture expert, competed on the official Geeks Who Drink television show, and eventually got the chance to contribute as a freelance writer for the official Star Wars blog. I even have my own Wookieepedia entry.
Then, through all this, another loop: I went back into digital marketing and through my work, I joined the team behind the Looking for Leia docuseries created by Dr. Annalise Ophelian, which celebrated the history of the Star Wars fandom through the lenses of those with marginalized identities in a way that no Star Wars documentary had ever done before. The project was partially funded on Seed&Spark, a crowdfunding platform where filmmakers could set standards not only for their projects and the opportunities they hired for, but lay down the groundwork that would eventually build toward the revolutionary pushes for writers’ rights that we’ve seen during the recent WGA strike. I went on to work with Seed&Spark for a while before I drifted into the games industry, where I worked on various incredible indie games including Stonefly and the ARG marketing campaign for Oxenfree II.
Get ready, because there’s one last loop: after COVID brought a bunch of great agencies down, including mine, I landed at a new marketing agency called Cynosure Creative where I worked on the marketing campaigns for a roster of incredible projects with Disney, Amazon, and Universal, including Disney’s Strange World and, eventually, Amazon’s hit series The Legend of Vox Machina, the official cartoon series that chartered the adventures originally played out on the first season of — wait for it — Critical Role. I moved on from Geek & Sundry right before Critical Role launched, so it was incredibly exciting to play a small part in the promotion of the show inspired by that series!
Most recently, I’ve worked with Skybound Entertainment to promote new games, tv shows, and comic series launches, as well as kicking off their all-new Discord and Reddit communities. I’m excited to see where life and my love of nerdy things takes me next.
Chan: Who is someone that you are inspired by?
Dennis: I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by talented Latines who not only inspire me but affirm my place in this wild world I’ve found myself in. One of the first names that comes to mind is Dani Fernandez, who is as relentless in her pursuit of her dreams as she is talented. She welcomes Latine folks into this industry with open arms and goes above and beyond to make sure we all know we belong here. I’m also a huge fan of other creatives and talents like the endless stream of talent such as Star Wars backbone Athena Portillo, writer Marc Bernardin, actress and host Krystina Arielle, and the iconic Pablo Hidalgo.
Chan: Describe your personal brand.
Dennis: I love celebrating the little things in fandom: the side characters, the cosplayers, the pieces of story that the masses overlook but that one or two fans obsess over. My corner of the internet is one where I can crack jokes about Star Wars while also creating a space for people to enjoy themselves and participate in that humor. I love making observations about silly things in Star Wars and all of my fandoms to bring us back down to Earth, away from arguments and spite, to help fans like me remember why we’re here in the first place: because we absolutely love these stories. My brand is one that celebrates Latine creators: it enthusiastically cheers them on, lifts them up, and throws a party when they take those steps forward.
Chan: Who would you love to work with?
Dennis: Every opportunity I’ve been given to work with Lucasfilm has been a dream, so I’m hopeful and eager to work with them again in any capacity, but especially as a storyteller. I would love to shadow someone on the story group and learn from them – people like Matt Martin, Athena Portillo, and Pablo Hidalgo all come to mind. I’m obsessed with the stories told by Pixar Studios and I would absolutely love to create the stories I have brewing in my head through that lens, where life experience and unexpected heroes come together to evoke unexpected, deep emotion.
My ultimate goal as a storyteller, though, is to create an unforgettable immersive experience for a theme park land, a ride, and even a special event; something that amazes people and puts them in the middle of the rush that we all seek when we’re on Rise of the Resistance or even classics like Universal’s E.T. ride. It’s these things, along with other immersive experiences like those you find at major offsites at Comic-Con, that got me started on the path I’m on right now.
I remember specifically falling in love with the Blade Runner 2049 experience at Comic-Con 2017, which put you right in the middle of Los Angeles 2049 and welcomed attendees to interact with the gadgets and the actors on the ground to unlock a unique experience as they navigated their way through the offsite. It was like nothing I had experienced before and I dream of being able to structure a story around a guest where they’re given the power to unlock the secrets that I put in place for them to discover. I think of it as one of the deepest ways to connect storyteller and audience, and at the end of the day, creating a story that sticks with someone forever is all any writer wants to do.
Chan: What is a lesson you’d share with your younger self?
Dennis: Go boldly. Seriously. Don’t hesitate because you don’t think you have enough experience, because sometimes simply showing interest will open the door up for you to learn that experience. Ignore anyone who tries to stop you from taking the leap.
Chan: What are you working on now?
Dennis: Outside of Podro, I’m working on an all-new story called Generational, my very first novel. It’s about two sisters from Miami who get into spooky hijinks that uncover centuries of family secrets, and how they work together to advance beyond the weight placed upon them. I’m also building up my career as a streamer over on Twitch, and I have a number of appearances scheduled over this summer and fall in various super cool Tabletop RPG Actual Play shows, many of which are goaling to raise money for charities that I deeply care about.
Chan: Any career advice for this year?
Dennis: Stay with projects, places, and people that love to see you blossom, and leave anything behind that makes you feel like shit. Tell the world what you want to do and then do it even if the world hasn’t yet given you that opportunity. Be fearless, be bold, be delusional, and keep moving forward.
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