We are proud to welcome our next cosplay guest and judge at AnimeCon: Panterona!

Panterona is an award-winning cosplayer, fashion/costume designer, artist, educator and convention organiser from the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. She has been actively cosplaying for 20 years and has created a plethora of costumes of varying technical difficulty, from the worlds of anime, television, comics, games and much more. She has also won a number of international costume competitions, most notably, the London Film and Comic Con Cosplay Championships in 2015, the Best Modern Creation Category at Blizzcon 2021 and the Grand Prize at the Gamers without Borders International Cosplay Competition in 2021.

Panterona has travelled to and judged cosplay competitions around the world, from the Caribbean to the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, The United States, Canada and the World Cosplay Summit in Japan! She has also been the resident Head Judge for the Caribbean Cosplay Championships from its inception for the past seven years. She has collaborated and worked for brands such as Digicel and Caribbean Cinemas, as well as major international brands like Funimation, E3, Intel, and most recently, Riot Games and Arcane. She was also featured on the ‘’Intel Creator Challenge Season 3’’ and ‘’Faces of E3 2021’’.

Panterona has produced numerous Ready to Wear and Carnival Monday wear collections over the past 8 years. She created and pioneered the ‘’carnival style’’ of cosplay and these talents were showcased as the Head of the first ever Cosplay Carnival band in the Caribbean in 2018. The Band went on to place fourth overall in the National Carnival Commission Parade of the Bands Competition.

Panterona is also the Executive Director of the largest English-speaking pop culture convention in the region, ‘’ALIAS Entertainment Expo’’ where she also conducts workshops and demos in schools on Alternative Careers in the Creative Industry.

She has also produced and co-directed a television program following cosplayers as they created their competition pieces for both the Caribbean Cosplay Championships and the World Cosplay Summit Preliminaries in Trinidad and Tobago called ‘’Project ALIAS’’. This show was broadcast for two seasons on local television channel ‘’TV6’’.

Panterona sees cosplay and design as perfect avenues for creative self-expression and continues to use her platform to showcase her culture, talent and artistry whilst inspiring others to explore and ignite their own creative paths.

‘We are all artists, let others paint the story of your life’’ ~Panterona

Check out Panterona's Socials for more info: