Eagle-Con 2021 Awardees

Nnedi Okorafor is an international award-winning novelist of science fiction and fantasy for both children and adults. Her works include Who Fears Death (in development at HBO as a TV series), the Binti novella trilogy (in development at Hulu as a TV series), the Book of Phoenix, the Akata series and Lagoon. She is currently adapting Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed for TV with Amazon Studies. She is the winner of Nebula, World Fantasy, Eisner, and multiple Hugo Awards and her debut novel Zahrah the Windseeker won the prestigious Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature. She lives with her daughter Anyaugo and family in Flossmoor. Learn more about Nnedi at Nnedi.com and follow Nnedi on twitter (as @Nnedi), Facebook and Instagram.

George Takei is a social justice activist, social media superstar, Grammy-nominated recording artist, New York Times bestselling author, and pioneering actor whose career has spanned six decades. He has appeared in more than 40 feature films and hundreds of television roles, most famously as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, and he has used his success as a platform to fight for social justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and marriage equality. His advocacy is personal: during World War II, Takei spent his childhood in United States internment camps along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans. He now serves as Chairman Emeritus and a member of the Japanese American National Museum’s Board of Trustees. Takei served on the board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission under President Bill Clinton, and, in 2004, was conferred with the Gold Rays with Rosette of the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan for his contribution to US-Japan relations. In 2016, Takei received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Cal State LA.

Wynn Thomas is a graduate of Boston University. He got his BFA in Theatre-Design. He started his career designing sets for the theatre. He was resident designer with the world-famous Negro Ensemble Company. Wynn also designed sets for Joe Papp’s Public Theatre, Arena Stage in Wash.DC, Great Lakes Shakespeare Co in Cleveland Ohio and the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven.

Wynn is the first African American Production designer in the history of films. As a production designer Wynn has worked with some of the most important film directors of the late twentieth century, including Spike Lee, Ron Howard, Barry Levinson, Harold Ramis, and Tim Burton. Wynn has been production designer on such landmark films as Hidden Figures (2016), Mars Attacks! (1996), Da 5 Bloods (2020), A Beautiful Mind (2001), and Do The Right Thing (1989). Wynn has been a proud member of United Scenic Artist (local 829) for 35 years. Wynn is the first African American production designer to become a member of the Art Directors Guild in Los Angeles and he is the first African American nominated for the Art Director’s Guild award for his design work on Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! He is a proud member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.