Lightning Dogs Creators & Guests

Doug is a writer and narrative designer who creates compelling experiences for games and interactive stories of all kinds. He believes that storytelling is a universal and ancient human tradition that can provide a connection to our past, guidance for our present, and possibilities for our future.Doug is also a published author and an award-winning independent filmmaker. In 2012, he updated the out-of-print Ghostbusters tabletop role-playing game for a new generation of players, and used it to create the actual play podcast "Ghostbusters: Resurrection."When he is not running or creating games, Doug creates podcasts, audio dramas, and screenplays for film and television.

Cat Blackard is a multimedia artist known for her work as a writer, podcast host, graphic artist and actor. She's series creator and co-author of The Call of Cthulhu Mystery Program, the award-winning horror comedy audio drama, and Lightning Dogs, an animated series inspired by classic 80s cartoons. She's the founder of the multimedia storytelling company, Omniverse, as well as The Nerdy Show Network - the longest-running geek podcast collective.Blackard's podcasting career began 2009 with her co-founding of the series Nerdy Show and Dungeons & Doritos - launching what would become The Nerdy Show Network. Dungeons & Doritos would be her first major acting roles as both the sensationally sensual dragonborn, Jamela, and the senile wizard narrator, Galdap. That series evolved into the programming that Blackard would become best known for: improvised audio dramas, particularly "RPG Audio Dramas" - live tabletop roleplaying turned into immersive cinematic narratives. Her work as a performer and storyteller continues as she experiments with new varieties of improvisational narrative in her own work and beyond.As Art Director for Consequence of Sound from 2008-2019, Blackard created a body of pop culture illustration, paintings, and multimedia art alongside in-depth articles and interviews. She later went on to launch Consequence Podcast Network as its director, producing series such as The Opus in collaboration with Sony. Her career as a media journalist and speaker is filled with humorous and in-depth discussions on-camera, on-stage, and in the studio with notable personalities and innovators such as Dan Aykroyd, Phil Collins, Janelle Monáe, Reggie Watts, Eric André, 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Barry Levinson, David Byrne, Chelsea Manning and many more.