Introducing Chris and Rachel Ly, podcasters and cosplayers extraordinaire. Whether they’re dressing up as their favorite characters or discussing them with special guests on their podcast, the Lys have found a way to combine their love and their passion with their art and today, they’re going to share their secret with Nerd Society readers.
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NS – It’s so cool that you both have so much in common. How did you guys meet?
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LYS – We met in college at a record store in 2003. A mutual friend introduced us and we felt like we had some sort of connection. Chris still claims Rachel stalked him into friendship haha. We kept in touch throughout college, became close friends and finally started dating our senior year. Our early friendship led into a great relationship. We’ve been together for almost 12 years and married for just over six years now. Time flies!
NS – What are your favorite characters to cosplay as?
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LYS – For Rachel, her favorite is Gem from Tron: Legacy, Mary Jane iron spider and Asajj Ventress from the Clone Wars. She loves Tron so getting to dress up as something from that world is so much fun. Ventress is a badass and you get to feel the power wielding the lightsaber and with Iron Spider you get to feel like a hero. Spider man is also Rachel’s favorite Marvel character.
For Chris, his favorite cosplay is probably Russell from Up. He really loved that character from the movie and the joy people get when they see the character walking around cons is a great reward.
NS – What are your favorite video games?
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LYS – Tough call, for pure fun we both love Mario Kart. We love to play story heavy games like Oxenfree and the Telltale Games franchise. Rachel is a huge fan of adventure/puzzle games like Riven. She loves indie games and lore in games like Underale and FNAF. Her latest obsession is reading about Doki Doki Literature Club. Chris loves to play open world games. Most recently has been loving Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption.
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NS – Can you share an amazing/outrageous cosplay experience?
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LYS – A few come to mind for us, we were cosplaying Russell and the Bird, Kevin from Up and we ran into an awesome older couple that were dressed as Carl and the bird. We got some great pictures with them and felt like celebrities in the middle of the floor at SDCC because we had to stop for photos for like 15 minutes. we also got interviewed by Adrianne Curry and Tiffany Smith for Fandango and were stopped by two animators who worked on the movie. It was one of our first experiences cosplaying at a major convention.
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We cosplayed the LEGO Movie characters for Wondercon one year and got to meet some of the writers for the movie and an executive from LEGO who were super kind to us.
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Overall we are just amazed at the amount of amazing people we’ve gotten to meet over the years. Wonderful cosplayers and creators with amazing talents that we admire and compliment us on our creations. That’s the thing that keeps us going back to every con.
NS – Who are your favorite film/comic book/anime characters?
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LYS – Chris has always been a wolverine and X-Men fan. He loved it since the animated series introduced him to comics. Dragon Ball Z was a huge part of his childhood as well.
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Rachel loved Batman and Storm from comic books. She is also a huge fan of the design for Tron so Quorra and Gem from those movies really hold a place in her heart.
NS – I see that you have a podcast. You guys talk about some interesting stuff. Tell us more about that.
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LYS – We started the Nerd Lys podcast in 2015. Rachel had always wanted to do one and was inspired by Kevin Smith to just go out and make stuff. Chris has experience in radio from high school and college. We realized also that we had a ton of friends who were working in creative fields and we wanted to learn more about them and give them and ourselves a platform to speak about our interests and our lives.
We never knew what to expect but now, in year three, we’ve gotten to know a bunch of artists and creators that we never could have dreamed of speaking to in that kind of setting. Rachel got to speak to and meet one of her heroes (Rand Miller, the man who created Myst) and we’ve been in contact with so many others. It’s an amazing excuse to chat every week about things that interest us and share our love of all things nerdy. We love having the conversation with people and hope to continue to bring interesting content to folks all over the place.
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NS – Do you have advice for anyone new to cosplay?
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LYS – Our advice is to have fun. Don’t do it because you seek popularity or money or things like that, make sure that it is fun first. It’s an amazing feeling to take a character you love, whether it’s all the lore behind the character or simply a design you just dig, and see it made in the real world. When you’re standing in your cosplay it’ll give you such an amazing feeling and if you make it with care, people will enjoy it too.
NS – Which cons do you like to frequent?
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LYS – We are big fans of Wondercon, Long Beach Comic Con, Stan Lee’s LA Comic Con, DesignerCon (Toys and prints!) and of course San Diego Comic Con. We hope to do Phoenix comic con at some point and possibly dragoncon!
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NS – What do you see in the future of cosplay?
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LYS – We hope it continues to be more and more inclusive. We love seeing the spark when people discover how much fun you can have when creating a cosplay and debuting it for the world. It takes all the fun of Halloween and spreads it throughout the year. We think the future is bright for cosplay if people continue to be positive and know that it is for literally everyone.
NS – What else would you like our readers to know about you?
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LYS – We want to encourage everyone to be proud of the things they love, whether it be movies, comic books, video games, D&D and any multitude of things in the world. Don’t be ashamed to share your enthusiasm with those around you. Go Forth and Be Nerdly!
Thanks to the Nerd Lys for taking the time to be interviewed by Nerd Society today. If you want to find out more about Chris and Rachel Ly, check them out in the links below!
Chris
Rachel
The Nerd Lys
