About The Staff

Matthew Miranda - Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Matthew cooling off after the SMT/Persona Gathering as Junpei from Persona 3 at Anime Expo 2013
Matthew interviewing Gilles Poitras, Guest of Honor, at FanimeCon 2011

Matthew Miranda is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of the California Conventions Blog. He is a graduate at California State University, Sacramento in Economics. In addition to maintaining this blog and providing anime convention coverage, he is an avid gamer and loves a good night on the town. He also likes to play Texas Hold'em poker and dreams of winning the World Series of Poker's No-Limit Hold'em Championship, or at least get on TV while in cosplay. Of course, he does watch anime and does read some manga; his favorite series (in no particular order) are: Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, Jormungand (and its sequel Perfect Order), Eureka seveN, Code Geass, Cowboy Bebop, and Black Lagoon. Oh, and everything Persona and THE iDOLM@STER.

If he had to name one "waifu" (from his harem of "waifus" that he claims to have), he would have to pick Misato from Evangelion. That and Relena Peacecraft from Gundam Wing, who he considers to be his "OG waifu."


Pacific Northwest/Oregon Division

Ryan Silva - Executive Editor & Pacific Northwest Division Head of Staff
Ryan with Yumi Kawamura and Shihoko Hirata at Taiyou Con 2015
Ryan as the Philippines from Hetalia at ALA 2011

Winning Asuna by moonlight. Paint delivery driver by daylight. Always fighting the good otaku fight.

His name is Ryan Silva.

"You see, where Ryan's from..." he is the Pacific Northwest Division Head of Staff, Executive Editor, Chief Photographer, and  Chief Videographer. A native of Southern California Westminster-raised, he now calls the friendly combines of Medford, Oregon home. He along with Lucas were there first two to be brought into the blog by Matthew and headed the first official press team at Anime Vegas 2010. Since then he has headed press teams for Anime Expo and is responsible for some of the highest viewed YouTube videos for the blog including his recording at Mikunopolis in Los Angeles in 2011 which at the time of writing has garnered 133,000+ views. His years of reporting at Anime Expo as veteran and other conventions across the western states led to the creation of the PNW Division which he now leads.

On his off time, he likes to build Gunpla - a short-handed term for Gundam plastic model kits. He also blames Matthew for getting into the Persona franchise but also likes to play, Street Fighter, BlazBlue, Kingdom Hearts, Ace Attorney, Metal Gear, Resident Evil, Disgaea, Devil May Cry, .hack, and Dance Dance Revolution. Some of his favorite anime include Sailor Moon, Sword Art Online, Initial D, Haruhi Suzumiya, Code Geass, Gundam Wing, Evangelion, Shuffle!, Clannad, the Fate fanchise, The Irregular at Magic High School, Ouran High School Host Club, Steins;Gate, and Love Live!. If he's not taking photos and/or videos after you take the cameras out of his hands, he's taking Nendoroids and figures home from conventions and displaying it on his "anime shelf" back home. He also plays Weiss Schwarz on the side and loves Vocaloid.

His one convention dream (besides going to Japan and attending Comiket, which to be honest is everyone's dream here) is to have a worldwide-recoginzed and credited article, photo set, and/or playlist of videos.

Like Matthew, he also has a "waifu" and it's pretty obvious who it is. If he had to name another "waifu" besides Asuna, he would obviously pick the goddess herself, Haruhi Suzumiya.

Dalton Dickinson - Convention Correspondent

Dalton with Voice Actor Yuu Asakawa at Crunchyroll Expo 2019

Dalton is the resident ginger at the California Conventions Blog. He has had a number of stints in the past decade, including helping out at Otakon Vegas 2014, Anime Expo 2015, and Crunchyroll Expo 2019, which ultimately landed him a position as Convention Correspondent which he officially started at Kumoricon 2019. He also has a number of Anime Expo and SacAnime visits under his belt.

Much like the rest of the staff, he is an avid gamer, anime/manga enthusiast, Vocaloid connoisseur, and Gunpla builder. His favorite anime include My Hero Academia, Rurouni Kenshin, Naruto, Death Note, Bleach, Code Geass, Berserk, and Hunter x Hunter; while in the realm of video games he's a veteran DARK SOULS player and touches franchises like Devil May Cry, Street Fighter, Persona, BlazBlue, and King of Fighters. Besides building Gunpla, he's crafting his photography and dominating the local Magic the Gathering scene.

His dreams include flying out to Japan and visiting a Gunpla museum, and becoming a well-known voice actor.

As for his waifu? He says "check the profile photo - it's Luka."


Northern California Division

Nate Natividad - Northern California Division Head of Staff
Nate as Death the Kid from Soul Eater at Japan Expo 2013 (Photo Credit: Toshiyasu Morita)

Nathaniel (or Nate for short) Natividad has been attending anime conventions since he first started going to them in Fanime 2009. He has been interested in attending conventions ever since that he has expanded his attendance to other anime conventions, particularly in the NorCal region. Along with attending conventions, he also attends many cosplay gatherings around the bay area considering them as a time to socialize with other cosplayers and making new friends. Nate is a vivid anime viewer keeping up with shows that are recently released. His favorite anime includes Anohana, K-ON!, Clannad, Angel Beats!, Eden of the East, Cowboy Bebop, Fate/Zero, and many more.


Southern California Division

Ralph Jeriko Serranilla - Convention Correspondent
Jeriko (right) with Ryan (left) at Anime Expo 2016
Jeriko cosplaying on a Sunday

Student by Day. Nurse by Night. A Nerd all of the time. Ralph Jeriko Serranilla, known best as Jeriko by his friends and family, is a passionate fan of almost all things nerd related, especially anime and video games. Given the gift of a Sega Genesis console and a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog before he was even born, Ralph grew up with an avid love for the medium, which eventually segued into an avid love of anime as well in his formative years. A former president of his high school’s and community college’s anime club, Ralph loves to be a part of the anime community in many different capacities. Whether it’s at a convention staffing, speaking at a panel, making song covers on YouTube, writing about the deeper messages and themes about movies and shows he’s watched, or just yucking it up in cosplay at Masquerade, he enjoys every minute of it. For Ralph, conventions are his chance to finally let off some steam, and let loose the nerdy energy, while making some friends along the way.

Ralph enjoys a wide variety of anime genres and titles, ranging from Slice-of-Life to Shounen staples. He is particularly fond of anything mecha related (Gundam, Macross, Aldnoah.Zero), anything made by Studios GAINAX, TRIGGER, and Kyoto Animation, and anything touched by the musical genius that is Yoko Kanno. Though he’s really starting to get into Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure. Ralph also enjoys a variety of video game genres and franchises as well. Among his favorites in no particular order are Pokemon, Persona, Fire Emblem, Resident Evil, GTA, Metal Gear (!), Super Mario, and Overwatch. Ralph is definitely a huge fan of anything made by FROM Software, specifically the Dark Souls series. He’s currently gitting gud at Bloodborne at the moment while waiting for the DLC for Dark Souls III.

While not living the nerd life, Ralph works as a Licensed Vocational Nurse and is currently studying to earn an Associate’s Degree in Nursing and become a Registered Nurse.

Outside of the Blog, you can also follow him on at the links below:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSingingOtaku
Instagram: @epicnursejeriko


Support Division

Tom Gifford - Senior Advisor to the Editor-in-Chief/Historian
Tom in the group shot with Lucas, Robbie, Ryan, and Matthew at FanimeCon 2011

Tom Gifford is the Senior Advisor to the Editor-in-Chief and Historian for California Conventions Blog. He is good friends with blog founder Matthew. Like the other staff members, he is an avid gamer, and is also quite a good singer, frequently entering in karaoke contests at the conventions he attends.

He has been attending anime conventions for 10 years, beginning with FanimeCon 2001. His favorite anime series include The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Eureka seveN, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Star Ocean EX and Ys.

He prefers to play RPGs, but does play other video game genres as well. His favorite RPG series are (in order): LUNAR, Phantasy Star, Persona, Ys, Atelier, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Xenosaga and Final Fantasy. His other favorite game series are: Sonic The Hedgehog, Mega Man, Jak, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, the video games of Mobile Suit Gundam, and Tokimeki Memorial.

He prefers to go by his online nickname "Shiro."

In the early part of 2015, he announced his retirement from active reporting citing issues regarding his health and traveling to conventions.