Cheralyn began creating her own costumes and creatures at an early age, when her mother finally refused to make any more odd costumes for her at Halloween. She relocated to New York to study costumes, wigs, and make-up at the Juilliard School, and earned her first fifteen minutes of fame performing Off-Broadway with John Leguizamo in Mambo Mouth. She then moved to Minneapolis to help create Muppet costumes for Sesame Street Live! (as well as a large purple bunny for the film The Net), and returned to New York a year later to work with Jim Henson Productions on the TV series Dinosaurs! and the film The Muppet Christmas Carol.
After her time at Henson, Cheralyn worked with Paramount Production Services, creating costumes and props for Paramount properties such as The Star Trek Earth Tour, Titanic: The Movie on Tour, and Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hiilton. Some of her other credits include work (both in front of and behind the camera) on Mel Gibson’s The Patriot, and costuming work on the Park Service historical film Manassas: End of Innocence directed by Star Wars sound specialist Ben Burtt. In addition to her costume work, Cheralyn has served as playtester for the Star Wars RPG Mission to Lianna, and has written articles for such genre-related periodicals as Bjo Trimble’s Sci-Fi Spotlight and Con-Tour Magazine.
Most recently, Cheralyn completed work on the New Line Cinema feature film “The New World” starrring Colin Farrell. She currently lives in Charlotte and works as a free-lance costume/prop/puppet builder, as well as putting the finishing touches on her first book The Well-Dressed Puppet, scheduled for release later this year.
WOW! You clicked on my name! Since you’re vaguely curious, I am Azana, a mixed-media artist. In my art, I concentrate on core emotions and issues of femininity. Through exploring emotions of loss, abandonment, and catharsis, I often relate many of my works to existentialist studies I followed for several years. (And yes, if you have heard of the ‘fallic artist from New York’ that’s me.)
Zenobia’s love for costuming is second only to her writing. As a youngster she could often be found at home wearing a sheet as a cape and brandishing sumac branch as a sword. As costumes became more elaborate she would dress up herself and her trusty steed for Halloween (luckily her gelding was an easy going fellow). But the costumes didn’t really start to happen until after she moved to Central New York with her husband. Myriad costumes grace her costume closet; many are of the Renaissance and Oriental Dance persuasion. She considers herself lucky that her husband also loves himself a good costume, so she can practice masculine pieces as well. Dressing other people up is how she shows her love. 