Papa Bear began his journey into the wild world of cosplay with a small local con in 2012 and has been hooked ever since. Fueled by the love for the craft, and a passion to spread diversity and inclusion Papa Bear has been heavily involved in the cosplay community as Co-founder of Chicago P.O.C. Cosplayers, Costumers with a Cause a costume charity organization, and Cosawesome studios. Papa Bear has gone on to be featured on the SyFy Channel, was the official mascot for C2E2, cosplay affiliate for Wizard World, been a guest speaker at various conventions, lead cosplay programmer, internationally published, competed and judged in multiple cosplay events, won multiple awards and has no plans on slowing down.