‘San Diego Kids to Hollywood Artists’ panel at Comic-Con shines light on locals

Some fans attending Comic-Con dream of coming back and sitting on a panel, talking about their success in pop culture.

For Jeff Ranjo, who grew up in South County, those dreams came true when he was on the other side of the podium talking to fans.

“I grew up with dreams of getting into the industry,” said Ranjo, who is now an executive with Netflix.

Ranjo was just one of several San Diego locals who made the jump into show business and spoke at the Comic-Con panel “San Diego Kids to Hollywood Artists.”

For Ranjo, it involved nurturing his art skills at an early age and then developing them while taking classes at Montgomery High School, Southwestern College, Mesa College and City College and CalArts.

As a young professional, he lived in a building where Petco Park stands, not too far from the San Diego Convention Center where Comic-Con is being held.

It all paid off as he later worked on films for Walt Disney, including Frozen.

Joe Moshier grew up in Lemon Grove and now is a character designer who has worked on major films, including The Emperor’s New Groove and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

A die-hard Padres fan, he connected his local ties to his work when he modeled the body of Miles Morales’ Spiderman character on that of Kawhi Leonard, the NBA star and former San Diego State standout.

Bret Marnell grew up in Del Cerro and developed a passion for film by watching old movies at the former Ken Cinema in Kensington. Now, he’s an editor who has  worked on 35 movies, both live action and animation. He’s working on a highly anticipated film version of Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, based on the book by legendary La Jollan Dr. Seuss.

Another La Jollan, Aliki Theofilopoulos, has done a variety of jobs in the entertainment business, most recently as a producer. She’s worked on the films Hercules, Mulan and the popular television show “Phineas and Ferb.”

Theresa Bentz grew up in Lemon Grove a self-described “theater geek” and now she’s a production manager and producer whose credits include Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Voice actor and panel moderator Tom Racine encouraged fans at Comic-Con to follow their dreams, joking, “If these dorks can make it, so can you.”