The FSCO Team

Amanda "Mari" Gregory is the founder, president, and CEO of First Stop Cosplay. Her workdays are spent reading through documents, making executive decisions, and often pleading with Elaine for more time at the sewing machine. Amanda holds degrees in fashion design, theatre costume design, humanities, and business, with about 20 years of experience in sewing, patterning, cosplay, video editing, and writing. Despite being surrounded by cosplay and sewing at work, she still loves diving into her hobbies during her free time — proving that when you love what you do, it never gets old! Outside of work, Amanda enjoys reading manga, playing video games, and spending time with her husband. Fun fact: she once worked at a Japanese bakery specializing in mochi and ice cream.

Kelly is the Marketing and Sales Lead at First Stop Cosplay. She handles orders, packaging, website tasks, oversees social media posts, and takes care of everything convention-related. Kelly actually has a background in culinary arts, having graduated from Le Cordon Bleu with an associate’s degree in 2012. In late 2019, she decided to switch careers and began helping her friend Amanda with a new company she was starting. Kelly has always loved the arts — cooking, baking, sewing, crafts — pretty much anything that involves building something and working with her hands. She’s also a huge fan of Disney, anime, manga, and video games. Having attended conventions since 2005, Kelly has always wanted to cosplay. She’s done a few closet cosplays but hopes to finally create something herself using the skills she’s learned since joining First Stop Cosplay!

Elaine is First Stop Cosplay's project manager for her awesome product development team. She makes sure that every ‘t’ is crossed and ‘i’ is dotted — and done on time! A former educator and administrator, she's very familiar with herding cats. Think she's doing a good job? Elaine's favorite way to be rewarded is with chips or fries.Realchips. Not oven-baked. And waffle, crinkle cut, or regular fries. Shoestring fries are not fries. Steak fries are basically just potatoes. Elaine's most commonly heard phrases: "Get to work!" "Focus, people!" "F#@%!" and "Does anyone have any snacks?

Say hello to Ashley, our creative Patternmaker extraordinaire! Her days are an engaging mix of drafting patterns, testing them out, and making sure her construction steps are so easy, even a total newbie can nail it. With a background in costume design and years of experience in the cosplay scene, she crafts everything from dazzling costumes to comfy casual wear. When she’s not lost in a world of fabric, you can catch her conquering the latest Legend of Zelda game or hanging out with her pet birds. The best part of her job? Seeing the pure joy on someone’s face when they rock a garment she designed — it's like magic!

Meet Karina, our Content Writer! She's the wordsmith behind our blog posts, product listings, the FSCO Sewing Academy, and so much more. Karina earned her B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from the University of California, Irvine, before getting an M.A. in English Literature and Culture from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Vinyl record collector, avid bookworm, and wannabee poetess — on an average day in the office, you'll most likely find Karina typing away at her desk, making strange muttering noises (that's how you know she's cooking!). After hours, she enjoys turning up the volume on her electric guitar. Karina's favorite part about working at First Stop Cosplay is collaborating with her teammates, whom she considers "geniuses, all of them".

Paige, our Technical Writer, writes the step-by-step instructional content for all of our sewing patterns. Her logical thinking, visualization ability, and attention to detail are key to our clear and concise sewing instructions. Paige enjoys dystopian books and movies, crafting, and crocheting. Her favorite project was crocheting the Katniss Everdeen winter sweater/vest from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire for her daughter.

Sarah is the Social Media Coordinator here at First Stop Cosplay. She has a lot of fun planning photoshoots as well as styling wigs and editing content. If you shoot us a message or leave a comment, she will be sure to respond! Sarah has been cosplaying for a few years and has always been curious to learn more about the art of sewing. This is what led her to the wonderful team at First Stop Cosplay. Sarah still cosplays in her free time, including Mikey from Tokyo Revengers, Bachira from Blue Lock, and Power from Chainsaw Man. Her favorite part about her job is helping other people experience the joys of cosplay when they step into the finished outfit and wig, and strike that flattering in-character.

Naomi is First Stop Cosplay’s video engineer and illustrator, responsible for shooting and editing video content and creating all the artwork! Lil’ Naomi was thrown into the LA film and broadcast scene at the age of 15, where she discovered her love for camera work. Determined to make heartfelt content, she earned her degree in Film and Digital Media, which she now puts to good use at FSCO. Naomi has been drawing cute anime girls since she was practically in diapers. Now she illustrates all our adorable characters and icons, and what started as a hobby has fully transformed into a career — “IT’S A WAY OF LIFE”! Naomi adores her coworkers and finds joy in bothering them (especially Elaine) and making them laugh. ^__^

Nacho is the Production Coordinator and “mother hen” of the production team at First Stop Cosplay. He’s been with the company since 2022 and oversees capturing all visuals, from photography to video content, for sewing pattern tutorials and written instructions, the website, social media, and more. When he’s not working on video projects, Nacho loves cooking and exploring new foods. He believes that the best way to experience new places and cultures is through their cuisine. A little-known fact about Nacho: every now and then, he and his wife like to hit the dance floor for a fun night of salsa dancing!