Question Of The Week 2025 #3: What Is Your Favorite Celebrity Encounter At SDCC

This year, in an effort to feature more attendees, rather than featuring just one per week — we’re featuring lots of you! We’ll have a new question each week, so be sure to keep an eye on our social media channels for each week’s question. Without further ado let’s get into this weeks question:

William McFarland

El Cajon CA

There have been a lot, but one of my favorites would have to be with Richard Hatch. A really nice guy.

Dlorah

Phoenix, Az

One of the most unexpected encounters was seeing Aldis Hodge walking around the convention center. I was booking it to a book panel and there he was, just cruising, attending the con like he didn’t just have a Hall H panel the other day with the Dwayne Johnson promoting Black Adam. He was really nice, super handsome, and we talked books for a solid three minutes. It was an amazing cool totally unexpected experience.

Christopher Canole

My favorite celebrity meet-up was Chris Bartlett, who has appeared as C-3PO and other droid characters in The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Book of Boba Fett, and dozens of other Star Wars projects, at his table signing on the SDCC floor in 2022. During lunch we realized we were standing next to each other at the red carpet premier of Rogue One. Since then we have attended many red carpet premieres and Comic-Con panels together.

Dwayne Robinson

This was SDCC 2012, my second time to the big show. I was wandering around the far end of the dealer’s room when I saw Grant Imahara of Mythbusters. He had been walking around the dealer’s room when a handful of people spotted him asked for photos, and he took time to say hi to everyone who asked. He didn’t have to, but he made me feel like I was special in those few moments. RIP.

Val Hochberg
Phoenix, Arizona

Hands down, the best celebrity encounter was the prize mule king himself, Gary!

He is just as cute as you’d imagine he would be, and he’s got a big personality. And I got to meet him not once, but twice! He seems to like to make an appearance when there’s a party going on.

I also got to meet E.G. Daily and got a photo with her back in 2005, which was super rad! (but I’d have to dig up the photo from my closet somewhere)

Seth Green sat right in front of me at a SWTOR panel eons ago, back before the MMO came out, which I thought was super cool.

And lastly, I once saw a really great Loki cosplay out in the hallway/lobby area, and I thought he looked a lot like Tom Hiddleston. I didn’t take a photo because of course I didn’t. Later, I heard that Tom Hiddleston was at SDCC in a Loki costume. I’m not sure if who I saw was actually him, but I’m gonna choose to believe that it was!

Victor Calderon

My answer to this week’s question is Robert Kirkman. I met him at my first con in 2013. It was my first convention, I spotted him on my way out of the convention and asked for a picture.

Heather Morgan

My favorite was when I ran into Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones, Those About to Die). He was eating dinner at Fifth and Rose. Hopefully he wasn’t eating the sausage.

Heidi Beck

I met Jed Brophy and had a nice conversation. He was so lovely!

Terry (Headless Ned Stark on YT) Hoffland and Doreen Hoffland

Cleveland, Ohio

SDCC used to NOT be SDCC without

Valerie Kocher

My very first SDCC in 2007. I went to get Rosario Dawson’s auto, she was as sweet as can be. We were talking about the one-legged pole dancer, I think advertising Death Proof. She took my camera and started going through the pictures and we were laughing. It was time to get my picture and she took it like six times because it kept coming up fuzzy. We finally got a good one and she handed me an autographed copy of her comic.

Ariel Estandarte

Orland Park, Illinois

I have encountered so many celebrities at Comic-Con in the halls of the convention center, in elevators, in hotels, outside the Hard Rock Hotel, and especially in the Marina by the IMDB yacht. What I thought was my biggest celebrity encounter ended up being a fake. I thought I got a selfie with Tom Cruise at SDCC when he was walking around with the Entertainment Tonight crew. I was so proud that I was able to get close and get a selfie. My joy was all shattered when my sisters sent me a screenshot from that evening’s Entertainment Tonight’s episode showing how fake Tom Cruise was tricking fans and getting selfies and it showed me getting my fake selfie. lol

Emily Christiansen

My name is Emily and I had the pleasure of encountering Matthew Lillard in the Hall H line during 2017 SDCC. I had been camping out for the last 2 days to see the Twin Peaks: The Return panel! While I knew it wasn’t going to be the most popular panel, I knew I had to get there super early since the panels before it were insane (The Walking Dead, The Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones)

The night before the panel, I was trying to help the folks next to me setup their sleeping bags (we were in the chutes at this point) and Matthew Lillard was just walked up to me asking if I needed help!

He was in Twin Peaks: The Return and was on the panel that I was camping out to see! He was so unassuming and sweet, asking how everyone was, how long we had been out, etc. I loved his performance in the show and I can’t say enough great things about him. I’ve attached a photo (my hair was orange because I was also cosplaying Pennywise later in the con.)

Also I have probably 4+ encounters with the showrunner Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) both at SDCC and in LA — but the standout was in 2015 when I was waiting in line for his custom Funko. He was signing each one (remember those days at the Funko booth?!) and I was also in my Mad Max: Fury Road cosplay (shaved head and all) and he demanded to take a photo of us for his own phone. Just a fantastic human being and fan of all things!

I’ve attached photos of both. My brother is cosplaying as Max in the Bryan pic and is now a moderately successful Warhammer YouTuber (Bricky) — does that count as an encounter?

Katrina

My kiddo did a study of Junji Ito to learn fine line technique (sophomore year of high school). Day one for the lottery to meet him was a strikeout but we got back in the lottery line the next day… The lights turned green and got to meet him at SDCC.

Kiddo showed him the study, they talked for a bit via interpreter, and he told them “your work honors me.” His social media team talked to them and took photos. It was an amazing experience, having work validated by a master and legend… It gave them the confidence to show the portfolio around and they left the con with a very well-known DC & Marvel comic artist as a mentor.

Flash forward two years, Nex is about to graduate high school and just debuted inker work with a DC book The Power Company: Recharged and has three more coming out shortly. All before turning 18.

I have a ton of celeb encounters but as a mom, this is hands down one of the best. Forget what they say, meet your heroes.

Bear Savo

During SDCC 2024, I was standing in line at the Star Trek Menagerie. Out of the blue, Doug Jones walked up. After saying hello and mentioning how much I enjoyed season five of Star Trek: Discovery, we exchanged some pleasantries. He was incredibly gracious and friendly. One of the highlights of my trip last year.

Daniesha Nicole Harris-Hopper

Most of my encounters happened at the Hard Rock and Hilton Bayfront through the years.

Christina Sinwelski

(@Lastmealcosplay)

Brooksville, Fl

What We Do In The Shadows cast. Unfortunately, we weren’t selected for the signing but it was still great to see the interaction and excitement between the cast and fans. Listening to Kristen Schaal speak in person was an absolute highlight of the trip for me!! If someone was wearing something she was in, she popped right into character. Absolutely love her!!

T.J. Hagen

I met The Walking Dead Cast after my son pulled the winning ticket for the meet and greet. JDM was great, joking around with Norman Reedus and Andrew Lincoln in my pics.

Marlene Garstang

Back in the 1970s, when Comic-Con was still at the El Cortez Hotel, I had a conversation with Robert Heinlein. I have no memory of how it came to be, but HE was VERY memorable! I was a cute teen back then, and I remember feeling like he was studying me, and to this day I believe that I must be in one of his books somewhere. I remember that we talked about ice cream sundaes and my love of cats. That’s when he recommended I read Door Into Summer. I followed his advice, and once I was living on my own, I named my first cat Petronius (Petey for short).

Priscilla Wilson

I am going to tell this story at the risk of getting my nerd card revoked. The year was 2014 and good friend, Kevin Tong, had invited me to a private party thrown by Adam Savage (I think it was in promotion of Tested). The party was in full swing with lots of people, an open bar, and loud music. Kevin ran into someone he knew and tried to introduce me, but the music and crowd were so loud that I couldn’t hear a thing. So I spaced out for a bit while he networked. Then we spotted Adam Savage walking by so we took a photo with him. It wasn’t until a good time later when I was looking at the photo that I realized who we were talking to. I had casually met Guillermo del Toro. And Guillermo del Toro accidentally photo-bombed the shot we took with Adam Savage.

In second place, the following year (and also coincidentally with Kevin, but also with my BFF, Eva) we decided to get some drinks at Bayfront one night. We stepped out onto the outdoor patio and who should we see but Jack McBrayer. I was able to chat with him for a minute, but unfortunately no photos were allowed. We also somehow ended up on Disney’s bar tab for a couple of drinks. Thanks, Disney!

Charlotte

(Little Echo Cosplay)

San Jose, CA

My husband was a child actor and played a young Patton Oswald. SDCC 2023 was about two weeks after my wedding. My favorite celebrity encounter was seeing Patton Oswald in a hotel lobby bar and asking if he remembered the kid who played him in that pilot long ago. He said he did. I told him I married that kid two weeks ago. His face was priceless! My husband and I have been together for a decade now and I’ve always dreamed of running into Patton Oswald to make that connection!

Dafne A

My name is Dafne A and even though SDCC enables you to have many encounters with celebrities, one of my favorites was when I had just done a scavenger hunt of sorts back in 2014. All I knew was that I would get a free screening of The Strain tv show, so I went to downtown theater and they brought the whole cast (pictures were taken) but the most amazing part was that I was able to talk to Guillermo del Toro in Spanish for a few minutes while a signing and picture were taken, best experience ever!

Sarah J. Kirk

Jennifer Tilly is one of the best humans ever and made my daughter’s whole con by running down from the Hulu booth just to take pictures with two young fans, one being my daughter.

Franny Gocuan

(@francescupcreations)

Hayward, CA

My favorite celebrity encounter has to be from last year’s 2024 Bob’s Burgers Panel. This was my first time getting the chance to watch the panel live and it was my goal to gift one of my favorite comedians and voice actors, Kristen Schaal, one of my custom crocheted creations. It was by chance that I got to be the last fan to speak/ask a question during the panel and got to gift the cast stickers I made and the crocheted creation for Kristen. Loren Bouchard called me over to the front and gave me a hug and then Kristen came down to give me the biggest hug and like a goober, I cried. What an out of body experience!

The video below is thanks to my buddy @DrLink who just so happened to be sitting up front! Thank you, Santi!

Goal for this year is to crochet burgers for the whole cast, so I really hope there’s another panel this year so I can make it up to H. Jon Benjamin, who made a joke about not getting a crocheted gift from me.

Excited to see what SDCC2025 has in store for us.

Sam

I’ve been going to Comic-Con for almost 25 years now, so it’s kinda impossible to look at the countless (human) celebrity encounters and pick just one as my favorite, so I’ll go a slightly different route.

Comic-Con 2015 and I’m sleeping in line for Hall H. It’s maybe 1am and The Tumbler is driving on the street with a police escort. It looked like a pretty accurate fan-made car, the kind that are a common site here, so I got up to get a picture of it. It makes a couple passes, first up Harbor Dr, then behind the Convention Center, then back towards Harbor Dr, and then it makes a u-turn and literally parks in front of me. Me. The cockpit opens up and Zack Snyder pops out and hands me a shirt promoting Batman Vs Superman and that’s when I realize it’s not “a fan-made” Tumbler, it’s “The” Tumbler… and Zack just parked it in front of me.

Obviously this ended up drawing a crowd, even at 1am, but I got the cool Comic-Con moment that I’ll never forget.

Deon Sinquefield

Houston, TX

I’ve had some nice encounters before, but last year’s encounter with WWE legend, Sgt. Slaughter, is currently top of the list. I met him via a mutual friend and was asked if I’d like to meet him. Of course, I said yes to this, not knowing that I was going to end up crying while talking to him. His G.I. Joe action figure was one of my most coveted possessions back in the 80s. I ended up telling him (with tears in my eyes) how I got his figure and Triple T Tank for Christmas and that I had secretly opened it and played with it for a few hours before wrapping it back up and pretending to be surprised at it. He laughed at that, got a photo with him, got put in the Cobra Clutch, gave me a gold coin, and let me choose something for him to autograph for me. My niece was ashamed of my tears, but to me, it was yet another bucket list item crossed off.

Sonia Lai

I got to meet Rob Paulsen one-on-one as a reporter for animesuperhero.com one year (2014) when the Nickelodeon booth was doing their dub booth. I waited a LONG time to be able to meet him because the bigger outlets pushed themselves ahead of me several times (CNN, etc.). I finally got my chance to meet Paulsen by myself. I wrote about my encounter here.

I think my only other surprise encounter was bumping into a trio of voice actors I had met earlier at their signing on the con floor while I was waiting in line for another signing. They saw me and gave me high fives! I thought that was nice.

Michael Pea

I met the beautiful, charming, and incredibly gracious Parisa Fitz-Henley in the elevator at the former Solamar Hotel (now the Margaritaville Hotel), SDCC 2017.

Roberto

Rosarito Baja, California

It was not exactly an encounter because I knew he was gonna be there, but in 2017 I got to meet Jason David Frank and got a picture with him. I promised I would be meeting him the next year and bring him a Power Rangers cake since its what my wife and I do for a living. So I came back in 2018 and this time I wasn’t so lucky to get a signing because I was late, but I did get to deliver the cake, which I checked and at the time there was no other Lord Drakkon cake around, and gave it to him. The picture with the cake he took it after the con and uploaded to his Instagram stories. And it was the last time I got to see him.

Andre White

Lincoln, California

First I have to say that I’m a HUGE Star Wars fan and that franchise is my favorite fandom. I saw Star Wars in 1977 when I was only six years old and I have been hooked ever since. My first SDCC was 1995, yes 1995, and have been attending for the most part since then. 1996 however was THE year that it happened. I remember it like it was yesterday. My cousin and I were walking the SDCC floor when over the PA we hear, “Attention Star Wars fans, head to table A-30 to meet your favorite villian David Prowse!” We immediately started running towards his table. We arrived to not much fanfare and needless to say I was star-struck! We were able to chat with him for a while and even got free autographs! Here is the picture and you can see 1996 on his badge. I’m on the right with the huge smile on my face. Best SDCC interaction ever!

Justin Otero

Camarillo, CA

Fav celebrity encounter was running into Lewis Tan on the con floor cosplaying as his character, Shatterstar, from Deadpool under the banner.

Ray Aquino

SDCC 2010 when not too crowded, spotted Ming Na walking floor with her dad!

Troy T

Washington, DC area

I have many good encounters with celebrities at SDCC, but two in particular stand out.

In 2009, the first celebrity I ever took a photo with at SDCC was John Barrowman. He was at a table preparing for a meet-and-greet and signing. I was so excited that I impulsively asked for a picture, despite others waiting in line. His handler declined, saying he didn’t have time — but John looked at me and said, “Don’t worry about her, let’s take the picture.”

The second time was in 2011 when I ran into Manu Bennett at the Bayfront. He was incredibly kind. We chatted for a bit, and then he suggested we take a photo. The first shot didn’t turn out well, so he laughed, said we could do better, and took a few more. Great guy!

We couldn’t let the readers have all the fun, so some of the team here at the Unofficial Blog wanted to get in on the action as well. Let’s see who some of their favorites are.

Keisha Dupree

(IG: @xstarsgoblue28x)

Greensboro, NC

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have many celebrity encounters over the years so this was truly very difficult for me to pick from them all. Here are just some of the ones that were big personally for me, or because the people are just consistently so so kind and personable.

Jon Cryer (2019) – considering Pretty In Pink is one of my favorite movies ever, and Duckie Dale is one of my all-time favorite characters, this meeting was one of the best I’ve had, because I didn’t even know he was going to be there. He was also incredibly kind.
Jason Ritter (2013) – this was my first year at the convention and Jason was extremely nice.
AJ McLean (2015) – Quite funny after being a huge Backstreet Boy fan from the 90’s it took SDCC for me to finally meet him.
James Van Der Beek (2017) – Dawson’s Creek is one of my all-time favorite shows, so this one was just an extremely awesome get.
Skeet Ulrich (2018) – I couldn’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve watched the movie Scream, so meeting Skeet many times has been a huge highlight, and he’s always been so nice.
Clayton Cardenas (2019) – Perhaps not a super well-known one, but this was one of the highlights of that year for me.
Antony Starr (2019) – Before there was Homelander, there was Lucas Hood from Banshee, and being a fan since that time, I’ve been very lucky to have met Antony a few times.
Chad Coleman (2022) – Chad is easily one of the nicest celebrities that I’ve met, he always remembers you and has a conversation and makes you feel at ease.

The Cast of The 100 (various years) – I’ve luckily been able to get a good majority of the main cast of The 100, and all were so gracious in the many encounters. Ricky Whittle, Devon Bostick, Isaiah Washington, Adina Porter, Eliza Taylor, Marie Avgeropoulous, Bob Morley, Zach McGowan, Richard Harmon, Lindsey Morgan, and JR Bourne.

Erin Tapken

Marion, Iowa

I was very excited to learn that Chevy Chase would be at the NBC media party at SDCC in 2011. He had always been a favorite in my family. I told my Dad that I was going to have a chance to meet him and he said “Tell him I loved Spies Like Us!”

I had no intention of following through with that, but Chevy and his wife were actually incredibly warm and I felt like he would be receptive to hearing it. I relayed the message and immediately Chevy pulled the name tag sticker off my dress, asked his wife for a pen, asked me my Dad’s name and wrote a message back to him.

Chevy then was about to put the sticker back on my dress but thought better of it and handed it to me instead.

I’m tearing up as I write this, having recently lost my Dad, who framed the sticker and proudly displayed it in his office.

Andy Wagner

El Cajon

My favorite celebrity encounter was during SDCC 2019. Kayvan Novak (Nandor) and Harvey Guillen (Guillermo) from What We Do in the Shadows happened to be walking around outside the Hilton Bayfront. My wife, Carolyn, sent me a text and managed to stall them there until I got back and get some photos with them. They were absolutely wonderful and very amused by the whole thing.

Kara Dupree

(IG: @karadupree)

Greensboro, NC

I have been blessed to have had multiple celebrity encounters through the years since I have been attending SDCC. Here are some of my favorites!

Veronica Mars Cast! (Jason Dohring, Ryan Hansen, Percy Daggs, and Francis Capra)

Riverdale cast! (KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, and Casey Cott)

Other favorite encounters! (Bill Skarsgård, Noah Centineo, Evan Peters, Michael Cimino, Callum Turner, Tom Felton, Dylan Bruce, Justin Theroux, and Julian Morris)

Thank you to all our readers for all the great replies to this week’s question!

Next Week’s Question: What Is Your Favorite Con Snack At SDCC?

Please send in your Name, Location, Picture, and your response to [email protected] by Tuesday, June 3rd to be featured! (If you have submitted for past questions you are free to submit again!)