About
Katie George is an American costume designer and cosplayer who was born on September 7, 1988, in the coastal city of Fairhope, Alabama. She built her first costume in high school, fell in love with the process, and has been bringing animated heroes and video‑game icons to life since 2004. Today she lives in Atlanta, Georgia, traveling year‑round as a convention guest, panel host, and craftsmanship judge. Audiences know her from Syfy’s reality series “Heroes of Cosplay,” where her calm, detail‑first style won viewers over, and from documentaries such as “Cosplay: Crafting a Secret Identity.” An Auburn University graduate with a BFA in Costume and Makeup Design, Katie stitches every outfit herself and treats each new build as both engineering puzzle and storytelling exercise.
Before Fame
Raised in rural Alabama, Katie spent her Saturday mornings sketching Sailor Moon fan art and looking through the early internet for wig styling tutorials. She had enough allowance money saved up by the time she was sixteen to purchase her first sewing machine; a year later she premiered a handmade Princess Serenity cosplay gown at Anime Weekend Atlanta. That one visit ignited a fire that drove her through college, where she honed pattern drafting, fabric dyeing, and special makeup skills. Friends recall her dorm room as a labyrinth of satin trimmings, heat guns, and sketch references taped to each wall. While others stayed up late cramming for exams, she was usually up late hand-embroidering capes or vacuum-forming armor plates. The groundwork she established during those years—half art school theory, half self-taught experimentation—continues to inform the way she approaches challenging armor commissions today.
Trivia
- Competitive streak: Katie estimates she has produced more than 80 distinct costumes and has won awards at roughly 95 percent of the contests she has entered, including the Grand Champion title at the 2012 World Cosplay Summit finals in Nagoya, Japan.
- Global ambassador: In 2012, she and long‑time teammate Diana Dru Yan represented the United States at the World Cosplay Summit, performing a spirited Sakura Wars skit before an international crowd.
- Reality‑TV alum: Her three‑episode arc on Syfy’s Heroes of Cosplay (Season 1.5) highlighted her Wonder Woman and Disney princess builds and showcased backstage camaraderie rather than manufactured drama.
- Craft philosophy: A sign in her workshop reads “Live to sew, don’t sew to live,” a playful reminder—borrowed from an old AC Paradise profile—that creativity should fuel, not drain, the maker.
- Secret dream: If costume contests ever lost their shine, she once joked, she would move to Japan and try her luck as a singing anime‑pop idol—proof that her imagination is as big as her stitching backlog.
Family Life
Katie credits her parents—both avid DIY hobbyists—for teaching her patience and problem‑solving. They ferried her to early conventions and never complained when spools of thread turned up in the washing machine. She is the oldest of three siblings and often recruits her brother and sister for late‑night wig‑styling sessions before major shows. Since 2019, she has shared an Atlanta loft with her partner, Cliff, an engineer who happily 3‑D prints accessory prototypes and handles last‑minute soldering jobs. The pair foster rescue cats, and Katie’s social media feeds frequently alternate between armor progress shots and kitten hijinks.
Associated With
Katie’s career is woven together with many of cosplay’s best‑known names. She has walked the same competition stage as master crafter Yaya Han and often teams up with Riki LeCotey and Chloe Dykstra for craftsmanship panels. All four appeared on Heroes of Cosplay, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at build marathons and con‑floor nerves. At Pensacon, she co-hosted the masquerade with Monika Lee, and she continues to work with her World Cosplay Summit partner Diana Tye on big‑group projects. These friendships keep her craft sharp—there is always some new technique to swap or some new fandom to show off for—and they remind audiences that cosplay exists to thrive on community as much as personal creativity.
