HOME – Nerd Nite LA

Next Nerd Nite LA is Tuesday, June 16th!

PRESENTATION #1

The Queer Futurity of Syd Mead: The Erased Hope of the Man Behind Blade Runner, Aliens, and Tron

By Jessie Earl

Summary: When asked to describe the future, many of us see the dystopian neon cityscapes of Blade Runner, the bleak corporate machinery of Aliens, or the digital frontier of Tron. All of these works were visualized by one man, Syd Mead, who, for decades, worked as a concept artist and visual designer on everything from Star Trek to the Mission: Impossible movies, and has been used to inspire the design of movies as recently as 2025’s Fantastic Four: First Steps, and helped shape how generations have learned to imagine the worlds ahead. But beneath the corporatized dystopias, Mead was a gay man whose artwork imagined futures of beauty, pleasure, connection, and possibility at a time when queer people were fighting simply to survive the present during the US governments abandoment of during the AIDS crisis. Jessie Earl will explore how Mead’s work was flattened by Hollywood, co-opted by tech-bros, and stripped of its queer hope and how reclaiming that hope can help us imagine technology not as a tool of isolation and control, but of empathy, community, and collective survival.

Bio: Jessie Earl is an LGBTQ advocate, YouTuber, and filmmaker best known for her YouTube channel Jessie Gender, where she explores science fiction, pop culture, and politics through a queer and feminist lens for an audience of nearly 300,000 subscribers. She has directed numerous films, including the 2024 Webby Award Nominee IDENTITEAZE starring John DeLancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Abigail Thorn (House of the Dragon), as well as an episode of the upcoming 2026 anthology series Sub/Liminal from the executive producer of Pushing Daisies for the streaming service Nebula. Her film and written work have appeared on Inverse, Microsoft, GameSpot, The Advocate, Out Magazine, Rotten Tomatoes, Skybound Entertainment, and she contributed to the book Navigating Trans and Complex Gender Identities*.

PRESENTATION #2

Our Dampest Criminals: Tales from California’s Amphibian Underworld

By Emily N. Taylor

Summary: California’s amphibians are wet, wild, and somehow manage to survive both predators and California real estate prices. This presentation dives into the world of the tiny swamp goblins hiding in forests, creeks, and other suspiciously moist places across the state. You’ll learn how (and why) to find them in the wild, why some of their dating habits sound completely made up, and other deeply cursed amphibian facts that us scientists weirdly get paid to study. By the end, Emily Taylor hopes that the Nerd Nite audience will either appreciate these slippery little creatures… or become mildly concerned that the salamanders are plotting something.

Bio: Emily Taylor is a biology professor at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, and she spends her days tramping around California deserts and swamps in the name of science. California Amphibians and How To Find Them is her third popular science book. She wants you to find a frog in the wild… really badly.

PRESENTATION #3

More Than Just an Arnold Movie: How Conan the Barbarian Changed Pop Culture Forever

By Hector Navarro

Summary: “Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet.” These words were written by Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian, one of the most famous literary characters in history, who after his debut in short fantasy stories in the 1930s went on to star in comic books, video games, film and television series, and more. And even though you may not know those original stories or the writer who wrote them for twelve years before tragically comitting suicide at the young age of thirty, you know how influential that writing became. Join Hector Navarro as he takes you through Conan’s epic history and the story of the man who deserves much more credit for influencing the fantasy media we enjoy today.

Bio: Hector Navarro was born in San Diego, California, and raised on cartoons and comic books. He’s been attending San Diego Comic-Con since he was ten. After earning a degree in Media Arts and Animation, Hector moved to Los Angeles to work in the visual effects industry and eventually found his way in front of the camera, flexing his geek muscles and improv comedy skills. He has since worked for companies like DC Entertainment, Geek & Sundry, Nerdist, Skybound, the El Rey Network, Nickelodeon, and he co-founded the popular YouTube channel, Heroes Reforged. He knows what is best in life.