Piper at the Gates of Dusk

Patrick Ness is the internationally and New York Times bestselling author of A Monster Calls, which won both the Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal, was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, and was made into a major motion picture for which he wrote the screenplay. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling Chaos Walking trilogy, More Than This, Release, Different for Boys, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Burn, and Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody. His many accolades include two Carnegie Medals, an Olivier Award, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Book Trust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book Award. Ness lives in London and his latest book for young adults is Piper at the Gates of Dusk (2026).

Zach Barack is a transgender actor and musician from the northern suburbs of Chicago. In the summer of 2019, Zach debuted in a featured role in a Marvel film, Spider-Man Far From Home. He also appears in the musical finale to the landmark Amazon series Transparent. In 2022, he had his first lead role in Netflix’s animated show: “Dead End: Paranormal Park.” A short film he starred in with Jane Seymour just finished making rounds at film festivals. Zach is a comedian and advocate for trans issues and trans representation

British-American actor Jordan Renzo was born in the UK but grew up in California before moving back to the UK for drama school. He has had leading roles in notable TV shows for major networks including the BBC, Netflix and Starz. Most recently, he played media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s son, James, in ITV's real-life drama series 'The Hack': the "spectacular, sprawling story" of the phone hacking scandal which rocked Britain, written by Emmy-winning writer of 'Adolescence' Jack Thorne and starring David Tennant and Toby Jones.