Joshua R. Pangborn
Actor/Writer/Director/Editor
Joshua R. Pangborn (he/him) is an award-winning actor and writer, and founder of SideKick Productions, a queer, fat and sex-positive film & new media production company centered on telling horror and horror-adjacent stories.
Joshua has a long list of acting credits in multiple genres, but it always seems to come back to horror. Even his recent appearance on Peacock's Poker Face (directed by Natasha Lyonne) was in an episode centered on horror movies!
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Joshua created and starred in the award-winning queer soap opera Skeleton Crew, now in its fifth season, and the horror comedy Demon Doctor, now in its second season. In 2020, Demon Doctor was among the ten most-awarded horror web series in the world in the Web Series World Cup. Joshua has also created and starred in several horror shorts, including Angie, and the award-winning Wasted on the Young, and Scratched, and the world's first queer, fat-positive horror feature film, A Taste of Youth, as well as a new horror feature anthology, The Brooklyn Butcher. In addition to his own work as a horror creator, Joshua has appeared in multiple horror shorts and features, including I'll Be Dead for Christmas, On My Way to the Grave, Funhouse, Hyenas, and La Colombiana, as well as the horror actual play video podcast, Downfall. He's also been transformed into a pig-headed man for the short film, Pig Face, produced by Josh Safdie and Elara Pictures. Outside of horror, Joshua has also starred in the feature film The Fabulous Seven Forever, starred in Peabody Award Winner Matthew Reynard's pilot, Redeemer in Drag, appeared as an adult baby confronting actual abortion clinic protesters for Adult Swim, been part of a naked buffet for Comedy Central, and was a guest star on the pandemic web series, Pandemic Pillow Talk, starring Eric Roberts.
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Joshua is currently collaborating with Michael Kunz (cinematographer on Meat and Hollow Lake) on his next horror feature film, The Contract. He is also appearing in a recurring role on a new HBO series this fall.
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Joshua has also hosted over 200 hours of the live video podcast, SideKick Power Hour, where he has interviewed guests from the music, comedy, film, and literary world. Some of his guests included Dominic Burgess (American Horror Story), Big Dipper (rapper), Chris Conde (rapper), Trevor Ashley (runner up on Queen of The Universe), and Hamish Steele (creator of Netflix's Dead End: Paranormal Park).
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Joshua is a two-time recipient of the John Waters Award (2020 and 2022, when it was renamed the Cecil B. Demented Award) from the Baltimore Next Media Web Fest for his unique voice as a creator. He has won both Best Bear Representation in the Media and Best Bear Artist in the 2023 and 2024 Bear World Media awards. Joshua has received awards across the globe for his work as an actor, writer, and director in the field of horror. He also holds a doctorate in English Literature with a focus on dramatic literature and myth and folklore. Joshua's short fiction work includes the horror stories Crumbs in The Book of Queer Saints, and The Court of King Dong in That Old House: The Bathroom, and his own debut collection of short horror stories, Homo Phobias
