An HP Dad,* Cary is a Grammy-Nominated Songwriter, Performer and Producer. His songs and co-writes have been streamed over 40 Million times and he’s had record & publishing deals with Universal, Capitol and Warner Brothers. He’s toured the world and shared stages with John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band and many others. He has appeared on Conan O’Brien, countless other national and local TV shows and has written songs with artists as diverse as Katy Perry & Chris Tomlin. Cary & Jack O’Neill founded the band Jackopierce as SMU theater majors. After spending 5 years relentlessly recording & releasing music and touring the country they were signed to major label A&M Records.

For 37 years now, Jackopierce has toured the world in 48 states, 10 countries, on 3 continents and they’ve sold about 500,000 albums. They play about 50 shows per year and will be at the Granada in Dallas Friday, Apr 4. He lives in Dallas with his HP grad wife Cara and three *HP boys: Jordan ‘19, Jaron ‘26 and Elijah ‘28.

Dr. Mag Gabbert has a Ph.D. in English, with a focus in creative writing, from Texas Tech University, an MFA in creative writing from The University of California at Riverside, and a BA in English from Trinity University. Her debut full-length poetry collection, which was published in 2023, won the Charles B. Wheeler Prize in Poetry from The Ohio State University and the Writers League of Texas Book Award in Poetry. Her awards also include a 92NY Discovery Award from the 92NY Unterberg Poetry Center, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from The Kenyon Review Writers’ Workshop, Idyllwild Arts, and Poetry at Round Top. She teaches at Southern Methodist University and currently serves as Poet Laureate for the city of Dallas.

K.E. Davenport graduated from HPHS in 2000 and went on to study film, storytelling, and animation at NYU and later at The University of Texas, where she graduated in 2004.

She worked as a distance learning coordinator, a controller for JP Morgan, a home remodeler, and a teacher before becoming a full-time author. She has also volunteered as an animal rescuer, transporting and fostering animals on behalf of local shelters, as well as running social media for one of her favorite rescue groups.

During the last five years, K.E. has immersed herself in learning the world of independent publishing while releasing her science fantasy trilogy: The Moon Travelers. Currently, she's in the process of developing two new series that will be released later this year and in 2025.

K.E. spends most of her leisure time with her husband, kids, and pets. When she's not daydreaming, writing, or editing, she can be found hiking or having fun outdoors with her family.

Karl Wimer is an award-winning cartoonist and illustrator, published in books, magazines, and newspapers across five continents. Karl’s been a syndicated cartoonist for WoodyPaige.com, Mile High Sports Magazine, Denver Business Journal, and Central European Business Weekly. His cartoons have won multiple 1st Place Awards (Society of Professional Journalists, Colorado Press Association, and others), and have been featured extensively in the Best US Editorial Cartoons of the Year, in USAToday, NPR, Fox News, and in economics textbooks. Karl’s background (BA History/Yale, MBA/Kellogg, Grad Degree/London School Economics), business experience (29 years as a successful marketing executive), sports bonafides (2-sport college athlete: football, All-America in lacrosse, successful coach at many levels), and international interest (several years living and working in places as varied as Prague and Bangkok), all find their way into his art.

Michael Merschel’s three decades in newspaper journalism included 12 years as books editor for The Dallas Morning News. He’s also the author of the novel Revenge of the Star Survivors, which won the Texas Institute of Letters’ award for best middle-grade book in 2018. Before that, he contributed to public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion and composed an out-of-office reply that was mentioned in The New York Times and featured on NPR. He now writes about cardiovascular health for American Heart Association News. Learn more at merschel.net.

Ben Montgomery is author of the New York Times-bestselling 'Grandma Gatewood's Walk,' 'The Leper Spy,' 'The Man Who Walked Backward,' and 'A Shot in the Moonlight." He spent most of his 20 year newspaper career as an enterprise reporter for the Tampa Bay Times. He founded the narrative journalism website Gangrey.com and helped launch the Auburn Chautauqua, a Southern writers collective. He has taught journalism at the University of Montana and the University of South Florida.

In 2010, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting and won the Dart Award and Casey Medal for a series called "For Their Own Good," about abuse at Florida's oldest reform school.

Montgomery grew up in Oklahoma and studied journalism at Arkansas Tech University. He worked for the Courier in Russellville, Ark., the Standard-Times in San Angelo, Texas, the Times Herald-Record in New York's Hudson River Valley and the Tampa Tribune before joining the Times in 2006. He lives in Tampa.

Kurt Voelker was born and raised in Dallas, graduated from Harvard and went to graduate film school at USC. He has since written feature screenplays for Warner Bros, Paramount, Disney, Fox, Sony, MTV Films, Screen Gems and more. His work includes the Warner Bros release SWEET NOVEMBER, starring Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves, and Lionsgate/Huayi Brothers’ animated feature ROCK DOG. Kurt also wrote and directed the award-winning, independent features PARK and THE BACHELORS, starring J.K. Simmons and Julie Delpy. He is currently writing a limited series about Mary Wollstonecraft and a feature about Olympic speedskater Irving Jaffee. He is also attached to direct the feature film SCRATCH.

Nellie Sciutto is an actor/writer/TV personality. Her book, 50 Moments: Faking It, Making It and Taking It in Hollywood as a Working Actor, illustrates life in the film and television industry and the struggles artists face, whether funny, tragic or just poignant. As a writer, she has written for several TV shows and currently has a docuseries that she executive produced and wrote airing on AMC, the Sundance Channel and Amazon. Her focus is non-fiction in Hollywood but her underlying theme is about being an underdog, which all of us are in some aspects of our lives.