Taso Stavrakis's first lead role came at the age of 8, when he won the coveted role of the Gingerbread Man at his elementary school in Pittsburgh. A few years later, after graduating from the Fine Arts program at Carnegie-Mellon University, Taso found himself working with local filmmaker George A. Romero on projects such as Dawn of the Dead and Knightriders. His tenure with renowned makeup artist Tom Savini led to other film work, including the first Friday the 13th and He Knows You're Alone. After college, Taso lived and worked in New York City for many years, appearing in productions both on- and off-Broadway. It was here that he befriended several like-minded performers, including Kent Shelton and Dikki Ellis. Thus, Taso became one of the founding members of the Hanlon-Lees Action Theater when the company was officially formed in 1979. Since then, Taso has performed innumerable live-action jousts and Wild West shows and provided stunts for films such as Day of the Dead, Creepshow 2, and The Mask of Zorro. He hasn't forgotten his roots, however, and still writes, directs, and appears in joust shows at several Renaissance festivals around the country.