Tom Swanner spent eight years in Los Angeles chasing his dream to be a working actor. He was in a number of commercials and small roles before he moved back to his hometown of Sacramento. He then began working on the distribution side of the film industry and started reviewing as a hobby in a local club newsletter.

Spotting Swanner’s talent, a local gay newspaper, This Side Up, recruited him as a DVD reviewer. When the publication folded, Swanner turned to writing plays and penned four plays that have received numerous award nominations and critical success. He also co-wrote the award-winning lesbian-themed play Countess Dracula. He went on to serve as Artistic Director with Lambda Players Theatre (a 20-year-old LGBT theatre company) where he remains active today.

In 2004 a new LGBT newspaper, Q-Ragg, approached Swanner with the idea of doing DVD and film reviews. However the publisher felt Swanner needed a partner in crime. Enter Brian Judd.

Swanner and Judd have worked for four years, “because some publisher thought I hated everything and needed a balance,” says Swanner. Since the teaming, Swanner feels he has proven over and again that he is the “nice” reviewer while Judd, “bitterly proves every time that he wouldn’t know a good movie if it crawled out of his butt.”

When Q-Ragg folded a year later, Swanner and Judd were quickly picked up by MGW Magazine and subsequently MGW Newspaper where they are still writing. They also began reviewing on a community cable TV show BGT-TV, which since picking up the duo, has tripled its ratings and has developed a significant web presence driven by the two reviewers. Fans catch their videos and reviews on youtube, google, and myspace as well as in television and print.

Swanner and Judd were recently picked up for the launch of a new internet publication launching in July, HE Magazine, which caters to entertainment of “gay men on the go”. They continue to look for other outlets for their wildly successful film review column.

Swanner lives in Sacramento, CA with his 25-year-old boyfriend Sean and their grossly obese daughter (read dog) “Honey”.