COSPLAY has gone from a geeky obsession to one of the main attractions at pop culture and sci-fi conventions.

From dressing up as Marvel superheroes to cult television icons, anime to gaming characters, cosplay has become almost mainstream in recent years.

This year’s Cosplay ambassadors at Supanova are way too young to know about how it all started. The origins of Cosplay, short for costume play, come from 1970s Sci-Fi and Fantasy movie conventions in Los Angeles and in Japan where it became popular with fans of anime, manga and video games.

As teenagers getting into Cosplay to young adults, cosplay has always been around for Supanova cosplay ambassadors Nix and Hedgeknight, but in the time they have been involved in the scene, they have seen in meteoric rise in the popularity of cosplay.

“It has become a lot more mainstream, where everyone at least knows about it where they definitely didn’t 10 years ago,” Claudia Phoenix, aka Nix Cosplay, said.

The Brisbane-based cosplayer got into the scene 10 years ago when she was 14.

“I saw cosplayers online a lot. I was on Tumblr and things like that in those days. I just thought they were so cool and I really wanted to be like them.

“Cosplay has been growing in popularity. I think what’s making it so popular right now is it really exploded over COVID, which changed a lot of things in the world, where people were at home or they were online a lot and it became a really big thing among teenagers on Tik Tok and it was a way to change things up.

“You were just sitting at home and you were watching your shows and you couldn’t see your friends or go out but you could dress up as a different character and embody that in a way.

“People were turning a lot to escapism. They found there was a lot of stress in life. COVID was a weird and stressful time for a lot of people, now with things like inflation and cost of living, people are turning to escaping into different worlds like anime or superheroes.”

Claudia Phoenix, Nix, as Hatsune Miku. Photo: Valiant Shoots

The community around cosplaying has grown to a level Claudia and her friend last year started a market day in Brisbane for cosplayers to meet, buy and sell second hand cosplay and fabric and materials.

“Ten years ago cosplay was something people had never heard of. So they’re like, ‘What are you doing this weekend?’ You would say going to a convention and you were cosplaying and they would be ‘What on earth is that?’

“As the years have gone on, it’s become something that people have at least heard of and are familiar with.

“The level of prizes you can win at competitions or the amount of brand opportunities some cosplayers get where they are being hired by brands to dress up as their characters is something that’s changed a lot.”

Two of those cosplayers in demand are Sydney-based sisters Karina and Kit Moore, Dragon Jerky and Hedgeknight, recently hired to promote the Netflix series Wednesday.

They have become key guests at Supanova as Cosplay Ambassadors.

Kit said she started cosplaying when she was 15 eight years ago.

“I got into cosplay through YouTube and as a teenager who really enjoyed watching movies and stuff with my dad, and that kind of a thing that we bonded over,” she said.

“And then I saw videos of people online who were dressing up as the characters in these movies, superheroes and Disney princesses and I just thought it was the coolest thing ever.

“Now I really enjoy the challenge of trying to make new costumes.”

Kit is a final year NIDA student studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts in costume.

“My love for cosplay has definitely influenced how my life has gone, studying at NIDA and I’m going to do it professionally soon.”

Kit has already worked on theatre productions and worked in costume for Bananaland and for Opera Australia.

“It’s been very interesting watching it grow over the years I’ve been a part of it. I think with the rise of social media and Tik Tok it definitely helped to make it more accessible to a lot of people.

“People just love the escapism, getting to dress up and pretend you’re someone else for the day and wear fun outfits that you couldn’t normally wear; a little break from your daily routine.”

Dragon Jerky and Hedgeknight. Photo: Valiant Shoots

The three cosplayers will be guests at Supanova on the Gold Coast this weekend along with a long list of authors, artists and actors from Doctor Who, Star Wars, The Boys, Harry Potter, Arrow, Mad Max, Grease, Scooby-Doo and Garfield.

The Gold Coast event features Jodie Whittaker, the Thirteenth Doctor in Doctor Who; Evanna Lynch, Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter; Karen Fukuhara, Kimiko Miyashiro in Amazon series The Boys and Katana in Suicide Squad; Temuera Morrison, star of Once Were Warriors and The Book of Boba Fett; Barry Pearl, T-Birds Doody from Grease; Emily Bett Rickards from Arrow and The Flash; Antonio Sabato Jr from Charmed and Melrose Place; and Australian actors Todd Lasance, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Lincoln Lewis and John Jarratt, who is presenting the Queensland premiere of his film, What About Sal?.

Supanova is on at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday and Sunday, April 13-14.