Jason Hackett

"The details of my life are quite inconsequential. ... Very well, where do I begin?"

In many ways, I am your typical Gen Xer. Born in the early 1970s to parents who later divorced ... named Jason, just like three of every 10 males my age ... now living in a cookie-cutter house with a mountain of debt ... incapable of finding my niche in life ... which brought me to Pendant.

What makes me unique is that Superman is my dad. No, I'm not *that* Jason. ... When I was a teenager trying to deal with all those teenagery problems plus suddenly no longer having a father figure, I immersed myself in comic books, mostly Superman and Batman titles. Superman quite literally filled in for my own father, teaching me through his example what it's like to be a moral, responsible, upstanding and good person. For that reason, I've been a Superman fan for most of my life (Bats was OK during those angry times growing up. Luckily most of us aren't like Bruce, and we grow out of that phase).

Of course it wasn't Superman, but those who wrote the comics (sadly, I can't include "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" as an influence) who made a difference at that key point in my life, thus I've been a student of writing for almost as long. I don't know if it was that or subconsciously wanting to be like Clark Kent that led me to a life in journalism.

When it comes to using my talents, writing always will be my first love. But going back to a highly successful run as a high-school thespian, then helping start up a TV news operation in college and, six months into my newspaper reporting career, landing a job as the lead news anchor for one of the nation's smallest network affiliates, I've always enjoyed performing (yes, TV news is performing. As a past publisher of mine once said, "When TV news people stop hiring agents, I'll start calling them journalists"). I just haven't had the outlet to do so since I quit that TV job after only two weeks because I'd realized I have ink in my veins.

Fast forward through years of being a reporter, editor and designer, and I found myself happily married with two perfectly angelic daughters but feeling like I needed a new challenge. I'm mild-mannered, working for a nearly great, not-so-metropolitan newspaper in Colorado. I've won several national and state-level awards in my career (which tells me little more than that I've put in the requisite time to be congratulated for it in a ridiculously self-congratulatory industry). I think I'd be failing my family if I turned into just another complacent automaton. If one does not seek challenges, one stagnates. But what could I do, with all this moss growing beneath my feet?

The world suddenly made sense when worlds collided and I found out about Pendant Productions on the Superman Homepage. I was hooked immediately upon my first download of "The Last Son of Krypton." Right about that same time, I'd been looking into starting a podcasting "outsourcing" business for small newspapers and had bought some recording equipment. Because my business idea was so flawed -- thinking newspaper owners, notoriously the most miserly and greedy people on the planet, would actually pay for my service -- I found myself with audio gear and an unmet urge to use it. I discovered Pendant was expanding and starting more new shows. Audition opportunities presented themeselves, and I headed for the closet (the quietest place in my house, natch).

So now, a few times a month, I have to ask my beautiful, longsuffering wife and almost-as-longsuffering daughters to abandon the house to give me the silence I need to pursue my addictive new creative outlet.

With their patience, Pendant Powers-that-Be and listeners, I am blessed with a niche that's anything but typical.

Listen to Jason's interview in This Week In Pendant!

Jason is the voice of the narrator and Leader in "Star Wars: Blue Harvest", Dreshek in "Star Trek: Defiant" and Harvey Dent/Two-Face in "Batman: The Ace of Detectives".