User:Theperfectstorm/Gregory Holman

Gregory Holman

Gregory (Greg) Holman (born June 13, 1964) is an American pop-culture historian, actor, writer, vocalist, musician, public speaker, and competition cook, and is best known as the “Pop Culture Guru” for his work on television series’ for ABC, A&E, VH1, PBS, and the History Channel. Greg is also known as the award-winning lead vocalist of the nationally acclaimed Pink Floyd tribute band Texas Floyd (formerly Lone Star Floyd). As of 2017, he lives in Dallas, Texas.

Early Life and Education
Gregory (Greg) Holman, the "Pop Culture Guru,” an only child, was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma to Lois and George Holman. His mother, Lois, was the first woman to earn a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics from Oklahoma State University. In 1969, Greg’s father was chosen for the UC Berkeley Architectural Doctorate Program and the family moved to Berkeley, California. The late 1960s hippy/artistic/music culture of the San Francisco Bay Area played a profound role in Greg's formative years. At a young age, Greg displayed a high aptitude and, while in Berkeley, was given intelligent quotient examinations several times by UC Berkeley psychology Department graduate students, receiving multiple scores in the mid-170s, which allowed him to apply for advanced schooling.

In 1974 the family moved to Austin, Texas, and one year later to Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, where Greg's father took a position as the Coordinator of Visual Arts for the University of Texas at Dallas. While attending public school, Greg received an acting scholarship to the Dallas Theater Center and quickly gained a love of the stage and the performing arts. Greg attended the National Blue Ribbon-winning J. J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas (attended by notables such as singer Jessica Simpson, NFL Pro-Bowl lineman Ray Childress, son of Tony Dorsett and Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raider defensive back Anthony Dorsett; Redskins, Chargers, and Broncos cornerback Eric Scott Turner, Green Bay Packers kicker Chris Jacke, Cleveland Browns wide receiver Corey Coleman, film and music video director Julie Cypher, General Hospital’s Kin Shriner and Prison Break’s Lane Garrison). Greg studied Cultural Anthropology, Astrophysics and Technical Theater at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University), and while at school, met his first wife, Holly Leilani Hitch. Holly and Greg were married in 1989 and were divorced in 1993. They still remain very good friends.

Early Music and Entertainment
At an early age, Greg had shown a fascination with music and theater, and much to the chagrin of his parents, began playing the drums at the age of eight, playing with garage bands through high school and into college. After college, Greg gave music a more prominent role in his life, joining several performing bands, and enjoying minor regional success, winning song-writing competitions, receiving rotational airplay on the nationally syndicated “Blues Deluxe” radio show, and opening stadium shows for major label bands, with guitarist Dave Mercer and the band "Casting Shadows.” Immersing himself in the performing arts, Greg also took on an annually recurring role, performing ad-lib comedy, as the “Black Adder” (the title character from the BBC series, portrayed by Rowan Atkinson) at several Renaissance fairs across the southwest, including Scarborough Faire in Waxahachie, Texas, where he met his second (and current) wife, Lisa Marie Gibson, daughter of Jonona (Boyette) Gibson (Miss Lubbock First Runner-Up) and Eugene (Gene) Finis Gibson, former basketball coach and All-American basketball player for Texas Tech University.

Early Career
After college, Greg did a stint in the Dallas Art Gallery community, drove big rig trucks for the Stroh's Brewery, spun vinyl as an on-air and club disc jockey, and managed the largest comic book retail store in the country, at the time, Lone Star Comics, in Dallas, Texas. After owning a small logistics company for several years, Greg received his MCSE+I certification and became a computer systems engineer, working for AT&T, H&R Block and (T.G.I.Friday’s parent company) Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, and after spending a number of years in the digital world, Greg realized that computers were not going to be his life's work. He consequently decided to pursue another of his passions – cooking – and became a full-time competition cook. Greg garnered numerous awards in a several cooking fields, also receiving his H.A.S.P. food certification from Texas A&M University in 2008. He has been courted by, but has declined to appear on, a number of cooking competition shows including Fox’s MasterChef and ABC’s Taste, citing his limitations: “I can prepare absolutely wonderful dishes, but not under such extreme time constraints, and I hold those that are capable of such feats in very high esteem.”

Television and Print
Greg, known in the collectibles world as the "Pop Culture Guru,” has been the basis of a character in the 1993 C. Dean Anderson horror novel I Am Vampire, and his expertise and knowledge of popular culture and comics, plus his bubbly and personable nature have been key elements in his success in the auction industry, and have consequently drawn the attention of many television networks and production companies. Greg has done shows, interviews, and/or screen tests for ABC, A&E, Bravo, CBS, Cineflix (Canada), The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, National Geographic Channel, NBC, PBS, Saloon Media (Canada), The Smithsonian Channel, Universal, Viacom and a number of other independent production companies.

Greg is the co-star of The History Channel Canadas’s Ultimate Auctions (2017), ABC’s special Ty Pennington’s Great Big American Auction (2011) and appears on A&E's Storage Wars: Texas. Greg has made an appearance on the PBS series CEO (2013) and co-stars with (The Howard Stern Show executive producer) Gary Dell'Abate and Jon Hein (founder of jumptheshark.com and star of Discovery Channel's Fast Food Mania) on the VH1 Classic series For What It's Worth. He has also been a Pop Culture expert for NPR, ABC News, CBS News, The New York Post, and has appeared on ABC’s Katie (talk show hosted by former ABC News correspondent Katie Couric. Greg was also cast in a starring role for an NBC/Universal/Bravo pilot. As a pop-culture historian, Greg has contributed to such pop-culture books as The Picker's Pocket Guide to Comics, Mantiques: A Guy's Guide to Mantastic Stuff, The Picker's Pocket Guide to Toys, Antiques and Collectibles 2017 Price Guide (33rd Edition) and others.

Later Career
In 2006 Greg was hired by Heritage Auctions, the largest collectibles auction house in the world, as a part-time comics, music and pop culture expert. Greg soon found himself employed as a full-time Consignment Director and Cataloger for the company and has now been with Heritage for more than a decade. Greg is a licensed world record-holding auctioneer, and is a part-time food and travel writer. He has been a columnist for several magazines, and pens the popular, award-winning food blog EatDallas.blogspot.com. Greg lives with his wife Lisa and his dogs Zuzu and Ziggy, in Dallas, Texas, and actively performs music as the award-winning lead vocalist for the nationally recognized Pink Floyd tribute band "Texas Floyd" (formerly “Lone Star Floyd”), voted one of the top three tribute bands in Texas in 2016, and he has recorded several albums as a drummer and a vocalist. He has recorded with Dolly Parton's backing band in Nashville (at Nightingale Studios), has been an opening act for Carlos Santana, and has recorded soundtracks for television and radio. In September 2016 Greg was voted one of the top four Rock Tribute Band Singers in Texas by the MXD Rock and Metal Awards. Greg currently works in television, film, radio and in print, and is always looking for interesting food, music, pop-culture and auction/collectibles-related media projects.