Meet The Team Behind It All
The Ridiculous is growing from a books-first sci-fi comedy series into a larger entertainment universe. Behind it is a founder-led team of advisors, collaborators, and specialists helping shape the franchise with strategic insight, creative experience, audience understanding, media perspective, and partnership thinking.
Learn more about the founders, the journey behind The Ridiculous, and how decades of community-building, challenge marketing, recognition, and transformation shaped this next evolution.
Read Jef & Mindy’s Full StoryJeffrey Kippel
& Mindy Blackstien
Community Builders / Gamification Experts / Founders
Jef & Mindy are known for building transformation-driven communities, gamified experiences, international events, media platforms, and brand collaborations that turned participation into identity, and identity into belonging.
For more than three decades, they built fitness, wellness, media, and live-event brands that brought people together around confidence, transformation, personal growth, recognition, and community. Through FAME World Tour, WNSO, Body Proud, international events, expos, speaking, publishing, television, magazines, and brand activations, they helped create movements where people did more than attend, they participated, transformed, and became part of something larger.
Their work has evolved from physical transformation into emotional, mental, social, and creative transformation. The Ridiculous carries that same foundation into a books-first absurdist sci-fi comedy franchise built around laughter, perspective, participation, and possibility, where people laugh first, think deeper, and do something remarkable with it.
Strategic Leadership & Franchise Expansion.
Dean Grey
Behavioral Scientist& VRS Architect
Dean Grey is shaping the participation engine behind The Ridiculous through his patented Value Reinforcement System, supporting how challenges, missions, and real-world actions are recognized, reinforced, and rewarded. His work connects behavioral science, ethical recognition systems, and technology-backed community engagement. Dean has been recognized by leaders in technology and behavioral innovation, including Jeff Barr, Chief Evangelist at Amazon Web Services.
Cisco Maldonado
Brand Strategist& Growth Architect
Cisco Maldonado brings franchise-level brand strategy experience across gaming, entertainment, and global audience development, including work connected to NetEase Games, DC Comics, and Batman franchise initiatives. For The Ridiculous, he helps sharpen the brand architecture, growth strategy, and category positioning as the books-first IP expands into a broader participatory entertainment universe.
Christopher Peters
Screen, Studio & InvestorRepresentation
Christopher Peters leads studio, investor, and screen representation for The Ridiculous, helping position the books-first franchise for adaptation, production, and entertainment partnerships. As Vice President within Jon Peters’ production company and founder of Chris Peters Entertainment, his work connects to major films including Batman, Superman Returns, Rain Man, The Witches of Eastwick, and A Star Is Born.
Scott Stevenson
Brand & LicensingPartnerships
Scott Stevenson brings big-brand partnership and licensing experience across entertainment, sports, ticketing, live events, and promotional ecosystems, with work connected to Jurassic Park, Cineplex, NHL, NFL, Ticketmaster, and the Canadian International AutoShow. He helps The Ridiculous identify where story, audience, participation, sponsors, and real-world activations can come together to create long-term franchise value.
Liza Anderson
PR & CommunicationsLiza Anderson brings high-level entertainment PR, media strategy, and communications experience through Anderson Group Public Relations, a firm known for representing film and TV talent, bestselling authors, comedians, athletes, lifestyle personalities, and major brands. For The Ridiculous, she helps shape visibility, media credibility, publicity opportunities, and the public-facing story as the franchise grows from books into a broader entertainment universe.
Creative Participation Leaders.
The Ridiculous participation layer turns story into action, music, mindfulness, creativity, and challenge-based experiences.
Dave Lonergan
Music & Audiobook Challenge
Dave Lonergan brings live-music culture, community building, artist support, and audience engagement into The Ridiculous universe. Through his nognuisagoodgnu / gnuTUBE platform, Dave has built a loyal audience around Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, jam-band culture, live performance, archival storytelling, and meaningful fan connection.
With connections across the jam-band and live-music world, Dave brings cultural fluency and community insight to the audiobook music challenge, inviting fans to create songs, scores, playlists, and musical interpretations inspired by The Ridiculous.
Morry
Mindfulness & Brainwave Challenge
Morry brings neuroscience, meditation, sound, and consciousness-based experience design into The Ridiculous universe.
His work helps connect laughter, reflection, breath, awareness, and emotional reset into participation experiences that support calm, creativity, and personal transformation.
Inside The Ridiculous, Morry supports the mindfulness and brainwave challenge layer, helping shape guided experiences where fans can pause, reset, imagine, laugh, and take part in the universe from a more awakened state. He is also a prize provider to those participating in the music challenge.