Ellie Diaz, Robinson's assistant director of brand strategy and advertising, builds complex cosplay costumes in her free time.
If you visit the office of Ellie Diaz, you can’t miss the Baby Yoda sculpture on her desk. And if you scan her bookshelf, you might notice a reproduction of the helmet worn by the protagonist in a popular video game. Diaz, assistant director of brand strategy and advertising, made both objects. An entire room of her house is dedicated to storing the props and costumes she’s produced over the years. Diaz isn’t just a maker. She’s a cosplayer.
Cosplay refers to the practice of dressing up as a character from a book, movie, or video game. Diaz discovered cosplaying in 2011 at Dragon Con, a pop culture convention held every Labor Day weekend in downtown Atlanta. From that day forward, she was hooked.
“I’ve always been a fantasy, sci-fi, and video game geek. Dragon Con threw me in the midst of thousands of people dressing up as their favorite characters, which was like heaven,” Diaz said. “Since then, cosplay has been my outlet.”
Diaz as Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect video game series
Diaz has always felt compelled to create. She spent her childhood in Miami painting, getting gussied up, and fashioning super-scary zombie outfits for Halloween. Once she enrolled at the University of Miami, she landed a job painting the miniatures customers purchased from a local comic book store.
Dragon Con inspired Diaz to take an already serious hobby to the next level. She went to the 2012 event as Selene, an elite vampire assassin from the film franchise Underworld. That ensemble mainly consisted of found pieces, as Diaz didn’t yet possess sewing skills. The next year, she taught herself how to stitch by watching YouTube videos and built her first costume from scratch: the suit of armor donned by Commander Shepard, the main character from the Mass Effect video game series. For the next few years, she followed a meticulous process. After heavily researching a character, she would generate a life-size paper model and use that as a guide to construct the actual costume from materials such as clay, foam, or thermoplastic.
“I’d paint all the pieces and find a way to strap them together,” Diaz said. “If a suit of armor was really complex, I’d glue the components onto an undersuit.”
Diaz as the Armorer from The Mandalorian TV series
Around 2015, Diaz invested in a 3D printer, which has enabled her to develop models on a computer and bring digital prototypes to life. She debuted her first 3D-printed costume, Vault Dweller from the post-apocalyptic video game Fallout, at Dragon Con 2016. The gun prop alone comprises approximately 200 separately printed parts.
One of Diaz’s most involved pieces is Enfys Nest from Solo: A Star Wars Story, which happens to be her favorite. Photographs of Diaz decked out as the resistance fighter were featured in a 2018 issue of Atlanta magazine and on fan website 365 Star Wars Women. Video game news website Kotaku has included her twice in its annual roundup of top Dragon Con cosplayers: her build of Commander Shepard in 2017, and of the Armorer from The Mandalorian TV series in 2021.
Recognition in media outlets is validating, but for Diaz, the greater reward lies in personal connections.
“I’ll never forget a little girl coming up to me when I was dressed as Enfys Nest. She wanted a picture with me but was a little afraid,” Diaz said. “When I leaned down and took off my helmet, she exclaimed, ‘Oh my gosh! You’re a girl? How cool is that?’ You can always be a role model and inspire people to be whoever they want to be.”
Diaz as Enfys Nest from Solo: A Star Wars Story
Speaking of personal connections, cosplaying isn’t just about crafting fantastic costumes. Of equal importance is the sense of community Diaz has forged.
“I’ve met the most incredible people through cosplaying,” she said. “We love to attend Dragon Con as a group of characters from the same fandom. We help each other out and are like a family.”
Diaz’s costumes require months of planning and execution as well as hours of rushed frustration in the days leading up to Dragon Con. Many of her pieces have never been worn, which raises an important point: Diaz is driven not by a need for acknowledgement but by a primal urge to create.
“It doesn’t matter if no one sees my work, or if I never attend Dragon Con again,” she said. “I’ll always have an inner drive to make things.”