CREATOR and Collaborators

Perry Sampley

Series creator, writer, character developer, voice actor, co-producer

Perry holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology and graduate degrees in Guidance and Counseling, as well as Leadership and Program Administration.  He is an educator and has been a school Counselor and Administrator over the course of the past 20+ years.  He has also worked with incarcerated and homeless youth, foster children, as well as industrially injured workers.    

Darrell Waddell

Co-producer, sound designer, sound engineer

Darrell holds an undergraduate degree in Music and a graduate degree in Divinity.  He's been a pastor, musician, producer, sound designer and engineer, as well as business consultant.  

Leslie Sampley

Curriculum Development

Leslie holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology and a graduate degree in Teaching.  She was an elementary teacher, prior to having children, then spent the early years at home with the boys, as well as caring for foster children.  Once they were school aged, she returned to teaching.  She has taught grades 1-5, over the years.

Those are the technical aspects.  More importantly, is the inspiration for the creation of "Adventures in Gnomeland"...Perry and Leslie's two boys.  When the boys were younger, the family spent hours reading books and listening to audio stories together.  Through that process, Perry was inspired to create a project for his boys, something engaging and entertaining, with some educational value.  At the time, he was writing and recording music with friend and co-collaborator, Darrell Waddell.  Perry wrote a draft of a story, with rough character development, recorded the audio and took it to Darrell, who loved the idea.  That's how "Adventures in Gnomeland" began...Two grown men sitting in a studio, tapping into the child within.  From there, Perry began writing, developed the characters and they began recording...and recording....and recording.  Once the project was moving along, Leslie saw a use in the classroom.  She decided to use the stories to supplement literacy instruction.  As a result, the curriculum, games and puzzles, accompanying the stories were created, as you can see on the "For Educator" page of the website.