English teacher Greg Raiewski stands out among the faculty. His love of zombies and various tattoos of famous authors are attributes few other teachers on campus possess. Now, he can add another unique characteristic to this list.

   Raiewski is going to do a guest spot on “Talking Dead” — the talk show program which airs following the horror/drama series “The Walking Dead” on AMC, as a result of winning a national competition to find the “ultimate fan.” Raiewski elaborated on exactly why he became a fan of the series in the first place.

   “I’ve always loved zombie movies, zombie culture, and ‘The Walking Dead’ first came out as a TV show when I was in college. I didn’t have cable so I had to buy it on iTunes… I think sometime in college my brother got me the first comic book for a birthday present and I started reading all of them too,” said Raiewski.

   Raiewski heard about the contest when host Chris Hardwick announced the event on a “Talking Dead” episode in the fall.

    “Chris Hardwick announced they were looking for the ultimate fan to submit a 30-second video to be on the show…so I thought it’d be funny if I had my students dress up as characters and zombies. I submitted it the last day of the contest,” said Raiewski.

   Raiewski’s short was a half-narrative involving students as characters in the show and a small horde of flesh-eating zombies.

  “I was the teacher taking attendance in the front of the room, and my students were brain-dead looking, sitting and spacing out. I was calling out names of characters on the show, like Rick, Michonne, and then Glenn, and I had students dress up as characters…I then turned to the camera and said ‘Hi, I’m Greg Raiewski, I’m a huge fan…’ and I talked about how I use the show as a teaching tool, and I’m saying this in front of my window, and behind me are ten or fifteen students covered in blood, growling and swiping at the window,” said Raiewski.

   Junior Samantha Gigliotti explained her part in working on Mr. Raiewski’s video and said she was glad to have participated in the winning short.

   “It felt awesome knowing I helped with the original video that led to the winning one and as a fan of the show it makes me joyous knowing Chris Hardwick and the cast know of my English teacher being the ultimate fan and of his students,” said Gigliotti.

   Raiewski found out on the February 28 show of the “Talking Dead” that he had won the contest, where he appeared live via Skype with his family, and he talks about the process of being on that airing.

   “They were just sending me live feed of the show, and there was a TV next to the host Chris Hardwick, and I didn’t know I had won until he said my name, and they had me on standby for like two hours just waiting. I was nervous because we’d been doing Skype tests since one o’clock, all the way through six or seven o’clock, so it was just sitting in front of a computer waiting,” said Raiewski.

   Raiewski revealed his anticipation to have a sit-down conversation with some of his favorite actors from the series and his confidence that his anxiety about being on a live TV show has been weaned.

    “I’ve been in communication with the producer quite a bit. He was talking about the type of questions they ask and even how my family should react to the news on Skype, like to look surprised and celebrate if I won…I think they organize that show very well with what they’re able to go over in 55 mins and I think it’s like lesson planning, like ‘we have this many minutes to get this done we need to cover this and ask these questions’ so I think it’s very similar in that respect,” said Raiewski.

   In closing, Raiewski hopes that his appearance on the show may even spread the word about the school.

   “I think it might be good for our school to attract some new enrollments; maybe this will help like ‘Oh they have a teacher that loves zombies and was on TV about zombies.’ Who knows?”