Biography
Gregory (Greg) Holman, the "Pop Culture Guru," is a Director of Pop Culture for Heritage Auctions, the largest auction house in the United States, and is the lead vocalist for the multi-award-winning band Texas Floyd. Greg is an only child, and was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma to Lois and George Holman. The family moved Berkeley, California in 1969, and the late'60's hippy/artistic/music culture of the San Francisco Bay Area played a profound role in Greg's formative years.
In 1974 the family moved to Austin, Texas, and one year later they moved to Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, where Greg's father took a position as the Coordinator of new Visual Arts Department 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 had always shown a fascination with theater and music, and much to the chagrin of his parents, began playing drums at the age of eight, playing with garage bands through high-school and into college.
Greg studied Cultural Anthropology, Astrophysics, and Technical Theater at Texas State University (SWTSU), and while at school, met his first wife, Holly Hitch in 1983. Holly and Greg amicably divorced 1993, and still remain very good friends.
After college Greg did a stint in the Dallas Art Gallery scene, drove 18-wheelers 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 United States. Giving music a more prominent role in his life, Greg joined several performing bands, and enjoyed minor regional success, receiving national radio airplay with guitarist Dave Mercer and their band "Casting Shadows."
Immersing himself in the performing arts, he 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 including Scarborough Faire in Waxahachie, Texas, where he met his second (and current) wife, Lisa Gibson.
After owning a small logistics company for several years, Greg became a computer systems engineer, and worked on computer networks for AT&T, H&R Block, and Carlson Restaurants Intl. (T.G.I. Friday's parent company). After spending a number of years in the digital world, Greg realized that computers were not going to be his life's work, and he decided to take some time off to pursue another of his passions, cooking, and became a full-time competitive chef. Greg garnered numerous awards in a several cooking fields, also receiving his H.A.S.P. food certification from Texas A&M University.
In 2006 Greg received a call from Heritage Auctions, the largest collectibles Auction house in the World, asking him to help guest-write several catalogs for their Comics and Pop Culture divisions. Greg accepted and soon found himself employed as a full-time Consignment Director for the company. He is also a Texas state-licensed auctioneer, and has been with Heritage for almost 15 years.
Greg, known in the collectibles world as the "Pop-Culture Guru," has been used as 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 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, CBS, Cineflix (Canadian production company), Saloon Media (Canadian production company), The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, National Geographic Channel, NBC, Universal, Bravo, PBS, Viacom, and a number of other independent production companies.
Greg is the co-star of Ty Pennington's ABC special "The 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 Gary Dell'Abate ("The Howard Stern Show" Executive Producer) 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, and has appeared on the Katie Couric show (ABC). Greg has been cast in starring roles for an NBC/Universal/Bravo show and most recently for the Smithsonian and History Channels. As a writer, 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.
Greg is a Pop Culture Director and a licensed World record-setting Auctioneer with Heritage Auctions, 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 actively performs music as a multi-instrumentalist, and as the award-winning lead vocalist for the Internationally recognized Pink Floyd tribute band "Texas Floyd", voted one of the top two Rock Tribute Bands in Texas in 2018 and 2019, and he has recorded several albums as a drummer and vocalist. He has won song-writing competitions and has recorded with Dolly Parton's band in Nashville. He has been an opening act for Carlos Santana, and has recorded soundtracks for television and radio. In July of 2019 Greg was voted the #2 Rock Tribute Band Singer in Texas, by the MXD Rock and Metal Awards (he was voted #3 in 2018, and #4 in 2017). Greg is always pursuing work in television, film, radio, and in print, and is always interested in working on food, music, pop-culture, and auction/collectibles-related media projects.
