15 years. One city. The people who know it best.

Angela is from the Midwest. New Orleans wasn't supposed to change that. Then a business trip to the Crescent City happened, and it did. A former creative director and finance professional, she'd never given much thought to history. But the food, the culture, the stories buried in every corner of Nola pulled her in and just like that, she became one of the city's favorite tales: a visitor who arrived and simply never left.

When she's not guiding, she's exploring the city with her husband Mark, working through an ever-growing list of great restaurants. A world traveler, dancer, and foodie, she genuinely wants to know where you're from...and where she should eat when she gets there!

Mark was born and raised in New Orleans. Jesuit High School. Psychology degree from UNO. He spent years in for-profit education, eventually running two college campuses in the area, before realizing that his true passion was in education through tourism — the history, the food, the cocktails, the stories that never make it into the textbooks.

So in 2014 he got his tour guide license. In December 2015 he made the call: Campus President to full-time guide. He hasn't looked back since. Mark knows New Orleans the way only locals do, and that's what he brings to every tour.

James grew up in rural Mississippi with his sights set on New Orleans from an early age. He was following in the footsteps of a specific ancestor: a riverboat captain from the 1870s who knew this river better than anyone. When James finally headed south and arrived in the city, he knew immediately he'd found home.

Fifteen-plus years later, he has degrees in English Literature and French History, an encyclopedic knowledge of his adopted city's history, culture, and legends, and a reputation as our resident paranormal expert. An accomplished paranormal investigator in his own right and an initiate in New Orleans Voodoo, he's appeared and consulted on shows ranging from Haunted USA to NCIS: New Orleans.

He also knows where the bodies are buried. Literally.

Tylyn is a New Orleans native who left and couldn't stop talking about it.

After earning an MFA in Film from the University of New Orleans, they moved to Chicago and found themselves constantly telling people about the strange and wonderful city they came from. Eventually, the city called them back.

Returning only deepened the love. Tylyn discovered a genuine passion for researching New Orleans history and sharing what they found, so becoming a licensed tour guide was a natural next step. When they're not guiding, you'll find them watching or working on films, playing drums, and spending time with their two dogs — all while carefully calculating just how much coffee is safe to drink in a day.

Adelai was born in Cajun Country, though she'll be the first to admit she has no accent to show for it.

What she does have: an Honors Baccalaureate in Moving Image Arts, French, and Folklore, a Masters in Film Production, and a body of work that takes Louisiana seriously. She produced and directed "Bayou Belles," a documentary on Louisiana Fair and Festival Queens, and "Chez Nannette," which explores food, family, and French language in a small Cajun village. Her other credits include work for the National Endowment for the Arts, the KINDOMADA Arts Incubator, and TV5-LeMonde for the National Day of Francophonie.

Her work has always centered on the forces that shape Louisiana, past and present. Guiding tours is just another way of doing the same thing: sharing the folklore, the culture, and the stories of this state with the thousands of people who come looking for them every year.

Andersen has lived in several great American cities. He's only fallen in love with this one.

He's been a Quarter Rat for a decade, making the Vieux Carré home and going deeper into it every year. A former travel writer, award-winning graphic novelist, and film and stage director and performer, he came to New Orleans with plenty of stories already behind him and found a city with more than he could ever tell.

His tours cover the hidden, the horrifying, the high-flying, and the hilarious. As a believer in New Orleans' genuine spiritual and supernatural heart, he's less interested in reciting legends than in making you understand why they exist in the first place.

"Some people visit New Orleans," he'll tell you. "Other people get to meet it." His job is to make sure you're the second kind.

B.J. was born and raised in New Orleans. Holy Cross High School, some time at UNO, then the US Army. After his service he earned two associate degrees in allied health and spent decades working in the city as a certified paramedic.

His deep dive into New Orleans history started during the city's tricentennial. One thing led to another, and he launched a YouTube channel called Big Easy Life to share what he was learning. To prove to his viewers he knew what he was talking about, he got his tour guide license — and figured he should at least try it on for size.

Turns out it fit perfectly. Now he gets to share his love for this city in person, one tour at a time.

EJ was born in Texas but his Louisiana roots run nearly 200 years deep, and that history informs everything he does.

A former history teacher and award-winning documentary filmmaker, EJ specializes in Black History and culture in Louisiana. His tours are built on years of serious historical research and a personal connection to this region that no amount of study alone can replicate. Whether he's tracing landmark moments or surfacing stories that rarely get told, his passion for history and the people who made it comes through in every single tour.

When you're on one of EJ's tours, Louisiana's past doesn't stay in the past. It walks up and introduces itself.

Dennis is a New Orleans native and retired IT professional who spent decades in the industry before realizing he'd been living in a 300-year-old city the whole time. Bored with retirement, he decided to do something about that.

His tours focus on the Garden District and the French Quarter, driven by a lifelong love of art, architecture, and history. That love of history also led him somewhere unexpected: the discovery that he is a direct descendant of an Isleños regiment soldier who fought under General Gálvez against the British during the American Revolutionary War. Turns out the history was personal all along.

Dennis has been married to his wife for 40 years, has two adult children, and three grandchildren. He is fond of saying that if he'd known how much fun the tourism industry was, he would have retired a lot sooner.

Barrett is a storyteller with a sharp wit and a deep well of historical knowledge. His tours are as entertaining as they are insightful, and that balance is intentional. He doesn't just share facts, he translates them, helping guests see themselves inside the stories and connect to this city in a way that feels immediate and personal.

Beyond the tour route, Barrett is a professional photographer and multidisciplinary creative who designs and builds large-scale imaginative costumes for Mardi Gras that stop people in their tracks. He also serves on multiple boards and lends his marketing expertise to organizations that might not otherwise have access to it.

Whether through storytelling, visual art, or community advocacy, Barrett's work comes back to the same idea: culture should be accessible, memorable, and just a little bit magical.