ive tried uploading my theme several times but it keeps telling me that I need to upload both the theme and the screenshot. what am i doing wrong here? do they need to be named a special way?

nope...just means that you are either not uploading an image file, since we accept most, or that you are not uploading a zip file.

i swear that i am uploading the zip file for the theme and a .jpg for the theme screenshot but i will try again

if that is the case it is probably based on total size. users are given 2 minutes to upload...if that is exceeded the zip and the image won't make it to the site giving you that error.