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Chris Hardwick
Hardwick at the 2013 WonderCon.
Birth name	Christopher Ryan Hardwick
Born	(1971-11-23) November 23, 1971 (age 53) Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, film, television, podcast
Nationality	American
Years active	1991–present
Genres	Observational comedy, sarcasm, musical comedy
Subject(s)	Human behavior, self-deprecation, pop culture, nerd culture
Partner(s)	Jacinda Barrett (1995) Janet Varney (2004-11) Chloe Dykstra (2011-present)
Notable works and roles	Hard 'n Phirm Host of Singled Out Host of Wired Science Host of Web Soup Host of The Nerdist Podcast Host of @midnight Otis in the Back at the Barnyard series Host of Talking Dead
Website	Nerdist.com

Christopher Ryan "Chris" Hardwick (born November 23, 1971) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, podcaster, television host, and voice actor. He is known for performing with Mike Phirman in Hard 'n Phirm, hosting Singled Out, Wired Science, Web Soup, and Nerdist Podcast, and as the voice of Otis in Back at the Barnyard, replacing Kevin James. In 2011 he began hosting Ministry of Laughs, a BBC America Britcom block, and Talking Dead, a live hour talk show on AMC. In 2013, he hosted Talking Bad, a live half-hour talk show on AMC about and following the show Breaking Bad.

Hardwick currently hosts @midnight, a nightly comedy series on Comedy Central, and voices Craig in the Nickelodeon series Sanjay and Craig. He is also chief executive officer of Nerdist Industries, the digital division of Legendary Entertainment which he co-founded in 2012.

Early life

Hardwick was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of professional bowler Billy Hardwick (1941–2013) and Sharon Hills, a real estate agent in Pasadena, California. He was named after American sportscaster Chris Schenkel. Hardwick was raised Roman Catholic, but has stated that he is not religious. He grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, attending St. Benedict at Auburndale K-12 School, then attended Regis Jesuit High School in Colorado, and then Loyola High School for his senior year.

Hardwick studied philosophy at UCLA, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity during his freshman year. Hardwick was roommates with Wil Wheaton for some time. They met at a showing of Arachnophobia in Burbank, California.

Career

Hardwick was a DJ on the influential Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM during the mid-1990s. In the fall of 1998, he starred in the UPN comedy Guys Like Us; the show aired 12 episodes before it was cancelled in January 1999.

He appeared in Rob Zombie's horror films House of 1000 Corpses and Halloween 2. He also made a small appearance in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. In 2010, he was featured in the film The Mother of Invention. Hardwick was in episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Married... with Children, Boy Meets World and Zoey 101. He was also a guest commentator on VH1's I Love the 90s series, which aired in 2005.

Hardwick created the role of Stacee Jaxx in the Original Los Angeles cast of the musical Rock of Ages in 2006.

He appeared as a television host on hip hop group Little Brother's 2005 album The Minstrel Show.

Hardwick plays the melodica, notably as part of Hard 'n Phirm.

Currently, Hardwick is a contributing writer for Wired magazine (since 2007), writes for Web Soup and Back at the Barnyard, and he makes regular appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and Chelsea Lately. As part of what Hardwick calls his "nerd media empire", he runs Nerdist Theater, an entertainment space at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles.

He entered into an equity partnership with GeekChicDaily in June 2011 to form Nerdist Industries.

Hardwick published a self-help book titled "The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life)", with publisher Penguin, in late 2011.

In February 2011, GeekChicDaily fully merged with Nerdist Industries and became Nerdist News with Hardwick operating as Chief Creative Officer.

On July 10, 2012, Nerdist Industries was acquired by Legendary Entertainment. Hardwick was given the title of co-president of Legendary's digital business.

Voiceover work

Hardwick voiced Alexander Hamilton in The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd and Otis in the Barnyard series (the character was originally voiced by actor Kevin James in the movie Barnyard: The Original Party Animals). He has also provided the voice for Green Arrow/Oliver Queen on The Batman, Glowface in The X's, and Sokka in The Legend of Korra. Hardwick also did voice work for The Minstrel Show from the rap group Little Brother and narrated the introduction video for the Flash animation game George Plimpton's Video Falconry. Since May 2013, he has voiced Craig the Snake on Sanjay and Craig. Hardwick will play the character Vaughn in the upcoming Tales from the Borderlands, his first video game voice-over role.

Hosting

In 1993, Hardwick hosted the game show Trashed.

Hardwick was first known as the host of MTV's Singled Out. While working on Singled Out, he met fellow MTV personality Jacinda Barrett, to whom he was engaged but never married. Later, he hosted the syndicated dating show Shipmates. As of October 2007, he has been hosting Wired Science on PBS, writing for Wired, and worked as a reviewer on Attack of the Show's "Gadget Pr0n".

On June 7, 2009, he became the host of G4's Web Soup, a spinoff of E!'s The Soup. Hardwick had previously guest hosted The Soup's predecessor, Talk Soup.

Since February 2010, he has been producing the "Nerdist" podcast, which he hosts with Jonah Ray and Matt Mira. The podcast was named one of 2010's best by The A.V. Club and one of the 10 best comedy podcasts by Rolling Stone.

In May 2011, Hardwick signed a deal with BBC America to host a pilot of a panel talk show for the network based on the podcast. The deal also included Hardwick doing intros and outros for BBC America's new Saturday night Ministry of Laughs comedy block of Britcoms.

Hardwick also hosted the 2011 SXSW Interactive Awards show in Austin, Texas.

In 2011, Hardwick began hosting Talking Dead, a live half-hour (later expanded to one hour) talk show companion series to AMC's hit series The Walking Dead. Hardwick interviews celebrity fans of The Walking Dead as well as members of its cast and crew, interacts with the studio audience, re-airs clips of the episode, plays games with and polls the viewers via the Internet, and offers exclusive clips of the next episode. Talking Dead is currently in its third season. In August 2013, Hardwick also began hosting Talking Bad, a live half-hour talk show companion series to the final eight episodes of the AMC series Breaking Bad.

On December 24, 2011, BBC America aired The Nerdist: The Year in Review, a comedy special hosted by Hardwick. Celebrity guests included David Tennant and Simon Pegg with Hardwick in London; and Nathan Fillion, Wil Wheaton, and Weird Al Yankovic in Los Angeles. In August 2012, Hardwick hosted a special episode of The Nerdist on BBC America to "debate" the effects of time and space with other friends and celebrity nerds. The episode was really an effort to promote the network's upcoming September 1 seventh-season premiere of its series Doctor Who.

On April 30, 2013, Comedy Central announced that Hardwick would host a half-hour comedic panel show called @midnight. Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, formerly of Reno 911!, will serve as executive producers/showrunners. @midnight premiered on October 21, 2013.

Stand-up comedy

Hardwick is also a stand-up comedian and performs with Mike Phirman in the music comedy duo Hard 'n Phirm, whose half-hour comedy special Comedy Central Presents: Hard 'n Phirm premiered in January 2008.

In 2004, Comedy Central used some of his material for an animated series called Shorties Watchin' Shorties.

In 2007, both his solo standup and duo act were featured on the comedy compilation CD Comedy Death Ray. Hard 'n Phirm completed several songs for the 2009 Rob Zombie animated movie The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Hardwick has announced plans to do a live stand-up album from his 2009 tour. He has toured as a featured comedian for Joel McHale.

In 2010, Hardwick appeared as a stand-up comic on John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show twice. In the same year, Hardwick performed on the Comedy Central show The Benson Interruption (starring Doug Benson).

On February 17, 2012, Chris Hardwick filmed Mandroid, his first one hour stand-up special for Comedy Central in New York City. Jonah Ray was his unaired opener. The special aired on Comedy Central on November 10, 2012 and was well received. Extended and uncensored DVD, CD, and digital versions were released January 22, 2013.

He is currently working on his second comedy special, Mandroid 2: Son of Mandroid, due to be released next year.

Personal life

Hardwick was previously engaged to model/actress Jacinda Barrett and was in a relationship with actress Janet Varney from 2004 to 2011. He previously dated Chloe Dykstra (2011-2014).

Hardwick quit drinking in 2003.

Discography

• Horses and Grasses (2005)
• Mandroid (2012)
• Mandroid 2: Son of Mandroid (TBA)

Filmography

Film

Television

| rowspan="5" | 2013 | - 'Video Game High School | Anchorman | Episode: "Loopholes" |- | Tiny Commando | Guard | Episode: "Snack Attack (Parts 1 & 2)" |- | Outlands | The Kid | Episode: "Dream Machine" |- | Comedy Bang! Bang! | Himself | Episode: "Gillian Jacobs Wears A Red Dress With Sail Boats" |- | Talking Bad | Himself (host) | 8 episodes |- | rowspan="2" | 2013–present | Sanjay and Craig | Craig (voice) | Main cast |- | @midnight | Himself (host) | Also creator, executive producer, writer |- | 2014 | Doctor Who: A Farewell to Matt Smith | Himself | Celebrity guest |}

Video Game

References

1. Silberman, Stephen M. (September 30, 1996). In Their Own Prime Time. People
2. Chris Hardwick (20 October 2008), Technology's Gutterball, vol. 16–11, Wired magazine, retrieved 2010-08-12
3. Nerdist Podcast: Live from Gilda's Laugh Fest. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
4. ^ "Nerdist Podcast 90". Nerdist.com. 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
5. Schools for Chris Hardwick, search for "Chris Hardwick's Schools"
6. ^ "Nerdist Podcast 63 with Wil Wheaton, 8 minute mark". Nerdist.com. 2011-02-22. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
7. Wheaton, Wil (2 September 2001). "WIL WHEATON dot NET: 1.5: Nimrod's Son". Retrieved 4 April 2011.
8. ' + relative_time(feeds.created_at) + ' (2013-08-26). "Chris Hardwick Destined to Host Everything". Theblacksheeponline.com. Retrieved 2013-11-19.
9. • "Twitter / Chris Hardwick: Goodbye, current Melodica! ..." Twitter. 9 December 2009. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
   • "News Brief-KZSC Laugh Riot". May 9–15, 2005. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
   • "The long and short of it for Hard 'N' Phirm". Aspen Times. 11 February 2005. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
10. • Leijon, Erik (July 28, 2011). "The dean of dweebs: Chris Hardwick fine-tunes his nerd-dar at Just for Laughs". Montreal Mirror. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
    • "Chris Hardwick Reveals Details of BBC America Deal, How Nerdist Podcast Will Be Adapted For TV". The Hollywood Reporter. May 25, 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
    • "The NerdMelt Origin Story". NerdMelt. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
11. Finke, Nikki. "Nerds And Geeks Unite In MultiPlatform Deal". Deadline. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
12. Graser, Marc (6 June 2011). "Nerdist, GeekChic team up". Variety. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
13. Hardwick, Chris. "Nerd is the Word". The Nerdist. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
14. "Legendary Entertainment Acquires Nerdist Industries". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 10 July 2012. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
15. "Voice Of Glowface". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 2013-11-19.
16. Grace Bello (2012-01-13). "Talking to The Nerdist's Chris Hardwick, January 2012". Theawl.com. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
17. G4 Picks Up Web Soup, nerdist.com, May 2009
18. Hardwick, Chris (February 8, 2010). "The Nerdist Podcast: Now A Thing!". nerdist.com.
19. "The Best Podcasts of 2010". The A.V. Club. December 29, 2010.
20. Berkowitz, Joe (April 6, 2011). "The 10 Best Comedy Podcasts of the Moment". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
21. Wicks, Kevin. "Chris Hardwick to Host 'Ministry of Laughs' and 'Nerdist' Pilot for BBC America". bbcamerica.com. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
22. Andreeva, Nellie. "Comedy Central To Launch Late-Night Show Hosted By Chris Hardwick, Funny Or Die Produces, Tom Lennon & Ben Garant To Run". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2013-11-19.
23. "Tonight: Hard 'N Phirm's Comedy Central Presents Special | Insider Blog | Comedy Central's Insider". CCInsider.ComedyCentral.com. 2008-01-25. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
24. comedycentral.com
25. The Nerdist Podcast & http://skirballcenter.nyu.edu/
26. Heisler, Steve. "Chris Hardwick: Mandroid". The AV Club. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
27. Chris Hardwick: Mandroid (2013-01-01). "Chris Hardwick: Mandroid: Chris Hardwick: Movies & TV". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2013-01-20.
28. "Chris Hardwick: Mandroid - Widescreen - DVD". Bestbuy.com. Retrieved 2013-01-20.
29. "Chris Hardwick: Nerdism For Fun and Profit". Gothamist. 30 June 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
30. Chloe Dykstra (2014-07-14). "Chloe Dykstra Twitter Account". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
31. Chis Hardwick (2014-07-14). "Chris Hardwick Twitter Account". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
32. "Chubby Emo Chris Hardwick of 2003 Says, "You Can Do It!"". Nerdist.com. 2011-04-17. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
33. . Nerdist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0lyqEGcNAU. {{cite web}}: |first1= missing |last1= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Official website
• Chris Hardwick on Twitter
• Chris Hardwick at IMDb
• "Chris Hardwick: Nerdism For Fun And Profit" at LAist.com
• Wired Science Team: Chris Hardwick

Template:Persondata

• American stand-up comedians
• American male writers
• American musicians
• American podcasters
• American television personalities
• American male voice actors
• 1971 births
• Male actors from Kentucky
• American comedy musicians
• American male film actors
• American game show hosts
• American male television actors
• American television writers
• Former Roman Catholics
• Melodica players
• Living people
• People from Louisville, Kentucky
• University of California, Los Angeles alumni
• Male actors from Memphis, Tennessee