Christopher Ryan "Chris" Hardwick 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 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, 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",
with publisher Penguin, in late 2011.
In February 2012, 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.
He hosted the New York stage of the 2014 Doctor Who World Tour on 14 August.
Voiceover work Hardwick voiced Alexander Hamilton in The
Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd and Otis in the Barnyard series.
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 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.
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.
His most recent relationship was with model and actress Chloe Dykstra from late 2011 to
July 2014.
Hardwick quit drinking in 2003.
Discography Horses and Grasses
Mandroid Mandroid 2: Son of Mandroid
Filmography Film
Television Video Game
References
External links Official website
Chris Hardwick on Twitter Chris Hardwick at the Internet Movie Database
"Chris Hardwick: Nerdism For Fun And Profit" at LAist.com
Wired Science Team: Chris Hardwick