Chris Hardwick

Self Deprecation

Satire

Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated

The Batman

**Christopher Ryan Hardwick** (born November 23, 1971) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, television host, writer, producer, and podcaster. He hosts *Talking Dead*,[2] an hourly aftershow on AMC affiliated with the network's zombie drama series *The Walking Dead* and *Fear the Walking Dead*, as well as *Talking with Chris Hardwick*, a show in which Hardwick interviews prominent pop culture figures, and *The Wall*, a plinko-inspired gameshow on NBC. From 2013 to 2017, he hosted *@midnight with Chris Hardwick*, a nightly comedy-game show series on Comedy Central.

Hardwick originated the role of Stacee Jaxx in *Rock of Ages* during its premiere run in Los Angeles (2005–2006).[*citation needed*]In 2011, he began hosting *Ministry of Laughs*, a BBC America Britcom block, and *Talking Dead*, a live hour talk show on AMCfollowing episodes of *The Walking Dead* and *Fear the Walking Dead*. In 2013, Hardwick hosted *Talking Bad*, a live half-hour talk show on AMC following the final eight episodes of *Breaking Bad*, and in 2016 he started to host *Talking Saul* for *Breaking Bad*'s spin-off, *Better Call Saul*. He is also known for performing with Mike Phirman in Hard 'n Phirm, hosting *Singled Out*, *Wired Science*, *Web Soup*, and as the voice of Otis the Cow in *Back at the Barnyard*, replacing Kevin James.

He also created Nerdist Industries, operator of the Nerdist Podcast Network, and home of *The Nerdist Podcast*, which later left the network with Hardwick and was renamed to *ID10T with Chris Hardwick*. His podcast has 966 episodes as of 2018.

## Early Life

Hardwick was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the son of professional bowler Billy Hardwick (1941–2013) and Sharon Hills (née Facente), a real estate agent in Pasadena, California.[3] His maternal grandfather was Italian American, and opened a bowling alley where his parents first met.[4] Hardwick was raised in his mother's Roman Catholicfaith.[5] At four years old, he met then-struggling comedian and television personality Joan Rivers and became lifelong friends with her.[6] Hardwick grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was the 1983 Memphis City Junior High Chess champion.[7] He later attended St. Benedict at Auburndale high school, later moving to Regis Jesuit High School in Colorado, and then spending his senior year at Loyola High School in Los Angeles.[8]

Hardwick studied philosophy at UCLA, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity during his freshman year and graduated in 1993.[8] He was roommates with Wil Wheaton for some time.[9][10] They met at a showing of *Arachnophobia* in Burbank, California.[9]

## Career

Hardwick was a DJ on Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM during the mid-1990s.[8] 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.[11]

Hardwick appeared in Rob Zombie's horror films *House of 1000 Corpses* and *Halloween II*.[8] He also made a small appearance in *Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines*.[11] In 2010, he was featured in the film *The Mother of Invention*. He made guest appearances on such shows as *CSI: Crime Scene Investigation*, *Married... with Children*,[8] *Boy Meets World*[8] and *Zoey 101*, and was a guest commentator on VH1's *I Love the '90s*, which aired in 2005.[8] He appeared as a television host on hip hop group Little Brother's 2005 album, *The Minstrel Show*.[12]

Hardwick is a contributing writer for *Wired* (since 2007), wrote for *Web Soup* and *Back at the Barnyard*,[8] and he made 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.[13][14][15] He entered into an equity partnership with GeekChicDaily in June 2011[16] to form Nerdist Industries.[17]

Hardwick published a self-help book, *The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life)*, with Penguin Publishing, in late 2011. In February 2012, GeekChicDaily fully merged with Nerdist Industries and became Nerdist News, with Hardwick operating as Chief Creative Officer.[18]

On July 10, 2012, Nerdist Industries was acquired by Legendary Entertainment. Hardwick was given the title of co-president of Legendary's digital business.[19]

In February 2018, Hardwick announced that he would be rebranding *The Nerdist Podcast* to *ID10T* and that he would be leaving Nerdist since the contract with Legendary came to an end in 2017.[20]

### Voice-over work[edit]

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 provided the voice for Green Arrow/Oliver Queen on *The Batman* and *Lego Dimensions*, Glowface in *The X's*, and Sokka in *The Legend of Korra*,[21] as well as voice work for *The Minstrel Show* from the rap group Little Brother, and narration for the introduction video for the Flash animation game *George Plimpton's Video Falconry*. Between May 2013 and July 2016, he voiced "Craig the Snake" on *Sanjay and Craig*. He also voiced the character Vaughn in Telltale Games's *Tales from the Borderlands*.[11]

In 2017, Hardwick guest voiced as the villain, Klaxxon, for the special podcast episode of *Futurama* released on the Nerdist podcast.