| This article is about the Talking Dead host. For other pages with the same name, see: Chris |
Chris Hardwick is an American stand-up comedian and television personality who hosted AMC's Talking Dead as well as portrayed a Walker in The Walking Dead.
Biography
Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1971, Hardwick grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. During his childhood, he developed a passion for Chess, eventually becoming the 1983 Memphis City Junior High Chess Champion. He moved a couple of times during his early years until he settled in Los Angeles, attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a philosophy major.
Early in his career during the 1990s, Hardwick worked as DJ on Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM before starring in the comedy television show Guys Like Us for one season before cancelation. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Hardwick made various appearances in films like House of 1000 Corpses, Halloween II and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
Staring in 2007, Hardwick began working as a contributing writer for Wired. As part of what Hardwick calls his "nerd media empire", he ran 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 which eventually turned into Nerdist News.
On February 17, 2012, Hardwick filmed Mandroid, his first one-hour stand-up special for Comedy Central in New York City and it was released in November of that year.
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, reprising his role in the Borderlands 2 DLC Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary and in Borderlands 3.
Hosting Talking Dead
Hardwick began hosting Talking Dead in 2011. The show initially was a half hour show but due to popularlity, the show was later expanded to be an hour long show that ran until the conclusion of The Walking Dead in 2022.
In June 2018, Hardwick was suspended from hosting Talking Dead after an internal investigation into allegations that Hardwick had caused emotional and sexual abuse against his at the time girlfriend, Chloe Dykstra. Hardwick had not been named in the initial essay published by Dykstra but it was latered assumed to be against him due to the timeline of events occuring when the two were together.
On July 13, 2018 Hardwick was replaced with recurring guest Yvette Nicole Brown starting with August 5th's The Walking Dead Season 9 preview special.
However, on July 25, 2018 Hardwick was announced to be returning as host starting with the August 12th broadcast which covered the nineth episode of Fear the Walking Dead. He appeared alongside Brown, showruner Ian Goldberg, and Luciana's actress Danay Garcia. He began the show by saying "I am so appreciative to be standing here right now and I want to thank you, The Walking Dead community, for all of your support these last couple of months. This show isn't just a job, it's a vital part of my life and it has been a sanctuary these last seven years."
Other Works
- Neil's Puppet Dreams
- Star Wars Cantina Karaoke
- Talking Bad
- Talking Saul
- @midnight
- Talking with Chris Hardwick
External Links
Chris Hardwick at the Internet Movie Database
Follow Chris Hardwick on Instagram
Chris Hardwick on Facebook
Follow Chris Hardwick (@hardwick) on X
