Chris Hardwick

About

Chris Hardwick is an American comedian and television host. Online he is best known for creating Nerdist, a nerdy culture blog and corresponding YouTube channel and podcast. He currently hosts the Comedy Central late night show @Midnight.

Career

Hardwick began his acting career^[1] in the early '90s with guest roles on television series like thirtysomething and Married with Children. He made his film debut in the 1998 comedy Beach House. He continued to guest star on television shows and gain minor roles in films throughout the 2000s, working as a voice actor on several television shows including The X's (2005-2006), The Batman (2007-2008) and Back at the Barnyard (2007-2011). He was frequently a guest on late night talk and comedy shows including Chelsea Lately (2009-2013), The Soup (2010-2012) and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (2009-2013), before gaining his own late night TV shows, hosting AMC shows The Talking Dead (2011-2014) and Talking Bad (2013), as well as Comedy Central's @Mignight

Online History

Nerdist

Nerdist.com,^[2] a website dedicated to nerd culture created by Hardwick, launched on December 6th, 2012. The site covers news about nerdy music, comics, movies and television shows, as well as interviews and opinion pieces. As of June 2014, the official Nerdist Twitter account^[4] has gained over 100,000 followers and its Facebook page^[12] has gained over 560,000 likes. The Nerdist podcast^[14] launched on February 8th, 2010. The podcast features Hardwick in conversation with Jonah Ray and Matt Mira discussing nerdy topics and gains about 4.8 million downloads every month. A Nerdist television talk show^[13] hosted by Hardwick premiered on the BBC on September 24th, 2011, and ran for two seasons and 18 episodes, concluding on June 1st, 2013.

YouTube Channel

The Nerdist YouTube channel^[3] was launched on December 7th, 2011. The channel features a variety of videos including sketch comedy, celebrity interviews, and tutorials. As of June 2014, the two most popular videos on the channel are "COPS: Skyrim – Season 1: Episode 1," (below, left) the first episode of a web series which parodies the reality show COPS with shots from the video game Skyrim which was uploaded on August 22nd, 2012, and "Slender Man vs. Unwanted House Guest – ANIMEME RAP BATTLE" (below, right), which was uploaded on July 8th, 2013, and pits Slender Man against Unwanted House Guest in a rap battle. The former video has gained over 3.6 million views while the latter has gained over 3.9 million views as of June 2014. The channel has gained over 940,000 subscribers.

Father Tribute

On November 17th, 2013, Hardwick spent the last moments of The Talking Dead, an AMC talk show hosted by Hardwick who discusses the AMC show The Walking Dead, speaking about his father, who had passed away that weekend. The tribute was covered by several sites including The Huffington Post^[10] and CNN.^[11]

@Midnight

On October 21st, 2013, @Midnight, a comedy panel show which Hardwick hosts, premiered on Comedy Central. During each show Hardwick introduces a hashtag game which his three guest stars will play live on the show and will continue to be played and spread by Twitter users.

#ButtFlix

#Buttflix is a hashtag game on Twitter that involves altering movie titles with off-color jokes and toilet humor. The hashtag was introduced by Hardwick during a segment on @Midnight that aired on April 2nd, 2014.

#BadPrequels

#BadPrequels is a hashtag game which asks Twitter users to create the title of a fictional prequel to a well-known film that sounds far less interesting than its original counterpart. The hashtag was introduced on @Midnight on May 6th, 2014. The idea for the hashtag was sparked by the release of the trailer for the Batman prequel Gotham. Guest comedians Scott Aukerman, @Willieforcrack and James Adomain offered their #BadPrequel titles before Twitter users were called to play.

Fandom

As of June 2014, Hardwick's Twitter account^[5] has gained over 2.3 million followers and his official Facebook page^[6] has gained over 40,000 likes. In addition a fan run Facebook page^[7] titled "The Official Chris Hardwick Fan Cluster" has gained over 22,000 likes. As of June 2014, DeviantArt ^[8] has over 100 fan art submissions tagged Chris Hardwick.

Reddit AMA

On July 16th, 2011, Hardwick did a Reddit Ask Me Anything ^[9] He answered questions about the comedians and celebrities he had worked with, Doctor Who and what keeps him grounded despite his success. When asked "What inspired you to start nerdist?," he explained:

"I'm a control freak. I wanted my own thing that no one else could tell me what to do with (weird grammar there). I wanted a thing that revolved around things i was interested in, rather than being about myself (which was what a lot of performers were doing). Nerd culture wasn't widely acceptable when I was growing up in the 80s. For me, it's a celebration of the fact that we don't have to live in dark corners anymore."

Personal Life

Chris Hardwick was born on November 23rd, 1971, in Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated from Loyola High School and attended UCLA.

Domestic Abuse Speculation

On June 14th, 2018, Hardwick's former significant other Chloe Dykstra published an article on the blogging platform Medium,^[15] alleging that a former partner had sexually assaulted and emotionally abused her, leading to anorexia and contemplating suicide. Dykstra did not mention Hardwick by name, but many online speculated that Hardwick was the culprit. Fast Company^[16] wrote:

"She mentions the man is almost 20 years her senior (Dykstra is 29, Hardwick is 46), that he “grew from a mildly successful podcaster to a powerhouse CEO of his own company” (Hardwick began hosting The Nerdist Podcast in 2010 and eventually developed it into his own media company), and that he was sober at the time they were dating (Hardwick is a recovering alcoholic)."

Following the post, many online condemned Hardwick over the allegations. Twitter^[17] user @DemiMF99 expressed their support for Dykstra and claimed that Hardwick was capable of such behavior. They wrote, "Walking up to news that your shitty, racist former boss who helped mainstream the toxic, self-victimization of White Male nerd culture FINALLY being outed as a garbage person by his abused ex-girlfriend is somewhat cathartic to say the least. RIP, Chris Hardwick’s career." The post (shown below, left) received more than 670 retweets and 3,300 likes in less than 24 hours.

Film critic Scott Winberg, who worked as a freelancer for Hardwick's Nerdist media company, announced that he would no longer work for the company. He wrote,^[18] "As of today I no longer write for @nerdist. The editorial staff is absolutely fantastic but I don't want my work or name affiliated in any way with Chris Hardwick." Within hours, the post (shown below, center) received more than 125 retweets and 750 likes.

Twitter user @rachelmillman tweeted,^[19] "major, major TW on this for abuse, disordered eating and assault. Chris Hardwick is a monster and @skydart is brave as hell for speaking out, especially about how emotional abuse works." The post (shown below, right) received more than 1,500 retweets and 2,600 likes in 24 hours.

Chris Hardwick's Response

In a statement, Chris Hardwick denied the allegations.^[20] He said:

"I was heartbroken to read Chloe’s post. Our three year relationship was not perfect -- we were ultimately not a good match and argues -- even shouted at each other -- but I loved her and did my best to uplift and support her as a partner and companion in any way and at no time did I sexually assault her.

"When we were living together, I found out that Chloe had cheated on me, and I ended the relationship. For several weeks after we broke up, she asked to get back together with me and even told me she wanted to have kids with me, ‘build a life’ with me and told me that I was ‘the one,’ but I did not want to be with someone who was unfaithful.

"I’m devastated to read that she is now accusing me of conduct that did not occur. I was blindsided by her post and always wanted the best for her. As a husband, a son, and future father, I do not condone any kind of mistreatment of women."

Nerdist Response

On June 15th, Nerdist released a statement in which they claimed that Chris Hardwick had not worked or been involved with Nerdist as of December 2017.^[22] They stated, "Chris Hardwick had no operational involvement with Nerdist for the two years preceding the expiration of his contract in December 2017. He no longer has any affiliation with Legendary Digital Networks. The company has removed all reference to Mr. Hardwick even as the original Founder of Nerdist pending further investigation."

The post (shown below) received more than 1,900 retweets and 7,100 likes in three days.

NBC's Response

On June 15th, NBC,^[23] who airs the Hardwick-host game show The Wall, released a statement. They said:

"These allegations about Chris Hardwick took us by surprise as we have had a positive working relationship with him. However, we take allegations of misconduct very seriously. Production on The Wall does not begin until September, and in the meantime we are continuing to assess the situation and will take appropriate action based on the outcome."

AMC's Response

On June 16th, 2018, AMC announced that they would be cease airing Hardwick's series Talking with Chris Hardwick and that Hardwick would be replaced as host on the show Talking Dead.^[21] Additionally, AMC stated that Hardwick would not be hosting at Comic-Con International in San Diego. They wrote:

"We have had a positive working relationship with Chris Hardwick for many years. We take the troubling allegations that surfaced yesterday very seriously. While we assess the situation, Talking with Chris Hardwick will not air on AMC, and Chris has decided to step aside from moderating planned AMC and BBC America panels at Comic-Con International in San Diego next month.”

On July 25th, AMC released a statement announcing that Hardwick would be reinstated as the host of Talking Dead and Talking with Chris Hardwick after conducting "a comprehensive assement." The statement reads:

"Following a comprehensive assessment by AMC, working with Ivy Kagan Bierman of the firm Loeb & Loeb, who has considerable experience in this area, Chris Hardwick will return to AMC as the host of Talking Dead and Talking with Chris Hardwick. We take these matters very seriously and given the information available to us after a very careful review, including interviews with numerous individuals, we believe returning Chris to work is the appropriate step."

That day, a Moments^[24] page titled "Chris Hardwick is returning to Talking Dead after AMC's investigation" was published on Twitter. Meanwhile, a post about the news reached the front page of /r/television.^[25]

Search Interest

External References