Alison Ann "Alie" Ward (born November 6, 1976) is an American writer, actress, and television and podcast host. Born in California, Ward graduated from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

with a degree in cinema. In 2016, she won an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Outstanding Writing Special Class for the CBS series '' Innovation Nation''. In 2022, the

iHeartRadio Podcast Awards The iHeartRadio Podcast Awards is a podcast awards show that celebrates podcasts heard throughout the year across List of radio stations owned by iHeartMedia, iHeartMedia radio stations nationwide and on iHeartRadio, iHeartMedia's digital music p ...

named her podcast '' Ologies'' “Best Science Podcast”, and the

Webby Awards The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...

honored Ward as “Best Podcast Host.”

Early life

Ward was born Alison Ann Ward in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, to Nancy, an accountant, and Lawrence, a journalist and news broadcaster. She has two older sisters, Celeste and Janelle. Ward moved frequently around northern California during her childhood due to her father's career, living in Tahoe,

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

El Dorado Hills El Dorado Hills (''El Dorado'', Spanish for "The Golden") is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in El Dorado County, California. Located in the Greater Sacramento region of Northern California, it had a population was 50,547 at ...

, and Cameron Park before returning to the Bay Area. When she was 18, she enrolled at

to study biology, with the intention of pursuing a career in biological illustration. Eventually, she changed her course of study and obtained a degree in cinema before moving to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Her father had

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone pain, an ...

Career

Acting

While studying cinema in San Francisco, Ward attended an audition for the television series ''

Nash Bridges ''Nash Bridges'' is an American police procedural television series created by Carlton Cuse. The show stars Don Johnson and Cheech Marin as two Inspectors with the San Francisco Police Department's Special Investigations Unit (SIU). The seri ...

'', which filmed in the area. She was cast as Miranda, a role that recurred for three seasons. After moving to Los Angeles, Ward continued to take television roles while pursuing writing and painting. She has appeared in several small roles for television, including ''

Grey's Anatomy ''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series that premiered on March 27, 2005, on ABC as a mid-season replacement. The series focuses on the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they develop into se ...

'', ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an Am ...

'', and Comedy Central's ''

Key & Peele ''Key & Peele'' (abbreviated to ''K&P'') is an American sketch comedy television series created by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele for Comedy Central. Both Key and Peele previously worked on ''Mad TV.'' Each episode of the show consists m ...

''. Ward has recorded a number of fan recaps for the ABC series ''

Once Upon a Time "Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 (according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'') in storytelling in the ...

'', ''

Revenge Revenge is committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of "wild justice" that "does... offend the law ndputteth the law out of office." Pr ...

'', and ''

Scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

''. Inspired by a visit to the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large coll ...

in 2013 that led into a weekly volunteer shift, Ward quit her previous job. She began working in science communications media as a correspondent on the CBS series '' Innovation Nation'', for which she won an

for Outstanding Writing Special Class in 2016. The experience of volunteering at the museum and working in science communication further gave her inspiration for starting her podcast '' Ologies''. In 2018, she became a regular contributor on the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

educational series ''

Brainchild Brainchild may refer to: * Brainchild (band), a local supergroup from Youngstown, Ohio, 1969–1972 * ''Brainchild'' (Society of Soul album), 1996 * ''Brainchild'' (Circle of Dust album), 1994 * Fictional comic characters in the Marvel Universe: ...

'' and began hosting the CW show ''Did I Mention Invention? With Alie Ward''. In 2020, she co-hosted Netflix's first season of the investigative series ''

100 Humans ''100 Humans'' is a 2020 streaming television series. The premise revolves around 100 people who go through different experiments on the theme of behavior. It is based on the Dutch TV program '' Het Instituut'', broadcast in 2016 and 2017. Cast ...

'' alongside

Sammy Obeid Sammy K. Obeid (born February 9, 1984) is an American writer and stand-up comedian. He has released one comedy album, ''Get Funny or Die Tryin''. The New York Times described his comedy as displaying "an analytic style full of wordplay, clever mis ...

and

Zainab Johnson Zainab Johnson is an American comedian and actress. She is best known as a semi-finalist on NBC's ''Last Comic Standing''. Johnson is a series regular on Amazon's ''Upload''. Life and career Johnson was born and raised in Harlem, New York, one ...

Art

Ward's paintings are often acrylic on wood and employ wordplay or are in

diptych A diptych (; from the Greek δίπτυχον, ''di'' "two" + '' ptychē'' "fold") is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world w ...

form, which she calls her "dichotomy series". She likens her painting approach to sign making. In 2014, ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

'' named Ward's Instagram account "Best Looking Instagram".

Writing

Ward comes from a family of journalists. In late 2005, ''L.A. Weekly'' hired her to illustrate the column ''24/7'' and in early 2006 she was offered a writing assignment to cover a concert. Within a few months, Ward had a weekly nightlife and culture column called ''The Mental Ward''. Ward also wrote for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' and for

Metromix Metromix LLC was a Chicago entertainment website at Chicago.Metromix.com, owned by the ''Chicago Tribune'' division of Tribune Publishing. It served the Chicago metropolitan area. The website now redirects to that of the Chicago Tribune. History ...

L.A., a website and newspaper owned by the ''Los Angeles Times'', as well as appearing on-camera for live news segments on

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...

Alie and Georgia

In early 2009, Ward and her friend

Georgia Hardstark Georgia Hardstark (born June 8, 1980) is an American television host and podcast personality. She is the co-host of the true crime-comedy podcast ''My Favorite Murder'' along with comedian Karen Kilgariff. In 2018, Hardstark and Kilgariff co-found ...

created a cocktail called the McNuggetini, drafting plans on the back of a popcorn bag at the L.A. dive bar The Roost. Hardstark blogged about it on the website This Recording. After the extreme food aggregation website This is why you're fat linked to the recipe, it became virally popular. Hardstark and Ward next shot a short instructional video, directed by friend and director of

Peter Atencio Peter Atencio (born March 15, 1983) is an American television and film director best known for directing the sketch comedy series ''Key & Peele'', as well as the duo's feature film '' Keanu'', released in 2016. Career Atencio directed all epi ...

, and posted it to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

in October 2009. The video became the most watched how-to video at the time with over 10,000

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

per day. The pair followed up with two farcical how-to videos for the Ham Daiquiri and a Bloody-Maryesque drink known as the Bloody Bacon & Cheese. Next, Ward and Hardstark began making "Classy Ladies with Alie & Georgia" cocktail videos for Scripps Network and

Cooking Channel Cooking Channel is an American basic cable channel owned by Food Network, a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (69%) and Nexstar Media Group (31%). The channel is a spin-off of Food Network, broadcasting p ...

websites, and appearing on the Cooking Channel travel-dessert show ''

Unique Sweets ''Unique Sweets'' is an American television series on Cooking Channel about various eating establishments across the United States and their signature or most popular desserts. The series features interviews with guest pastry chefs and food criti ...

''. Ward and Hardstark collaborated on several other projects. Their

Feral Audio Feral Audio was an independent podcast network and production company, founded in 2012 as a podcasting collective by Dustin Marshall after Dustin left Earwolf. Feral launched from Executive Producer's Shadi Petosky's apartment in Franklin Village ...

podcast ''Slumber Party with Alie & Georgia'' premiered in 2012 and ran for 93 episodes until its end in 2017. In June 2013, their travel-food show ''Tripping Out with Alie & Georgia'' premiered on Cooking Channel.

Giada De Laurentiis Giada Pamela De Laurentiis (; born August 22, 1970) is an Italian-American chef, writer, and television personality. She was the host of Food Network's ''Giada at Home''. She also appears regularly as a contributor and guest co-host on NBC's ...

was an executive producer of the show. In August 2013, the two appeared in ''

Drunk History ''Drunk History'' is an American educational comedy television series produced by Comedy Central, based on the Funny or Die web series created by Derek Waters and Jeremy Konner in 2007. They and Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are the show's exec ...

'' for an episode on

Lewis and Clark Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

Podcast

In 2017 Ward began hosting '' Ologies'', a science podcast. A different expert is interviewed by Ward each week, including topics such as

volcanology Volcanology (also spelled vulcanology) is the study of volcanoes, lava, magma and related geological, geophysical and geochemical phenomena (volcanism). The term ''volcanology'' is derived from the Latin word ''vulcan''. Vulcan was the anci ...

primatology Primatology is the scientific study of primates. It is a diverse Academic discipline, discipline at the boundary between mammalogy and anthropology, and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy, anthropology, biology, medici ...

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

gemology Gemology or gemmology is the science dealing with natural and artificial gemstone materials. It is a geoscience and a branch of mineralogy. Some jewelers (and many non-jewelers) are academically trained gemologists and are qualified to identify a ...

cosmetology Cosmetology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''kosmētikos'', "beautifying"; and , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia'') is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty include hairstyle, hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/p ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...

and

horology Horology (; related to Latin '; ; , interfix ''-o-'', and suffix ''-logy''), . is the study of the measurement of time. Clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, hourglasses, clepsydras, timers, time recorders, marine chronometers, and atomic cl ...

. The tagline for the show is "Ask smart people stupid questions". In 2022, the

named her podcast ''Ologies'' “Best Science Podcast”, and the

honored Ward as “Best Podcast Host.”

Personal life

At the end of a podcast episode in January 2021, Ward shared that she became engaged to her boyfriend of about ten years, Jarrett Sleeper. As of 2021, she lives in

Eagle Rock, California Eagle Rock is a neighborhood of Northeast Los Angeles, abutting the San Rafael Hills in Los Angeles County, California. Eagle Rock is named after Eagle Rock, a large boulder whose shadow resembles an eagle.http://www.eaglerockcouncil.org/index.p ...

Filmography

References

External links

*
AlieWard.comAlie and Georgia
archived 3 June 2016
Alie and Georgia
''food2''
''Innovation Nation''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Alie 1976 births 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American painters 21st-century American women artists 21st-century American women writers Actresses from San Francisco American podcasters American television actresses American women columnists American women journalists American women painters American women podcasters American women television personalities Journalists from California Living people Painters from San Francisco Science communicators Television personalities from San Francisco University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Writers from San Francisco