Catherine Michelle Schwartz (born May 27, 1977) is an American television presenter. She was formerly a co-host on the
TechTV
TechTV is a defunct 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming. ...
television program ''Call for Help'' with
Chris Pirillo
Chris Pirillo is an American entrepreneur and former television personality. He is the founder and former CEO of LockerGnome, Inc., a now-defunct network of blogs, web forums, mailing lists, and online communities which are now closed. He is b ...
and
Leo Laporte
Leo Laporte (; born November 29, 1956) is the host of ''The Tech Guy'' weekly radio show and a host on TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and a technology author. O ...
.
Early years
Schwartz earned degrees in
Broadcast
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
Communication Arts and
Sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
from
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...
.
Career
After a stint on TechTV's ''
The Screen Savers
''The Screen Savers'' is an American TV show that aired on TechTV from 1998 to 2005.Fost, Dan (17 May 1999)A Day in the Life of ZDTV's `The Screen Savers' ''San Francisco Chronicle'' The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV (later k ...
'', Schwartz became co-host of ''Call for Help'' in 2002 with then co-host
Chris Pirillo
Chris Pirillo is an American entrepreneur and former television personality. He is the founder and former CEO of LockerGnome, Inc., a now-defunct network of blogs, web forums, mailing lists, and online communities which are now closed. He is b ...
. After Pirillo left TechTV in April 2003, former host Leo Laporte returned to co-host with Schwartz. ''Call for Help'' was cancelled in May 2004 after TechTV's merger with
G4, resulting in
G4techTV
G4techTV was a short-lived American cable and satellite channel resulting from a merger between Comcast-owned G4 and TechTV. The network officially launched on May 28, 2004. History
On March 25, 2004, Comcast announced its plans to purchase Te ...
.
In the period after the cancellation of ''Call for Help'', Schwartz appeared as a G4techTV technology expert on the ''
Today Show
''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was ...
'' segmen
"Gender Wars" She also made guest appearances on short segments of ''The Screen Savers''. She later signed on as a columnist with ''
Stuff Magazine
''Stuff'' is a British consumer electronics magazine published by Kelsey Media.
History
''Stuff'' was first published in Britain in November 1996 by Dennis Publishing. A bimonthly title, it followed the success of magazines such as ''FHM'' ...
'', with a column entitled, "Ask the Tech Chick".
She also appears in the music video ''Strange New Element'' by the ban
Low Water Near the end of the video, she makes an appearance with fellow TechTV personalities
Morgan Webb
Morgan Ailis Webb (born October 5, 1978) is a former co-host and senior segment Television producer, producer of the G4 (U.S. TV channel), G4 show ''X-Play''. She was previously the host of the podcast ''WebbAlert'' and a monthly columnist for th ...
, Sarah Lane,
Chi-Lan Lieu
Chi-Lan Lieu is a Chinese-American author and television presenter. Since September 2012 she has hosted the HGTV series ''Living Abroad''.[The Screen Savers
''The Screen Savers'' is an American TV show that aired on TechTV from 1998 to 2005.Fost, Dan (17 May 1999)A Day in the Life of ZDTV's `The Screen Savers' ''San Francisco Chronicle'' The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV (later k ...](_blank)
'', Schwartz claimed to have invented the
Swiffer
Swiffer is an American brand of cleaning products that is made by Procter & Gamble. Introduced in 1999 the brand uses the " razor-and-blades" business model, whereby the consumer purchases the handle assembly at a low price, but must continue ...
during her days as a college
intern
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...
. Schwartz has said that she receives no royalties and signed away her rights to the product as part of
Procter & Gamble's policy. The Swiffer was actually based on the Quickle Wiper, which was launched in 1995 in Japan thanks in part to the Quickle Wiper not being patent protected. The Japanese product was released before Schwartz was a college intern.
In the early part of 2005, Schwartz and her friend Wynter Mitchell (''Screen Savers''
teleprompter
A teleprompter, also known as an autocue, is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script.
Using a teleprompter is similar to using cue cards. The screen is in front of, and usually be ...
operator) started a
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
, which stopped on May 10, 2005. It was updated with two posts – one on July 31, 2007 and the other on August 5, 2007 but has not been updated since.
In 2008, Schwartz became a gadget and toy director for
eBay Insider, a blog which claims to give consumers information from experts in their field, based on searches for products found on eBay.
In 2017 Schwartz became the founder and CEO of DGTL Advisors and DGTL NTWRK. DGTL NTWRK advises companies and individuals on how to use social media to gain a digital portfolio. She has worked with A-listers such as Jamie Fox, John Stamos, Chris Bosh, Charlie Sheen, Eva Mendez and many more.
Personal life
In June 2003 Schwartz became the subject of a stir in the Internet community when it was discovered that at least two
cropped
Cropping is the removal of unwanted outer areas from a photographic or illustrated image. The process usually consists of the removal of some of the peripheral areas of an image to remove extraneous trash from the picture, to improve its framin ...
photographs of herself she had posted on her personal blog contained hidden
Exif
Exchangeable image file format (officially Exif, according to JEIDA/JEITA/CIPA specifications) is a standard that specifies formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras (including smartphones), scanners and other system ...
thumbnail
Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures or videos, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words. In the age of digital images, visual search engines and image ...
images clearly showing her bared breasts, because the program she used to edit them,
Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster ...
, did not create replacement thumbnails.
On November 25, 2005, Schwartz married ''
South Park
''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
'' editor Keef Bartkus in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
. Her married name is Catherine Michelle Bartkus but she retains the last name ''Schwartz'' in professional contexts. They divorced in 2007.
In June, 2006, Schwartz gave birth to a son, named Jack.
References
External links
Official website*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Catherine
1977 births
Living people
American bloggers
San Francisco State University alumni
TechTV people
Television personalities from California