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, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

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 television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

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 ...

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

Webby Awards The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

honored Ward as “Best Podcast Host.” On television, Ward has appeared as a recurring role in ''

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 ...

'' and in several small roles for shows including ''

Grey's Anatomy ''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series focusing on the personal and professional lives of surgical internship (medicine), interns, residency (medicine), residents, and attending physician, attendings at the fictional ...

'', ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels that initially aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, with four more episodes airing in First-run syndicati ...

'', and Comedy Central's ''

Key & Peele ''Key & Peele'' (abbreviated to ''K&P'') is an American sketch comedy television series that ran from 2012 to 2015. It was created by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele for Comedy Central; each had previously worked on ''Mad TV.'' Each episod ...

''. 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 in storytelling in the English language and has started many narrative ...

'', ''

Revenge Revenge is defined as committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Vengeful forms of justice, such as primitive justice or retributive justice, are often differentiated from more fo ...

'', 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 a ...

''. She has also illustrated and been a columnist for ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

'' and cohosted the Netflix show ''

100 Humans ''100 Humans'' is an American reality television series that premiered in 2020. The show follows 100 people as they go through different experiments studying human behavior. It is based on the Dutch TV program '' Het Instituut'', broadcast in 201 ...

.''

Early life

Ward was born Alison Ann Ward in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, 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 Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

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 of 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 at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

before moving to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. 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 antibody, antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone ...

Career

Acting, media, and journalism

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

'', 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 but noticed she received mostly "victim"-type roles during a crime show boom, which she developed a distaste for after she was mugged in 2002. She began pursuing painting as a therapeutic hobby and a form of self expression, leading to roles in media, with Ward describing the change as "I felt like I went from not having a voice to having my voice being my identity and my job, which was really gratifying." 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'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' 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 Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagola ...

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 station of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is ...

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

diptych A diptych (, ) is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by a hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world was a diptych consisting of a pair of such plates that contained a ...

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

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

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-fou ...

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. For ''Key & Peele'', Atencio recei ...

, and posted it to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

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 s ...

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 and spin-off of Food Network. Both are owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (69%) and Nexstar Media ...

websites, and appearing on the Cooking Channel travel-dessert show '' Unique Sweets''. 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 Villag ...

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 Giada Pamela De Benedetti on August 22, 1970) is an Italian American chef, entrepreneur, writer, and television personality. She was the host of Food Network's program called ''Giada at Home''. She also appea ...

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. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are the show's executive p ...

'' 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 Radiohe ...

Pivot into science communication

Inspired by a visit to the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are par ...

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 is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

educational series '' Brainchild'' 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 ''

'' alongside Sammy Obeid and

Zainab Johnson Zainab Johnson (born March 22) is an American stand-up comedian, actress and podcaster. She debuted her comedy album in 2016, her half-hour television special in 2018 and her hour-long streaming TV special in 2023. Johnson was the winner of ABF ...

Ologies podcast

In 2017 Ward began hosting '' Ologies'', a science podcast. Ward interviews a different expert each week, with episodes including topics such as

volcanology Volcanology (also spelled vulcanology) is the study of volcanoes, lava, magma and related geology, geological, geophysical and geochemistry, geochemical phenomena (volcanism). The term ''volcanology'' is derived from the Latin language, Latin ...

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

paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

gemology Gemology or gemmology is the science dealing with natural and artificial gemstone materials. It is a specific interdisciplinary branch of mineralogy. Some jewellery, jewelers (and many non-jewelers) are academically trained gemologists and are qua ...

cosmetology Cosmetology (from Greek , ''kosmētikos'', "beautifying"; and , ''-logia'') is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty include hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/ pedicures, non-permanent hair removal suc ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

and

horology Chronometry or horology () is the science studying the measurement of time and timekeeping. Chronometry enables the establishment of standard measurements of time, which have applications in a broad range of social and scientific areas. ''Hor ...

. 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.” In 2024, it won a

Shorty Award The Shorty Awards (also known as "The Shortys") are awards for outstanding and innovative work in digital and social media content by brands, advertising agencies, and creators. The awards, which generally focus on short-term content, honor achiev ...

and ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'' included it in their best podcast list.

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. They were married in July 2021. 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. The community is named after Eagle Rock, a large boulder whose shadow resembles an eagle.http://www.eaglerockcouncil.org/in ...

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 women journalists 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American painters 21st-century American women painters 21st-century American women writers Actresses from San Francisco American science communicators American science podcasters American television actresses American women columnists American women podcasters American women television personalities Daytime Emmy Award winners Journalists from California Living people Painters from San Francisco Television personalities from San Francisco University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Writers from San Francisco