Michele Catherine Boyd (born October 29, 1980) is an American actress, producer and host. She co-founded the geek girl parody group

Team Unicorn Team Unicorn is a multimedia production team formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2010. Its current members are American actresses Clare Grant, Rileah Vanderbilt, Milynn Sarley, and Alison Haislip (who replaced Michele Boyd in 2014). The group ...

and played Riley in the popular webseries '' The Guild''.

Early life and education

Boyd was born to a Navy family on October 29, 1980, and thus spent much of her life traveling. She lived all over the United States as well as Italy and Japan before going to high school in San Diego. She was involved in school musicals from a very early age up through high school, performing in everything from ''

The King and I ''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the childr ...

'' to ''

Cats The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

''. Boyd was a competitive swimmer since the age of 6, eventually competing in the

California Interscholastic Federation The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body for high school sports in the U.S. state of California. CIF membership includes both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have s ...

Swimming and Diving events. Boyd also has worked as a snowboarding instructor and holds a green belt in

hapkido Hapkido ( , , ), also spelled ''hap ki do'' or ''hapki-do'' is a Korean martial art. It is a hybrid form of self-defense that employs joint locks, grappling, chokeholds, throwing techniques, kicks, punches, and other striking attacks. ...

. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior from the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, and before settling into her career as an actress, she studied behavior at Harvard Medical School.Carrington, Eddie (March 1, 2009
"20 Questions with Michele Boyd"
The Hunting Lodge.

Career

After receiving her bachelor's degree, Boyd modeled in New York City before moving to Los Angeles and quickly landing roles on the television shows ''

Sons of Anarchy ''Sons of Anarchy'' is an American Action film, action crime drama television series created by Kurt Sutter for FX (TV channel), FX. Originally aired from September 3, 2008, to December 9, 2014, ''Sons of Anarchy'' follows the lives of a close-k ...

'', ''

The Young and the Restless ''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in the fictional Genoa City (named after the real-life Genoa City, Wiscon ...

'', and ''

How I Met Your Mother ''How I Met Your Mother'' (often abbreviated as ''HIMYM'') is an American sitcom created by Craig Thomas (screenwriter), Craig Thomas and Carter Bays for CBS. The series, which aired from September 19, 2005, to March 31, 2014, follows main char ...

''. She utilized her science background cohosting the show ''Machines of Malice'' as a neuroscience consultant for the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

. Boyd is also a

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

show favorite, guest starring on the shows ''

iCarly ''iCarly'' is an American teen sitcom created by Dan Schneider, which originally aired on Nickelodeon from September 8, 2007, to November 23, 2012. The series tells the story of Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove), a teenager who creates and hosts ...

'', ''

True Jackson, VP ''True Jackson, VP'' is an American teen sitcom created by Andy Gordon that aired on Nickelodeon from November 8, 2008, to August 20, 2011. The series stars Keke Palmer, Ashley Argota, Matt Shively, Danielle Bisutti, Greg Proops, Robbie ...

'' and ''

Big Time Rush ''Big Time Rush'' is an American musical sitcom television series created by Scott Fellows that originally aired on Nickelodeon from November 28, 2009, to July 25, 2013, featuring the band Big Time Rush portrayed as a fictional version of th ...

''. In 2009, Boyd appeared on 14 episodes of the popular web series '' The Guild''. In 2010, Boyd co-created the geek girl group

. Their first music video was " G33k & G4m3r Girls", a parody of

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists in hist ...

's "

California Gurls "California Gurls" is a song by American singer Katy Perry from her third studio album, '' Teenage Dream'' (2010). It was released as the album's lead single on May 7, 2010, through Capitol Records. The song features rap verses from Snoop Dog ...

"; it achieved over one million views in its first week. In 2013,

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

announced they would be producing a Team Unicorn television pilot. She cohosted the series ''Game Changers'', a

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the ori ...

-influenced show testing out video game tropes such as jet packs, parkour and lockpicking in the real world. She has also modeled for the J!NX gamers clothing line and was named one of GeekWeek.com's "10 Hottest Geek Girls". Boyd was also referenced in

Diablo III ''Diablo III'' is a 2012 online-only action role-playing dungeon crawling game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment as the third installment in the ''Diablo'' franchise. It was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X in May 2012, ...

from

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...

as a rare unicorn character named "Miss Hell" alongside other Team Unicorn members. She starred in ''Geek Cred'', an office comedy set in a comic book store.Dimas, Sandra (June 18, 2014
Geek Cred - A New Comedy For The Fan In All Of Us
TheProseAndCons.com Her feature film ''Bar America'', directed by

Matthew Jacobs Matthew Jacobs (born 1 July 1956) is a British writer, director, producer and actor. He is known best for his extensive career writing for television shows like ''Doctor Who'' and ''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles''. He also directed two pri ...

, premiered at the Santa Catalina Film Festival in 2014. Currently Boyd is the cohost of '' Watching Thrones'', a live ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

'' recap/discussion show. ''Watching Thrones'' airs on

Screen Junkies Screen Junkies is an online movie magazine and YouTube channel, owned and operated by Fandom, that focuses primarily on movies and television. Screen Junkies produce numerous shows now spread across two YouTube channels, including ''The Screen J ...

, 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 ...

-nominated online movie magazine and YouTube channel with over six million subscribers and over 1.6 billion views. In 2018, she became part of the reboot '' S.W.A.T.'' with

Shemar Moore Shemar Franklin Moore (born April 20, 1970) is an American actor. His notable roles include Malcolm Winters on ''The Young and the Restless'' (1994–2002, 2004–05, 2014, 2019, 2023), Derek Morgan on ''Criminal Minds'' (2005–17), and the l ...

. She plays the character Valerie Rocker.

Filmography

Television

Film

Internet Series

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Michele Boyd Online
– official website and blog * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Michele American film actresses American television actresses Living people 1980 births American hapkido practitioners University of California, Davis alumni People from Alachua, Florida 21st-century American women