Alex Albrecht
Encyclopedia
Alexander Jennings Albrecht (born August 14, 1976 in Los Angeles, California) is an American
television
personality, actor and podcaster who resides in Brentwood
a suburb of Los Angeles
, California
. He is best known for co-hosting the former G4techTV television program
The Screen Savers
, an hour-long computer
and technology
variety show, as well as the weekly podcast
Diggnation
and the weekday podcast The Totally Rad Show
on the Revision3 network. On July 15, 2008, he released his new podcast/website Project Lore, all about World of Warcraft
.
, former President of ILS
, and Kathe Hicks Albrecht, past president of the Visual Resources Association
, director of the Visual Resources Association Foundation, curator at American University in Washington, DC. Alex went to elementary school at Burgundy Farm Country Day School
, and graduated from American University
with a degree in computer science
. He was a member of the Delta Chi
Fraternity. Whilst at college Albrecht was a keen male cheerleader, with ambitions of becoming a professional mascot. To this day these dreams remain unfulfilled.
Corporation as a programmer and IT person and later worked for the Science Applications International Corporation
developing multimedia programming for British Petroleum.
In 2001, he founded the improv-comedy troupe The Misfit Toys, which performed live in L.A.
until 2003.
Albrecht appeared as a contestant on the gameshow Russian Roulette
in 2002. He also appeared on Beat the Geeks.
Albrecht was hired by G4techTV to be the co-host alongside Kevin Rose
(replacing Patrick Norton
) of the television technology show, The Screen Savers
, for the first G4techTV episode airing from Los Angeles. The first Los Angeles based episode of The Screen Savers aired on September 7, 2004.
On November 11, 2004, Albrecht announced on his personal blogs that G4 had decided to revamp The Screen Savers by making it more pop culture, Internet, and gaming-oriented. Alex Albrecht, Yoshi DeHerrera
, Dan Huard
, executive producer Paul Block, and the show's entire staff (consisting mostly of former TechTV
employees) either resigned, made separation deals with G4, or were officially terminated
.
On August 5, 2005, Albrecht joined Revision3. Albrecht co-hosts Diggnation
, a video podcast
that summarizes a selection of the top stories submitted by Digg
users, with former The Screen Savers co-host Kevin Rose. Albrecht also contributes to other projects for the company. He co-hosts a podcast called The Totally Rad Show
, with Dan Trachtenberg
and Jeff Cannata
. The first episode was released on March 27, 2007. Albrecht also hosted Ctrl+Alt+Chicken, a weekly cooking show that lasted 8 episodes before being canceled in the fall of 2006.
Albrecht was featured in "SWGack", a weekly podcast
on the popular MMORPG
, Star Wars Galaxies
. On March 4, 2006, he and Joshua Brentano announced on their last episode that they would discontinue the podcast due to disenchantment
with the game itself.
Albrecht and Rose also appeared in a Super Bowl
ad for GoDaddy.com during Super Bowl XLI
. Albrecht has appeared in a Domino's Pizza
commercial eating Domino's pizza in a house being raided by the "flavor" police. Alex has also appeared in a Dell commercial, advertising the line of High-Definition Dell LCD televisions; Alex has stated that this commercial was ad libbed. He has also mentioned doing an audition for an advertisement for McDonald's that was never aired in the US, but he has said that it was for British television.
On December 4, 2007, Alex guest hosted Attack of the Show (the show which succeeded his old show on G4, The Screen Savers).
Alex's newest project is Project Lore, which launched Tuesday, June 17, 2008. Project Lore is all about the popular video game World of Warcraft
. On the show, Alex and friends have shown off all of the five main dungeons available in the game's first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, starting with the lower levels, and working up. Before World of Warcrafts second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King was released, the Project Lore team were allowed to showcase some of its new beta content. Project Lore has since been abandoned; there have not been any blog posts for some time and a potential revamp proved too costly and the Project has been turned over into the hands of the volunteer bloggers in hopes that they will continue on their own.
Alex revealed on Totally Rad Show that he was in the pipeline to host NBC's version of Top Gear
but the role was ultimately given to somebody else. NBC has subsequently cancelled their plans for the show.
In 2009, Alex started an iPhone app company called App Dragon which released one app later that year called Duel.
In March 2010, Alex flew with the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels
) in the back seat of Blue Angel #7 (frequently used for media and public relations flights).
July 2010, Alex seeks funding for the short film "Neverland" through Indiegogo.com. Alex is named director. Shooting started July 30, 2010 according to Alex's Twitter account.
He is part of the long form improvisational comedy group Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, which uses the clap-in format created by director, Stan Wells.
Albrecht has also guest-starred in season 3, episode 4 of an Internet-based live-action parody of The Legend of Zelda
called The Legend of Neil
. Albrecht's character "Todd" was a member of a small group of soldiers from the elven army, which was led by Zelda's brother Tyrelda. In the series, Zelda is, much to Link/Neil's surprise, black skinned, rather than white. Her brother Tyrelda and the rest of the elf troops are black as well and make constant reference to Alex Albrecht's character being the token white guy. A number of stereotypes associated with African-Americans in the real world are reverse-applied to Todd and the white elf race in the land of Highrule. By the end of the episode, Todd appears to have died along with Tyrelda and the rest of the gang, making for a short-lived but noteworthy contribution made by Alex to the series.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
personality, actor and podcaster who resides in Brentwood
Brentwood, California
Brentwood is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. It is located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population is 51,481 as of 2010....
a suburb of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. He is best known for co-hosting the former G4techTV television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
The Screen Savers
The Screen Savers
The Screen Savers was a live American TV show on TechTV. The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV on May 11, 1998. The Screen Savers originally centered around computers, new technologies, and their adaptations in the world...
, an hour-long computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
variety show, as well as the weekly podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
Diggnation
Diggnation
Diggnation is Revision3's flagship video podcast produced weekly. It is hosted by Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, who had previously hosted TechTV's The Screen Savers together. Its main purpose is to discuss some of the top stories from Digg, the social news and bookmarking website developed by Rose...
and the weekday podcast The Totally Rad Show
The Totally Rad Show
The Totally Rad Show is a formerly weekly, now daily, video podcast produced by Team Awesome, LLC and distributed by Revision3. TRS consists primarily of reviews and commentary on pop-culture phenomena such as movies, video games, television programs, and comic books...
on the Revision3 network. On July 15, 2008, he released his new podcast/website Project Lore, all about World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
.
Early life
Alex is the son of Dr. Mark AlbrechtMark Albrecht
Mark J. Albrecht is a senior aerospace and telecommunications executive with broad government and industry experience. He completed his BA and MA from UCLA and PhD from the Rand Graduate School. He was the Executive Secretary of the National Space Council from 1989–1992 and was the principal...
, former President of ILS
International Launch Services
International Launch Services is a U.S.-Russian joint venture with exclusive rights to the worldwide sale of commercial Proton rocket launch services from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.- Ownership :...
, and Kathe Hicks Albrecht, past president of the Visual Resources Association
Visual Resources Association
The Visual Resources Association is an international organization for image media professionals,VRA was founded in 1982 by slide librarians who were members of the College Art Association , the South Eastern Art Conference , the Art Libraries Society of North America , and the Mid-America College...
, director of the Visual Resources Association Foundation, curator at American University in Washington, DC. Alex went to elementary school at Burgundy Farm Country Day School
Burgundy Farm Country Day School
Burgundy Farm Country Day School is a progressive independent school on a campus in Alexandria, Virginia, and in West Virginia. It serves nearly 300 students in grades Junior Kindergarten through Eighth Grade...
, and graduated from American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
with a degree in computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
. He was a member of the Delta Chi
Delta Chi
Delta Chi or D-Chi is an international Greek letter college social fraternity formed on October 13, 1890,at Cornell University, initially as a professional fraternity for law students. On April 29, 1922, Delta Chi became a general membership social fraternity, eliminating the requirement for men...
Fraternity. Whilst at college Albrecht was a keen male cheerleader, with ambitions of becoming a professional mascot. To this day these dreams remain unfulfilled.
Career
Albrecht worked for the RANDRAND
RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...
Corporation as a programmer and IT person and later worked for the Science Applications International Corporation
Science Applications International Corporation
SAIC is a FORTUNE 500 scientific, engineering and technology applications company headquartered in the United States with numerous federal, state, and private sector clients...
developing multimedia programming for British Petroleum.
In 2001, he founded the improv-comedy troupe The Misfit Toys, which performed live in L.A.
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
until 2003.
Albrecht appeared as a contestant on the gameshow Russian Roulette
Russian Roulette (game show)
Russian Roulette is an American game show created by executive producer Gunnar Wetterberg that ran for two seasons on Game Show Network from June 3, 2002 to June 13, 2003. It was hosted by Mark L. Walberg, with Burton Richardson announcing. Todd Newton hosted an April Fool's Day episode in 2003....
in 2002. He also appeared on Beat the Geeks.
Albrecht was hired by G4techTV to be the co-host alongside Kevin Rose
Kevin Rose
Kevin Rose is an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Revision3, Digg, Pownce, and Milk...
(replacing Patrick Norton
Patrick Norton
Patrick Norton is most commonly known as the former co-host and managing editor of The Screen Savers, an interactive television program on TechTV geared toward the technology enthusiast...
) of the television technology show, The Screen Savers
The Screen Savers
The Screen Savers was a live American TV show on TechTV. The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV on May 11, 1998. The Screen Savers originally centered around computers, new technologies, and their adaptations in the world...
, for the first G4techTV episode airing from Los Angeles. The first Los Angeles based episode of The Screen Savers aired on September 7, 2004.
On November 11, 2004, Albrecht announced on his personal blogs that G4 had decided to revamp The Screen Savers by making it more pop culture, Internet, and gaming-oriented. Alex Albrecht, Yoshi DeHerrera
Yoshi DeHerrera
Joshua "Yoshi" DeHerrera is an American television personality and modding enthusiast who resides in Los Angeles, California...
, Dan Huard
Dan Huard
Dan Huard is a computer enthusiast and American television personality who resides in San Francisco, California. Huard is best known for his work on the TechTV television program The Screen Savers, an hour-long technology-related variety show.-Early life:Huard attended California State...
, executive producer Paul Block, and the show's entire staff (consisting mostly of former TechTV
TechTV
TechTV was a 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...
employees) either resigned, made separation deals with G4, or were officially terminated
Termination of employment
-Involuntary termination:Involuntary termination is the employee's departure at the hands of the employer. There are two basic types of involuntary termination, known often as being "fired" and "laid off." To be fired, as opposed to being laid off, is generally thought of to be the employee's...
.
Diggnation
Diggnation is Revision3's flagship video podcast produced weekly. It is hosted by Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, who had previously hosted TechTV's The Screen Savers together. Its main purpose is to discuss some of the top stories from Digg, the social news and bookmarking website developed by Rose...
, a video podcast
Video podcast
Video podcast is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures...
that summarizes a selection of the top stories submitted by Digg
Digg
Digg is a social news website. Prior to Digg v4, its cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. Digg's popularity prompted the creation of copycat social networking sites with story submission and voting systems...
users, with former The Screen Savers co-host Kevin Rose. Albrecht also contributes to other projects for the company. He co-hosts a podcast called The Totally Rad Show
The Totally Rad Show
The Totally Rad Show is a formerly weekly, now daily, video podcast produced by Team Awesome, LLC and distributed by Revision3. TRS consists primarily of reviews and commentary on pop-culture phenomena such as movies, video games, television programs, and comic books...
, with Dan Trachtenberg
Dan Trachtenberg
Dan Trachtenberg is a filmmaker and video podcast host from the Philadelphia suburbs who currently resides in the Los Angeles metro area. He is one of the three hosts of The Totally Rad Show and a former co-host of Geekdrome. Both programs are hosted at Revision3...
and Jeff Cannata
Jeff Cannata
Jeff Cannata is an actor and podcaster who is best known as co-host of The Totally Rad Show. Raised in California, he graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 1999 with a BFA in theater. Cannata has been acting since 2000 and has appeared in movies, commercials and theater. He became the co-host of The...
. The first episode was released on March 27, 2007. Albrecht also hosted Ctrl+Alt+Chicken, a weekly cooking show that lasted 8 episodes before being canceled in the fall of 2006.
Albrecht was featured in "SWGack", a weekly podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
on the popular MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
, Star Wars Galaxies
Star Wars Galaxies
Star Wars Galaxies is a Star Wars themed MMORPG for Microsoft Windows developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts.-History:...
. On March 4, 2006, he and Joshua Brentano announced on their last episode that they would discontinue the podcast due to disenchantment
Disenchantment
Disenchantment is a term in the social sciences used to describe the cultural rationalization and devaluation of mysticism apparent in modern society...
with the game itself.
Albrecht and Rose also appeared in a Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
ad for GoDaddy.com during Super Bowl XLI
Super Bowl XLI
Super Bowl XLI was an American football game that featured the American Football Conference champion Indianapolis Colts and the National Football Conference champion Chicago Bears to decide the National Football League champion for the 2006 season...
. Albrecht has appeared in a Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc. is an international pizza delivery corporation headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America. Founded in 1960, Domino's is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States and has over 9,000 corporate and franchised stores in 60 countries and all 50 U.S....
commercial eating Domino's pizza in a house being raided by the "flavor" police. Alex has also appeared in a Dell commercial, advertising the line of High-Definition Dell LCD televisions; Alex has stated that this commercial was ad libbed. He has also mentioned doing an audition for an advertisement for McDonald's that was never aired in the US, but he has said that it was for British television.
On December 4, 2007, Alex guest hosted Attack of the Show (the show which succeeded his old show on G4, The Screen Savers).
Alex's newest project is Project Lore, which launched Tuesday, June 17, 2008. Project Lore is all about the popular video game World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
. On the show, Alex and friends have shown off all of the five main dungeons available in the game's first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, starting with the lower levels, and working up. Before World of Warcrafts second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King was released, the Project Lore team were allowed to showcase some of its new beta content. Project Lore has since been abandoned; there have not been any blog posts for some time and a potential revamp proved too costly and the Project has been turned over into the hands of the volunteer bloggers in hopes that they will continue on their own.
Alex revealed on Totally Rad Show that he was in the pipeline to host NBC's version of Top Gear
Top Gear (U.S. TV series)
Top Gear is a motoring television series, based on the BBC series of the same name. The show's presenters are professional racing driver Tanner Foust, actor and comedian Adam Ferrara, and automotive and racing analyst Rutledge Wood. As with the original British version, the show has its own version...
but the role was ultimately given to somebody else. NBC has subsequently cancelled their plans for the show.
In 2009, Alex started an iPhone app company called App Dragon which released one app later that year called Duel.
In March 2010, Alex flew with the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels
Blue Angels
The United States Navy's Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, popularly known as the Blue Angels, was formed in 1946 and is currently the oldest formal flying aerobatic team...
) in the back seat of Blue Angel #7 (frequently used for media and public relations flights).
July 2010, Alex seeks funding for the short film "Neverland" through Indiegogo.com. Alex is named director. Shooting started July 30, 2010 according to Alex's Twitter account.
He is part of the long form improvisational comedy group Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, which uses the clap-in format created by director, Stan Wells.
Albrecht has also guest-starred in season 3, episode 4 of an Internet-based live-action parody of The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda, originally released as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Nintendo, and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Set in the fantasy land of Hyrule, the plot centers on a boy named Link, the playable protagonist, who aims to collect the eight fragments...
called The Legend of Neil
The Legend of Neil
The Legend of Neil is a comedy web series distributed by Comedy Central's partner Atom.com and is a parody of the Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda. Sandeep Parikh of The Guild fame directs the series. Tony Janning writes for the series, and acts as the title character Neil...
. Albrecht's character "Todd" was a member of a small group of soldiers from the elven army, which was led by Zelda's brother Tyrelda. In the series, Zelda is, much to Link/Neil's surprise, black skinned, rather than white. Her brother Tyrelda and the rest of the elf troops are black as well and make constant reference to Alex Albrecht's character being the token white guy. A number of stereotypes associated with African-Americans in the real world are reverse-applied to Todd and the white elf race in the land of Highrule. By the end of the episode, Todd appears to have died along with Tyrelda and the rest of the gang, making for a short-lived but noteworthy contribution made by Alex to the series.
See also
- DiggnationDiggnationDiggnation is Revision3's flagship video podcast produced weekly. It is hosted by Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, who had previously hosted TechTV's The Screen Savers together. Its main purpose is to discuss some of the top stories from Digg, the social news and bookmarking website developed by Rose...
- The Totally Rad ShowThe Totally Rad ShowThe Totally Rad Show is a formerly weekly, now daily, video podcast produced by Team Awesome, LLC and distributed by Revision3. TRS consists primarily of reviews and commentary on pop-culture phenomena such as movies, video games, television programs, and comic books...
- Project Lore
- Revision3
- TechTVTechTVTechTV was a 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...
- Kevin RoseKevin RoseKevin Rose is an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Revision3, Digg, Pownce, and Milk...
- The Screen SaversThe Screen SaversThe Screen Savers was a live American TV show on TechTV. The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV on May 11, 1998. The Screen Savers originally centered around computers, new technologies, and their adaptations in the world...
- The Legend of NeilThe Legend of NeilThe Legend of Neil is a comedy web series distributed by Comedy Central's partner Atom.com and is a parody of the Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda. Sandeep Parikh of The Guild fame directs the series. Tony Janning writes for the series, and acts as the title character Neil...