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Morgan Webb

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Morgan Webb
Born
Morgan Ailis Webb

(1978-10-05) October 5, 1978 (age 46)
Occupation(s)Television presenter, producer
SpouseRob Reid
Websitehttp://www.webbalert.com/

Morgan Ailis Webb (born October 5, 1978) is host of the podcast WebbAlert, a co-host and senior segment producer of the G4 show X-Play, and was a monthly columnist for the United States edition of FHM, where she contributed a monthly video game column entitled "Tips From The Gaming Goddess". She holds dual citizenship from Canada and the United States.

Career

Morgan Webb attended UC Berkeley from 1996 to 2000. She developed computer skills in her free time there, and after graduating from college, worked for a dot-com company as a website administrator. After the company went under during the dot-com bubble burst of 2000, her friend Catherine Schwartz got her hired at TechTV in 2001, and Morgan became employed as the associate producer and web researcher for The Screen Savers. Thanks to her self-taught knowledge of computers and technology, in addition to a camera-friendly appearance, she was quickly promoted to an on-screen member of the program where she presented daily in-depth segments dealing with Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems, and on select occasions hosted The Screen Savers herself. Throughout 2002 and 2003, she also regularly co-hosted TechTV's Call For Help with Chris Pirillo. In April 2003, Webb left The Screen Savers to co-host X-Play with Adam Sessler.

Webb is one of only six TechTV personalities, including Adam Sessler, Sarah Lane, Chi-Lan Lieu, Kevin Rose, and Brendan Moran, to survive the massive layoffs resulting from the May 2004 merger of G4 and TechTV. However, since G4's change of format, only Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb remain with the network.

In August 2005, Webb became a contributing game columnist for FHM, alongside her regular hosting duties on X-Play. Her monthly column was titled "Tips From The Gaming Goddess". Readers were encouraged to email Morgan their video game-related inquiries; she would then answer one question each month. In February 2007, Webb wrote her final column for the magazine that discontinued its U.S. publication in March.

On August 2, 2007 Webb started a daily [Mon - Fri] video blogging initiative, called WebbAlert. These daily videos are 5-6 minutes in length and consist of a recap of popular technology news of the day. On occasion, Webb will forgo her regular news format in favor of focusing an episode on one particular topic of interest. Past examples include a recap of the annual TED Conference[1], a viral video special showcasing "future 'Darwin Award' winners"[2], and tech-centric "Holiday Buyer's Guides".[3]

Personal life

As an infant and small child, Webb appeared in advertisements for Gerber baby food, Kenner Toys, and most famously, an ad for McDonald's, where she recited the ingredients of the Big Mac to a game of Pat-a-cake. Ironically, Webb's parents refused to let her watch television as a child, so she made up for lost hours of television time by playing video games.[1] She began with an Atari, primarily the game Combat, but as technology progressed, The Legend of Zelda and Phantasy Star became two of her favorite games.

Webb graduated from Walter Reed Middle School in 1993 and graduated from North Hollywood High School in 1996 from the Highly Gifted Magnet.[citation needed] After graduating high school, she left home to attend UC Berkeley, from which she graduated in 2000, earning a bachelor's degree in rhetoric and a minor in Italian.[2]

On August 19, 2006, Webb married Rob Reid in a service at City Hall in San Francisco, California.[3] Reid founded the music website Listen.com, and was involved in the creation of the RealNetworks music service Rhapsody (which was based on Reid's Listen).

Media appearances

Throughout 2004 and beyond, Webb was featured in numerous issues of print publications. Maxim magazine spotlighted her in their July 2004 issue. FHM featured a five-page article in their November 2004 issue, and also had her listed in three consecutive years for their annual The 100 Sexiest Women In The World article: #73 in 2005, #62 in 2006, and #51 in 2007. Other magazines have featured her as well, voted "Hottest Woman of the Year" in RTD's 2006 Top 10 countdown and in an article in the Fall 2006 Edition of Colleges.com U Magazine.

In April 2004, Webb, along with fellow TechTV personalities Sarah Lane, Laura Swisher, Catherine Schwartz, and Melanie Kim, were included in the "TechTV's Sexiest Techie" poll sponsored by Playboy magazine. TechTV viewers could vote for their favorite girl via the Playboy website, and the winner of the poll would be offered a nude photo spread in a future issue of Playboy. Webb won the poll but she immediately refused, despite being "very flattered" by the photo shoot offer, citing her own personal reasons and her parents' objection to the idea.[4]

Webb has appeared in the music video "Strange New Element" from the band Low Water.[5] She makes her appearance near the end of the video alongside other fellow TechTV personalities, including Catherine Schwartz, Sarah Lane, Laura Swisher, Chi-Lan Lieu, and Sumi Das. In addition to appearing in Low Water's music video, Morgan is featured in the artwork of the band's album, Hard Words In A Speakeasy. She additionally provided her own vocals for "X-Play: The Musical", which aired February 5, 2007.

References

  1. ^ "G4 Feature - X-Play Hosts" (HTML). Retrieved 2007-08-09.
  2. ^ Orland, Kyle (October 17, 2006). "Gaming's Top 50 Journalists". Next Generation. Retrieved 2007-01-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "A VC: Webb Alert (in which Morgan Webb's husband's name is stated)". August 2, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ World Wide Webb Playboy.com. Accessed 2007-12-19.
  5. ^ Low Water. Accessed 2007-05-12.
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