Michele Morrow

In recent years, Morrow has been a guest speaker at video game events, served as an esports and gaming consultant, and worked with video game driven charities. In 2019, Morrow won an award from Cynopsis, naming her "Top Woman in Media" for the field of Esports. In July 2012, Blizzard Entertainment honored Morrow in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, by naming a non-player character after her, which can be found in-game as, "Mei Chele". Her NPC resides in a pagoda in the Pandarian starting zone, with her cats "Azrael" and "Samus", as well as her husband, "Lamplighter Mu". Morrow was honored a second time with an in-game character named, "Mychele Morrowsong", a garrison follower in World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. In December 2019, Morrow was listed as one of "The 10 Most Influential Women in Gaming".

Post-production involved creating realistic footage of Killcore to edit into the series, and was helmed by Morrow, Cox, and Mark Gibbons who served as the game's art director. The Odd Gentlemen, the studio behind the reboot of King’s Quest, oversaw production direction and handled animations. Morrow secured permission of Blizzard Entertainment co-founder, Frank Pearce, to utilize the Starcraft 2 tool-set, and contracted four of the best modders directly from the Starcraft community itself. Once the game was playable, Morrow and Cox directed, played and recorded all of the in-game scenes that appear on computer screens throughout the series. "As a result, Killcore is an actual, functioning game that technically exists, though it’s to be expected that the build isn’t exactly made with balance in mind. An impressively fake game."

In 2019, Morrow took her sixth turn at hosting BlizzCon, on November 1st and 2nd, which appeared on the BlizzCon All Access Channel with co-host Malik Forté musical guests Fitz and The Tantrums, The Glitch Mob, and Haywyre. Coverage and interviews by Morrow and Forté included Blizzard President, J. Allen Brack, who addressed a recent controversy over Hearthstone player Blitzchung's Hong Kong statement and suspension, as well as reporting exclusives for new game Overwatch 2, Diablo IV, and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.

In 2018, TBS tapped Morrow to join the live broadcast team at ELEAGUE, as sideline reporter for the four-part tournament miniseries, Tekken Team Takedown, and again as desk anchor for the six-part tournament miniseries, ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Invitational 2018.

From 2018 - 2019, Morrow appeared on Netflix as host of Super-Fan Builds. She has also appeared on HLN as a video game and tech expert, for MichaeLA, hosted by Michaela Pereira, and Dr. Drew on Call, hosted by Drew Pinsky.

In 2018, TBS tapped Morrow to join the live broadcast team at ELEAGUE, as sideline reporter for the four-part tournament miniseries, Tekken Team Takedown, with popular FGC casters and analysts, Richard Lewis, Steve "Tasty Steve" Scott, Stephen "Sajam" Lyon, Reepal "Rip" Parbhoo, and Mark "Markman" Julio. Twenty professional gamers were split up into four teams competing for a $100,000 prize pool. The show aired on TBS every Friday night, from March 16th through April 6th, with Morrow's live coverage of all matches earlier each day on the ELEAGUE Twitch channel. Morrow conducted pre game and post match interviews with top professional gamers in the fighting game community. The show was most recognized for its second episode, which aired on March 23rd, immediately after the channel’s NCAA March Madness coverage. Television viewership surpassed expectations, totaling 413,000. "Episode 2 didn’t come on until 1:50 am! This is the highest number of viewers of any esports television show so far."

Later in 2018, Morrow returned to TBS and ELEAGUE as desk host for the ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Invitational 2018, following the departure of former desk host and esports journalist, Richard Lewis. The six-part tournament series featured twenty-four professional gamers, with a prize pool of $250,000, and took place beginning with a pre-show Friday, May 25th on TBS, and continued with Group Stages beginning Friday, June 1 on TBS. Additional live coverage of Morrow's desk commentary and matches were aired earlier each day on the ELEAGUETwitch channel. Morrow led the analyst team, Steve "Tasty Steve" Scott, Stephen "Sajam" Lyon, Reepal "Rip" Parbhoo and Zhi "Zhieeep" Liang Chew, with sideline reporter Malik Forté.

In 2018, Morrow and Albrecht returned as co-hosts for BlizzCon, on November 2nd and 3rd, which appeared on the BlizzCon All Access Channel with musical guests Train, Lindsey Stirling, and DJ, Kristian Nairn. Coverage and interviews by Morrow and Albrecht included the announcements of new mobile game Diablo Immortal, the HD Remaster of Warcraft III: Reforged, and the retirement of Blizzard's co-founder and CEO, Mike Morhaime. Morrow and Albrecht conducted the first exclusive interview with new Blizzard Entertainment President, J. Allen Brack], directly after Morhaime passed the torch to Brack during opening ceremonies.

In 2018 and 2019, Morrow and co-host Bil "Jump" Carter, presented two seasons of video game clip show, Game Over with Bud Light, for Amazon. The show was filmed weekly in Redmond, Washington, and aired live on Bud Light's Twitch channel. Morrow and Carter conducted weekly interviews and celebrated the best game-ending plays from every week. Morrow has appeared on three episodes of AT&T's esports news show, The 9’s Presented by AT&T (2019), on Cloud 9's Twitch channel, with host Christopher "Monte Cristo" Mykles.

Good Game premiered on the paywall subscription service, YouTube Red, on August 30th, 2017, in five countries (U.S., Mexico, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand), with individual episodes also available for separate purchase on Google Play. Although met favorably by the video game community who were able to view the series, low viewership resulted from YouTube's ongoing dilemma with securing viewer subscriptions, combined with the re-branding of YouTube Red, led to cancellation after its first season in March 2018. YouTube has announced plans to make its original content free to watch on the platform by 2019, with ad-support. The short-lived series has been described as, "A piece of culture that says, 'We get it. This is a fun community and we're proud to be part of it.' A centerpiece of a gamer's collection that they can use to introduce others to their hobby." Although only lasting one season, Good Game became a cult classic, with dedicated fan art and cosplay of the show's main characters. In 2018, Good Game was recognized as a finalist for "Best Esports-Themed Program" during the 1st annual Tempest Esports Business Awards.

In 2017, Morrow and Albrecht returned as co-hosts for BlizzCon', on November 3rd and 4th, which appeared on Blizzard's new All Access Channel, with musical guest Muse and comedian, Chris Hardwick. Coverage and interviews by Morrow and Albrecht included the announcements of Vanilla WoW, free-to-play Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, and new video game expansions World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth and Hearthstone. Morrow and Albrecht also served as stage hosts for closing ceremonies, where they interviewed Blizzard Entertainment's three original co-founders, Mike Morhaime, Frank Pearce and Allen Adham.

In 2016, Morrow and Cox made a deal to develop and executive produce, Good Game, as a six-part series for YouTube Originals, with Dan Harmon's Starburns Industries and popular YouTube channel, Game Grumps. The project was announced at VidCon 2017 by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. Filming took place in Los Angeles, California, in 2017, with an ensemble cast starring Arin Hanson, Dan Avidan, Michele Morrow, Jade Payton, Rahul Abburi and Michael Marisi Ornstein; co-starring Oliver Cooper and Jesse Cox. Morrow and Cox encouraged the casting of professional gamers, Internet celebrities, and gaming enthusiasts in guest roles, including, Terry Crews and Naomi Kyle as the Killcore shout-casters, a cameo by Dan Harmon, and members of esports organization, Counter Logic Gaming, including Stephanie Harvey, who appeared as the nemesis team.

In 2016, Morrow again hosted BlizzCon with Albrecht, on November 4th and 5th, which appeared on DirecTV, with musical act "Weird Al" Yankovic and master of ceremonies, Thomas Middleditch. Coverage and interviews by Morrow and Albrecht included the Diablo 20th anniversary, the announcement of Blizzard's new professional esports venture, Overwatch League, and news of Blizzard's partnership with Google's DeepMind project, to test how artificial intelligence responds to real-time strategy game, Starcraft II.

In 2015 and 2016, Morrow served as moderator and host for several events revolving around the Warcraft movie. In 2015, Morrow appeared at San Diego Comic-Con for Legendary Entertainment, where she interviewed director Duncan Jones, and cast members Daniel Wu, Dominic Cooper, Travis Fimmel, Ben Foster, Clancy Brown, and Paula Patton. In 2016, Morrow hosted for Universal Pictures in Warcraft IRL: Capture the Flag, featuring her commentary and game analysis of players including, Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach, Sonja "OMGitsFireFoxx" Reid, Philip DeFranco, and Jimmy Wong. Later that year, Morrow moderated the live stream of the Warcraft movie panel at PAX East with the director and lead cast member, for a participatory audience of approximately ten thousand. On June 10, 2016, Morrow hosted the red carpet premiere of Warcraft by Universal Pictures, with co-host Jesse Cox, in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. Morrow and Cox conducted interviews with cast members, producers, and guests.

In 2016, Bleacher Report tapped Morrow to host its daily esports news show, Estream, with co-host Malik Forté. Filming took place at the CNN building in Los Angeles, California, where Morrow and Forté reported on and provided journalistic commentary surrounding every aspect of competitive gaming. Together they interviewed top professional players, team owners, game developers, video game journalists, shout-casters, and analysts. Interviewees include ELEAGUE's Counter-Strike Global Offensive analyst, Jason Moses O'Toole, as well as on-set interviews by professional athletes, Rick Fox and Chris Kluwe. Throughout 2016, Morrow and Forté also shared a podcast called Status Effect, produced by Levity Entertainment Group and the Sideshow Network. The show was recorded at the Hollywood Improv, where guests were invited to engage in an "honest conversation about life, technology, triumphs and career trials within the rapidly growing landscape of video games."

In 2016, Morrow also served as executive producer and host of Endgame, a weekly video game culture show for Lionsgate, in an official partnership with Comic-Con for their new paywall subscription service, CCHQ. She co-hosted the show with Khail Anonymous and produced with Adam Sessler and Neil Mandt. Morrow and Anonymous explored common themes in gaming, wrote skits, and interviewed Nolan Bushnell and Jane McGonigal. On May 22, 2016, Morrow hosted the Overwatch Launch Celebration presented by Coke Esports, which appeared as one-night special presentation in movie theaters across the US, UK, Spain and Poland. Morrow interviewed Blizzard Entertainment video game developers about the process of creating Overwatch cinematics. Later in 2016, Morrow appeared on HLN as a tech expert, for MichaeLA, hosted by Michaela Pereira, where Morrow demonstrated the Oculus Rift on live television for Pereira. Morrow also appeared as a video game expert for Dr. Drew on Call, hosted by Drew Pinsky, where he interviewed her about the psychological aspects of mobile game, Pokémon Go. In 2017, Morrow is featured as a guest on Geek & Sundry for Tabletop with Wil Wheaton, playing a spy game called, Codenames.

In 2015, Morrow voiced leading role, Alleria Windrunner, in Hearthstone, one of the world's most recognized esports, with a player-base over 100 million. By 2016, Morrow became intertwined with competitive gaming, and next served as host and video game journalist, for Bleacher Report's daily esports news show, Estream.

From 2015 to 2017, Morrow teamed up with Jesse Cox to create, develop and executive produce a single camera sitcom about esports called, Good Game. Their original treatment was produced into a six-episode scripted series in 2017 as a YouTube Original, by Dan Harmon's Starburns Industries, and in association with Game Grumps. Morrow starred in leading role, Ashley "Ash" Donovan, loosely based on her personal experiences in the video game industry.

In 2015, Morrow served as stage host on ESPN for Heroes of the Dorm, based on Blizzard Entertainment’s video game, Heroes of the Storm. Morrow led the groundbreaking event at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, in front of a live audience, with casters and analysts, Sean “Day9” Plott, Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen, Nick "Tasteless" Plott, and Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski. The event gained fame and notoriety with "the final match shown live on ESPN2, the first time an esport has ever been broadcast on a major American television network," and "the first place prize was massive—free tuition for the rest of the winning team's college career." The show has also been recognized for the sports vs. esports controversy that developed after ESPN sports journalist, Colin Cowherd, made defamatory remarks regarding the appearance of video game, Heroes of the Dorm on sports network, CNN.

Morrow and Cox conceived of Good Game in 2015, after discussing the challenges faced by professional gamers who aim to succeed, but lack the financial support found in the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre. Together, they wrote a treatment about a team of competitive underdogs attempting to win a $1,000,000 video game championship, which they dubbed, "The Bad News Bears of Esports". Additionally, they created and developed their own video game to appear in the series to avoid limitations posed by licensing or partnering with an existing intellectual property. Spoofing two of the highest earning esports titles in history, DOTA 2 and League of Legends, Morrow and Cox created their own fictional, comedic game, Killcore, to center around the show's competition, and brought on video game concept artist, Mark Gibbons, formally of Blizzard Entertainment, Games Workshop and Riot Games, to illustrate Killcore's character design, environment, user interface and logo.

In 2015, during Blizzard Entertainments 25th anniversary, Morrow returned to host BlizzCon on November 6th and 7th, which appeared on DirectTV, with co-host Alex Albrecht, musical act Linkin Park, and master of ceremonies, Wil Wheaton. Other news and interviews covered by Morrow and Albrecht included exclusives surrounding the Warcraft feature film, and video game expansions for StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, and Hearthstone.

In 2015, Morrow competed as a gamer for the first time on a public stage at the Heroes of the Storm launch event, Mayhem Begins, held at YouTube Space LA and live-streamed to an audience of millions, where she won the show match with her team, "Low Expectations". Later that year, Morrow presented the award for best short film with Dante Bosco, at the Geekie Awards. Morrow next hosted Super-Fan Builds (2016) for Defy Media, with co-hosts Sandeep Parikh and Leah Kilpatrick, originally appearing on Go90, and later available on Netflix. The twenty-episode series featured renowned Hollywood set-builders and prop-makers, including Fon Davis, to create one-of-a-kind items for the chosen "Super-Fans". Morrow appeared in nine episodes, where she interviewed builders about their process, and super-fans about their fandom.

Morrow served as spokesperson for GameChanger Charity in 2015, and led an event called "The Raid Against Rare Diseases", which featured popular YouTubers and Twitch streamers, and raised approximately $10,000 for children in need. In 2015, Morrow played in a gaming tournament held in Orlando, Florida, benefiting Extra Life United. She has also supported Child’s Play, and is an AnyKey affiliate.

Starting out, she appeared in several independent films, before making her television hosting debut on DirecTV for Blizzard Entertainment's BlizzCon (2014). She next appeared as host of ESPN2's live broadcast of Heroes of the Dorm (2015), which drew national headlines and controversy, as "the first time esports has ever been broadcast on a major American television network," sparking a new dialogue about the emerging esports scene.

For six years, Morrow served as host and desk anchor of Blizzard Entertainment's annual video game convention, BlizzCon (2014-2019), which draws approximately 40,000 fans to the Anaheim Convention Center, for a two-day festival, and watched online by millions of people worldwide. Morrow's show played on screens throughout the convention center, which included a pre-show before opening ceremonies, and a wrap up show before closing ceremonies. She conducted interviews and provided commentary, in between game announcements, developer panels and other activities on the main stage, featuring some of the top comedians and musical acts in the world. BlizzCon houses several world championship esports tournaments, which Morrow covered and analyzed, including Starcraft II, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch. Other video game franchises Morrow has covered at the events include, Diablo. Over the years, her show featured appearances and interviews from professional gamers, Internet celebrities, and Blizzard's top game developers, including CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime and Senior Vice President of Story and Franchise Development, Chris Metzen.

In 2014, Morrow first hosted BlizzCon on November 7th and 8th, which appeared on DirectTV, with co-host Geoff Keighley, musical act Metallica, and comedian Chris Hardwick. Morrow and Keighley provided in-depth coverage of Blizzard's first new, original game in seventeen years, Overwatch, which was announced at the convention, as well as exclusive details regarding the World of Warcraft film adaptation, Warcraft, by director Duncan Jones.

In 2014, Morrow hosted and provided video game news coverage for 2K Games at PAX East and PAX Prime. From 2014 to 2015, Morrow hosted a weekly show on Sling TV for Maker Studios called, Multiplayer, and was available to viewers in the United States behind a paywall subscription service. Morrow also guest starred on two episodes of Sling TV's tabletop gaming show, Table Flip, with Arin "Egoraptor" Hansen, Dan Avidan, Brian Wecht, and Nathan Barnatt. Morrow next made a cameo appearance in the Ninja Sex Party music video, 6969.

Since 2013, Morrow has attended the annual video game convention and trade fair, E3, as a video game journalist, host, and guest analyst. She has been a guest on Geoff Keighley's live-stream, Live at E3, from 2015 through 2018. She appeared as panel moderator at the E3 Coliseum (2017) for, God of War: Behind the Curtain, where she interviewed God of War game director Cory Barlog and developers from Santa Monica Studio.

From 2013 through 2017, Morrow hosted for Nerdist Industries; including weekly shows, The Doctor Who Companion, and video game streaming show, Massive; which also appeared on Geek & Sundry's Twitch programming, and continued on as the namesake for her Nerdist.com column. In 2014, Morrow next made a guest appearance in three episodes of the Nerdist and Upright Citizen’s Brigade co-presentation of, Controller Freaks, where she shared cultural anecdotes about video games.

From 2012 to 2015, Morrow hosted several shows for digital network, BiteSize TV, including a weekly app review show, App Attack, and a video game news show, Chicks With Joysticks. Morrow also served as creator, executive producer and host of video game variety show, Chaotic Awesome. Guest hosting appearances include Collectors Cafe, with host Larry King, and featured Morrow's interview Melissa Rivers. Morrow also appeared as a guest host on the network's Hollywood news show, Hollywood Today Live, where she also served as field correspondent for live coverage of the Academy Awards in 2014. She next interviewed Ed Begley, Jr. on Hollywood Goes Green, a live twelve-hour Earth Day marathon.

From 2009 to 2011, Morrow created and developed Foam Weapon League, where she performed as team captain during three live events in Los Angeles.

Morrow currently lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband, Michael Weitzman, and their cats Samus and Zeus. Morrow is an accomplished artist, who has created original works of multimedia art under the title "Recycled Rock". Her commissioned pieces have been featured inside Billboard's offices in NYC, Ryan Seacrest's offices in Los Angeles, and owned by Stefan Lessard from Dave Matthews Band. In 2007, Morrow was in a traumatic accident that left her in a neck brace for nearly a year, with a sprain and small fracture, and was eventually diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, which resulted in the removal of her left cervical rib. Morrow is known for her love of online gaming, and the popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft. In 2012, Morrow was honored with an NPC in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria named "Mei Chele", who can be found on The Wandering Isle in a house with her cats, Azrael and Samus. In 2014, Morrow was honored with another NPC in the game, a Horde garrison follower named "Mychele Morrowsong". Morrow’s favorite games include Myst, The Legend of Zelda, Hearthstone, God of War II, World of Warcraft, Portal 2, Overwatch and Borderlands 2.

Morrow made her film debut with a minor role in the independent drama, Purgatory House (2004), starring Jim Hanks and Johnny Pacar. She was next cast in a leading role for independent horror film, Slaughterhouse of the Rising Sun (2005), a 1970's period piece loosely based on the Manson Family. In 2005, Morrow made guest appearances in soap opera, The Young and the Restless, and the spy-action series, Alias. Continuing with indie horror, Morrow starred as Claire in The Seer (2007), which was shot on location in Sardinia, Italy, co-starring Bella Thorne, who played a younger version of Morrow’s role as a clairvoyant solving a murder in the Mediterranean Sea. She became known in indie horror as a scream queen, with her performance of Kerra, in the ensemble cast of vampire horror, Bled (2009), co-starring Dichen Lachmen. Morrow then starred as final girl, Karen Cook, in the horror slasher, Basement Jack, co-starring Noel Gugliemi, Tiffany Shepis, Joel Brooks, musician Billy Morrison, and scream queen, Lynn Lowry. In 2010, Morrow played the supporting role of, Sezah, in Ashley's Ashes, featuring Orsen Bean, Clint Howard, Willie Garson, Scott Michael Foster, Lee Arenberg, Gigi Rice and Daniel Baldwin. In 2014, she appeared as a guest star in the Syfy reality series, Heroes of Cosplay, hosted by Yaya Han. From 2014 through 2016, Morrow appeared on DirecTV's coverage as the host of Blizzard Entertainment's BlizzCon, and continued in the position from 2017 through 2019 on Blizzard's All Access Channel. Morrow appeared as herself in two episodes of video game documentary series, Unlocked: The World of Games Revealed (2015), and was interviewed by Sean Astin about her life in gaming, and her love of World of Warcraft.

Morrow was born in Spokane, Washington. In 1996, she moved to Bellingham, Washington, to attend Western Washington University. In 1997, Morrow moved to Seattle, Washington, and transferred to the University of Washington, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama, and minor in Speech Communication. After graduating college she moved to Los Angeles, California. She continued to study acting at several studios in Los Angeles, including Howard Fine Acting Studio, Ivana Chubbuck Studio, Lesly Kahn and Co., Margie Haber Studio, and The Second City.

Michele Morrow (born March 19, 1978) is an American television presenter, actress, writer, video game journalist and producer. Early in her career, she was a freelance writer for Zooey Deschanel's female-focused website, HelloGiggles, and for pop culture website Nerdist Industries, while also hosting numerous digital shows centered around video games and pop culture.