Aisha Tyler – Lupe Ontiveros Image Award
Aisha Tyler is the host of CBS Daytime Emmy Award-winning The Talk, a series regular on CB™ hit drama Criminal Minds, the voice of sexy superspy Lana Kane in F.X. hit animated show Archer, currently taping its 8th season, and host of the comedy improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway? She is the creator and host of her podcast Girl on Guy, a talented film director of shorts and videos, and her first feature-length film, completed in L.A. in June. And if that is not enough, Aisha launches her premium bottled cocktails this fall. Her love of craft cocktails inspired her Courage+Stone brand, and Aisha has carefully overseen the development and production of the line, which will debut with three flavour profiles in late fall 2016.
ITunes chose Girl on Guy as the best new comedy podcast of 2011, and it has over 15 million downloads. She has interviewed various dynamic personalities, from top actors, directors and comedians to chefs, athletes, musicians and more.
Aisha’s short film, Ar Scath Le Cheile, was shot in Ireland in 2015 and debuted at the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2016. Her first feature film, the action-thriller and star-studded Axis, was shot in 2016 in Los Angeles.
She is a best-selling author, and her latest book, Self Inflicted Wounds, Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation, debuted on the N.Y. Times best-seller list in July of 2013. Based on a recurring element of her podcast, it is a series of hilarious comic essays about times in her life she found herself in the middle of spectacularly humiliating incidents entirely of her own making.
Tyler’s first big break was as host of E! Entertainment Talk Soup, which she was the first woman and African-American to captain. After leaving Talk Soup, she moved into television and film roles, enjoying another first as the first African-American to play an extended character arc on Friends. She co-starred with Jennifer Love Hewitt in the CBS hit Ghost Whisperer, had extended roles on two of television’s top dramas, CSI and on the Network, and has had numerous guest appearances on other top television series. Tyler also co-starred with Stuart Townsend in the action-adventure T.V. series based on the internationally best-selling graphic novel of the same name.
In 2009, she returned to her stand-up comedy roots, starring in a one-hour special for Comedy Central, Aisha Tyler is Lit: Live at the Fillmore. Feature film credits include Bedtime Stories, Death Sentence opposite Kevin Bacon, Balls of Fury with Christopher Walken 45, opposite Milla Jovovich, and Santa Clause III with Tim Allen.
People Magazine honoured Tyler as one of the women featured in the 2012. Esquire called Aisha sweetly wicked, designating her one of its Women We Love. T.V. Guide named her one of television’s In Crowd. Maxim anointed her one of its Hot 100 two years in a row.
Aisha is an avid video gamer in her spare time and has voiced characters in Halo Reach and Watch Dogs. She is a member of the board of Planned Parenthood and has done charitable work for Trust for Public Land and taught self-esteem workshops for girls.