Mr. Hardwick was one of those chess club kids who actually got stuffed in a garbage can. Nine pounds of Dungeons & Dragons dice live in a vase in his “@Midnight” dressing room. And his love of the British science-fiction show “Doctor Who” is so intense that half of the cake at his August wedding (to the actress and publishing heiress Lydia Hearst) will be a re-creation of the Tardis, the time machine masquerading as a police call box.

But for the first chunk of Mr. Hardwick’s career, such animating interests had little connection to the jobs he filled. His first break came in 1995, when he, along with Jenny McCarthy, was chosen to host “Singled Out.”

The show lasted three years, and Mr. Hardwick’s image in Hollywood seemed cemented: the snarky comedian trafficking in generic pop-culture jokes. He filmed a string of unsuccessful pilots, often as the host of a dating show. There were auditions for lots of Jack Black-type roles on sitcoms, at least until he quit drinking and got in shape. (In his self-help book, “The Nerdist Way,” Mr. Hardwick jokes that through his dissolute 20s “I was consuming a baby elephant’s weight in alcohol every day.”) And the smattering of TV and movie appearances (like “Zoey 101,” “House of a Thousand Corpses”) did little to provide professional fulfillment.

It all came to a head in 2007. He couldn’t get work, his stand-up career was going nowhere, and he owned a house he could barely afford. “Early one morning, I just had this moment of clarity: I need to just do the things I love,” he said. “At least I’ll be happy.”

Embracing his inner nerd, Mr. Hardwick immediately got himself a job hosting “Wired Science” on PBS. Next came a gadget reviewer gig on G4’s “Attack of the Show,” which led to “Web Soup.” His zombie expertise, and a connection with a top AMC executive from his MTV days, helped him land “Talking Dead” in 2011, and “@Midnight” followed in 2013. All the while, the Nerdist blog he began in 2008 grew into a full-fledged digital media company, with a news website, nearly 50 podcasts, a YouTube channel and even an improv and sketch comedy academy.