Alicia Malone

Malone was born in Canberra, Australia. When she was three years old, she watched The NeverEnding Story (1984) in a movie theater with her mother and sisters. During the film, the character Atreyu tries to save his beloved horse Artax, which made her very emotional. She remembered, "I started crying and yelling ... I made so much noise my mum had to take me out of the theater." She has credited the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as her introduction to classic cinema, becoming an avid admirer of Marilyn Monroe. To advance her knowledge into cinema, at a young age, she read editions of ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide and watched films presented on Bill Collins' Golden Years of Hollywood'' program on Network 10. While studying at Canberra Girls Grammar School, Malone started a film club, intending to convince her classmates to appreciate classic cinema. After graduating, she chose not to attend a university but instead moved to Sydney, intending to work in television. There, she applied and won a half scholarship to study television at a technical college. Meanwhile, she worked at a Video Ezy rental store, where she was hired on the spot, and advised unsuspecting customers which films they should rent. After an acquaintance suggested her, Malone began working at the Channel Seven television station, which was broadcasting the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics at the time, as a teleprompter operator. Malone stayed at Channel Seven for six years, working a variety of production roles for Seven News and Sunrise. Then, she was hired as a producer and editor for the premium television station Movie Network Channels, which broadcast Movie One, Movie Extra and Movie Greats. She produced and edited PS and Redspace for Movie One, and Movie Juice, a weekly movie television program on Movie Extra. While there, Malone reflected: "When I saw the fun tasks the TV hosts got to do on the channel—interviewing filmmakers, reviewing movies—I knew that's what I wanted to do. It was like my film club or video store experiences on a much larger level." She stated her request to Renée Brack, a friend and colleague of hers, who agreed to have Malone do live red carpet events. As the Movie Network's red carpet reporter, she covered Australian film premieres and award shows for the channels. Furthermore, Malone hosted Trailer Park, based on her original pitch which featured exclusive movie trailers, and was a film reporter for Channel Seven's The Morning Show. ==Career==

Film journalist In 2010, Malone moved to Los Angeles and was permitted an O visa, allowing her to only work in television. Her first work in the United States was doing press junkets for the Australian Today show. During these events, she developed a habit for hugging the celebrities she had interviewed. She recalled: "...you know, you're not supposed to touch these celebrities, they're kind of the untouchable — some of them you can't even shake hands with. So I thought a hug would be a great way to break the ice, to make it be like, we're both humans ... and then it became kind of a theme." On 20 September 2015, Malone gave her first TEDx Talk titled #GirlsInFilm at TEDxSanJuanIsland. In this talk, she discussed the underrepresentation of females in the Hollywood film industry. On 13 May 2017, she gave her second seminar at TEDxBend titled Female Directors in Hollywood & Impact of Movies Made From 1 Perspective. There, she recounted the history of female film directors in Hollywood, and how more than one type of story can be told. In October 2016, Malone launched and hosted the web series Indie Movie Guide for Fandango. As a correspondent, she reviewed independent films in limited release and covered numerous film festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival, Sundance, Telluride, and South by Southwest (SXSW). At the 2018 SXSW Conference, Malone moderated an all-female panel discussion titled "The Female Voices of Film Twitter," with film critics Monica Castillo, Jacqueline Coley, Amy Nicholson, and Jen Yamato. At the 2019 SXSW Conference, she moderated another panel discussion inspired by her book The Female Gaze, discussing with three other female directors about their careers, subverting the male gaze, and whether female directors are telling authentic stories. In 2019, she began hosting the video series Reel Destinations for Focus Features, exploring the actual locations of their films. Since the series' premiere in January 2022 on HBO, Malone and Tom Meyers (of The Bowery Boys podcast) has hosted The Official Gilded Age Podcast, with each installment discussing the previously aired episode and sharing exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and filmmakers. Author Following her first TEDx Talk, Malone reflected: "After starting to get pushback for supporting women online, I decided that I should do it even more. I saw that I had a platform that could have an effect on people, so I wanted to use it for more than just building social media follows." In 2022, Malone published her third book Girls on Film, detailing her personal history and career, and how her love for classic cinema has shaped her worldview. Her fourth book titled TCM Imports: Timeless Favorites and Hidden Gems of World Cinema was released on 22 April 2025. The book details fifty international films and arranges them pertaining to the four seasons. Television host One night, in 2010, after channel-surfing on cable television, Malone wrote down a particular goal in mind to become a host for Turner Classic Movies (TCM). In 2014, she co-hosted the podcast series Profiles with Malone and Mantz, alongside Scott Mantz for Popcorn Talk Network. There, Keven Undergaro, co-founder of Popcorn Talk, held a private seminar with Malone, where she mentioned her dream goal. Undergaro knew Darcy Hettrich, who worked as the head of talent for TCM. Nervous at the prospect, Malone spent a year sharpening her skills before submitting a showreel of herself discussing classic films. At the time, Turner Classic Movies was partnering with The Criterion Collection on FilmStruck, a film streaming service. In 2016, she was hired to host video introductions for FilmStruck. In November 2018, FilmStruck was shut down by WarnerMedia, under the ownership of AT&T, to streamline business operations. In 2018, Malone was hired as a full-time host for Turner Classic Movies, making her first official appearance on 4 March. She has stated that before filming her segments, she researches and writes her own introductions. Malone further added: "There are fact checkers and producers that review things but they're pretty good at not suppressing what we say." In 2019, she was made the current host of the TCM Imports programming block on late Sunday nights. , Malone hosts the afternoon lineup on Sundays and the primetime lineup on Tuesdays. In the fall of 2020, Malone and her colleague Jacqueline Stewart co-hosted an original limited interview series titled Women Make Film, inspired by Mark Cousins' documentary of the same title. Malone told Entertainment Weekly this was the first time she felt free to professionally discuss women in film to the degree she wanted: "Usually in my previous jobs I've been told, 'Shh, don't talk so much about women. You've got to broaden things out; otherwise, the men won't listen.' I love that at TCM I've been given free rein, and Jacqueline as well, to speak about any subject we like with these special guests." During the summer of 2022, Malone hosted an original limited series Follow the Thread, interviewing fashion and costume designers about men and women's cinematic fashion trends from the 19th to the mid-late 20th century. ==Personal life==

Malone lives in Midcoast Maine, having relocated there from Los Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic. ==Books==