When Bill Nye Saves the World hit Netflix on April 21, it may look a little different than the beloved children's science show '90s kids grew up with. The spinoff aims to dispel anti-scientific claims, tackling timely, urgent topics like climate change, alternative medicine, and artificial intelligence. Also adding to its revamped image are a live studio audience and a slew of buzzy guest stars, including a name you may not yet know: Emily Calandrelli.
Though a newcomer to the Bill Nye franchise, Calandrelli is a veteran science host. Since 2014, she's been host and producer for Fox's Xploration Outer Space, in which she visits various NASA facilities to answer questions about our universe. According to her website, she's also a guest science writer and host for Discovery News, covers the space industry as a writer for TechCrunch, and gives talks about space exploration, scientific literacy, and equality as a professional public speaker. Her first children's book, Ada Lace: On the Case, is due for release on Aug. 29.
Calandrelli also has an impressive resume: she has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from West Virginia University, plus a masters from MIT in both Aeronautics and Astronautics and Technology and Policy. She was even a visiting scholar at the Harvard NASA Tournament Lab, where she helped organizations solve technical challenges through the use of crowdsourcing.
When asked when she first realized she'd be a good fit for science television, Calandrelli told the Boston Globe she'd had a lightbulb moment while interning at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. "All of the interns had to do a presentation on what they learned that summer. The director of my program pulled me aside and asked if I had training in public speaking. He said I must be a senior in college. I was a rising sophomore," she explained. "That was when I realized I might be good at explaining this stuff and bringing the information, for lack of a better phrase, down to earth."
She also told Nextshark that it's important to her to have female representation in the field. "I think when you’re younger watching TV, there’s just something about watching someone that looks a little bit like you talking about science, math and space exploration that makes it a little more relatable," she said. "It makes it more like, 'Oh, maybe that’s something that I could do.' It makes that thought come a little easier. 55% of our viewers are female. That’s huge because my show is all about a male-dominated field, so we have 55% females watching a show about a male-dominated field. I think that speaks volumes to how we’re attracting more and more women to become interested in space."
Catch Calandrelli in action when Bill Nye Saves the World premieres on Friday.
